The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsArsenal’s Champions League campaign has been disastrous so far, and looks like it could get much worse as they face Bayern Munich at the Emirates stadium needing three points to give them a glimmer of hope in making it past the group stages.
Their form in the Premier League has been impressive, big wins against Leicester, Manchester United and Watford puts them in second place two points behind Manchester City. So what has gone wrong when it comes to European games?
Firstly, starting your number one goalkeeper may give you more of a chance of winning such big games. It is understandable that Wenger wants to give David Ospina game time, but the Champions League is the biggest club competition in the world, which is why the Frenchman must take more care when selecting his line up.
The defeats to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos were nothing but embarrassing. Not only for the fans and the players, but for the manager. Arsenal teams before Wenger have been relatively successful in Europe, most recent European success being the European Cup Winners Cup in 1994. Since the arrival of Wenger the Gunners have only reached a European final once, despite being in the competition 19 years consecutively.
Is Wenger to blame? To an extent yes. It is quite clear he has no intentions to win the Champions League this year, and has stated in press conferences that the Premier League is the most important competition. However, Arsenal fans are desperate to see their team compete with Europe’s best, and with such high ticket prices isn’t that what they deserve?
So how will his Arsenal side cope with an inform Bayern Munich team? Unfortunately I think the North London side will struggle to keep Bayern Munich’s attackers quiet. With Robert Lewandowski fit for the game, the Arsenal defenders will have a busy night ahead of them.
A positive Arsenal can take going into this game is that Arjen Robben has been ruled out due to an injury he picked up playing for the Netherlands. The Dutch winger is a key figure in the Munich side and will be a huge miss for them. Nonetheless they still have the attacking options of Muller and Costa who are more than capable of disrupting the nervy Arsenal back four.
One man that will be vital for Arsenal is Chilean sensation Alexis Sanchez. The winger has been unstoppable in recent games scoring ten goals in six appearances for club and country. The Gunners will need their main man to be at the top of his game to have any chance of beating the German champions.
Predicted starting line ups:
Arsenal:
Cech, Bellerin, Koscienly, Mertesacker, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis, Walcott
Bayern Munich:
Neuer, Lahm, Boateng, Martinez, Alaba, Thiago, Vidal, Alonso, Costa, Lewandowski, Muller
