Arsenal Can Hold Heads High Despite Champions League Exit

There was a bit of inevitability about Tuesday night's proceedings at the Allianz Arena in the Second round second leg tie between European champions Bayern Munich and Arsenal. Before the game bookies had Arsenal 20/1 to go through and Bayern were a whopping 100/20 on to progress. It was quite a cagey affair as Bayern tried to avoid a repeat of their loss to Arsenal in the same stage of last season's Champions League campaign. 

A goal by Midfield player Bastian Schweinsteiger as good as put the game to bed on the hour mark as he took advantage of some slack Arsenal defending and slotted past a rooted Lukasz Fabianski. Lukas Podolski pulled Arsenal level within 2 minutes of the restart but to no avail and Bayern have done what many thought before kick off, they have progressed and will surely remain favourites.

Arsenal players can take credit from performances in both legs, Bayern know they had been in two very competitive games and had lady luck been on Arsenal's side then things could have turned out very different. For the first 37 minutes of the first leg Bayern were on the ropes and could not seemingly cope with the pace of Arsenal's approach then that dreading red card that changed everything.

Arsene Wenger had tried some Mourinho-esque mind games before kick off regarding red cards in previous campaigns, but this was surely to deflect from his own inability to compete overall with Europe's elite.

Arsenal acquitted themselves well on the night and caused Bayern a few problems,however there was a huge gulf in quality between the two substitute benches. This is mainly due to Arsene Wenger's ever increasing injury list that now has Mesut Ozil added, who is expected to be out of action for up to 4 weeks.

It is a bitter pill to swallow for many Arsenal fans who have once again seen their side fall at the same stage for four seasons in a row. It does not seem too much like progress when you look at the statistics but sometimes you just have to admit when you have been beaten by the better side.

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