Bang, bang! And Arsenal are without a Champions League point after playing the (supposedly) weakest two teams in our group. Rock bottom of the table with back to back games against a rampant Bayern Munich up next leaves Arsene Wenger staring down the barrel of being knocked out at the group stage for first time since taking over the Gunners.
And I´m afraid to say it could be worse. There is a very real chance that Arsenal could finish bottom of our group and that would mean that we do not drop into the Europa League, but out of Europe altogether. Recent history tells you that the German champions are well capable of beating Arsenal at the Emirates and if that happens I very much doubt that they would take their eye off the ball again at home.
So we would go into the last two games with zero points. While we face Bayern, our other rivals Olympiacos and Zagreb play each other back to back and if they each win once they would both go into the last game on six points. So even if we were to beat Zagreb at home and Olympiacos away (and how likely is that), Arsenal would be relying on head to head records, goal difference or goals scored.
Unless we win our next game at home against the Germans, I think we will finish bottom. And as disappointing and embarrassing as that would be, it might just help us our challenge for the Premier League title, as it would avoid some potentially harmfully congested fixture schedules at a key point of the season.
However, the way Arsenal have been playing this season, what are the chances of us even being in with a sniff of the title when the knockout phase comes around?