Same Arsenal, same old story, what a night to forget for the Gunners as they are faced with another prospect of early exit from this season Champions League after being thrashed 5-1 by Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.
Arsenal were defeated by the same score line at the group stage last season by the German champion and a repetition of such couldn’t be avoided as a seventh successive exit at the round of 16 beckons on them.
“It’s difficult to explain,” Frenchman Arsene Wenger told BT Sport via BBC Sport.
“Just before half-time we had two good chances to score. We came back and played well.
“In the second half we lost Koscielny very quickly – he came off at 1-1 – and finally we collapsed. Bayern are a better team than us as well.
“The third goal was a killer for our players because after that we had no response.”
Arsenal will have to score five un-replied goals at the Emirates to have any chance of progressing in the competition. They have been eliminated at this stage twice by the Bundesliga club and a third possibility of that seems unavoidable.
Bayern led through Arjen Robben goal in the eleventh minute but Alexis Sanchez equalised for the Gunners in the 30th minutes after they were awarded a penalty. Alexis missed the penalty but scored the rebound, and Arsenal went on to create two more good chances in the first half, which neither Xhaka nor Özil could convert.
The loss of Captain Laurent Koscielny to injury was their undoing as Bayern ran riots and Arsenal conceded three goals in 10 minutes in the second half which saw Robert Lewandowski headed home before Thiago Alcantara scored twice and substitute Thomas Muller compounded their woes with a late fifth.
The defeat heaps more pressure on Wenger, who now only has the FA Cup as a realistic source of silverware in what will go down as another failed season.