Gunners Keep Calm: Arsenal May Have Been Dumped Out Of Europe, But There Are Plenty Of Positives

Suffering an exit from a major competition is never nice to take, but in the Champions League and the pressure of winning a trophy such a major black mark on Arsenal's record, an exit is the end of the world for the north London based club. Well that's what the journalists and football experts seem to think, but that's where they're wrong, and there are a few reasons for that.

Arsenal were knocked out in the last 16 of the Champions League after losing 3-1 to Bayern Munich, the overwhelming favourites, on aggregate. The Bavarians are 19/10 to win the competition at certain bookmakers, and though you can find more info on the odds of the clubs still in the tournament, I am going to focus on the positives of Arsenal's exit in this article.

The first positive to take from this game is that when you put the result into context, losing to Bayern Munich 3-1 over two legs is actually quite a good result.

Arsenal entered this game without Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott, Kim Kallstrom, no senior left-backs and two of three senior strikers absent; the already impossible task of trying to beat Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, somehow became even harder to do.

Yet they still came away with a 1-1 draw. That shows that Arsenal are very strong defensively as they managed to concede just one goal even with a makeshift left-back in place and they can be useful up top even against what should be considered as the best defence in Europe. 

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was another positive to take away from this game, as was Lukasz Fabianski, Thomas Vermaelen, Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker and Bacary Sagna. But the Englishman, in particular, stole the headlines with his bold performance in a slightly unfamiliar position in the heart of the midfield.

He was also up against Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thiago Alcantara and Mario Gotze. Yet he managed to give Bayern a few headaches with his direct runs and general good play in the midfield. If Arsenal are to achieve anything this season, it will come through him. 

I have got plenty of other positives for you to look through, but maybe you'll find them on a later post.