5 positives Arsenal can take from the defeat to Bayern Munich

“We played really, really well against Arsenal in the first 35 minutes”, said Guardiola, who again refused to talk about his future.

The result means reaching the last 16 of the competition is now out of Arsenal’s hands, but Mertesacker insists there’s still plenty of football to be played.

Arsenal, which has qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League in each of the past 15 seasons, is now hanging on by a thread.

Arsenal defense did not show up against Bayern – “With a defensive performance like that”, Wenger said, “you are going nowhere” – but Henry likes it now it has done since the summer signing of Petr Cech from Chelsea.

The Brazilian, playing as Laurent Koscielny sat on the bench as a precaution due to a hip problem, had dropped deeper than his fellow defenders to play Lewandowski onside and then stepping up too late.

‘It was a disaster in the second half, which is why we’re not yet ready to win the Champions League’.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admits their Champions League hopes are dangling by a thread after they suffered a record-equalling thrashing at Bayern Munich.

With Olympiakos beating Zagreb 2-1, the Greeks and Bayern are six points clear of Arsenal with two group games remaining.

“No matter how many we have, we have to give it all for a chance to qualify”, he added.

Wenger insisted that Wednesday’s setback will not shatter his players’ confidence ahead of Sunday’s north London derby at home to Tottenham Hotspur.

Although Arsenal are now reliant on others to seal their feat, Bayern coach Pep Guardiola insists his side will be looking for a win against Olympiacos to sew up top spot. “You need to make sure that you recover and move on to the next one”.

It was Muller who first doubled the advantage for the hosts before David Alaba ensured that Bayern was in cruise control with the third goal of the night.

“It was a bad defensive performance and we were extremely poor defensively”. We have to give it all to have a chance to qualify. ‘They deserve far more. We have to realise with that kind of performance that we had today that our chances are minimal.

Much has been said about Arsenal’s title challenge this season, but rarely a team wins something of note with a defence like that.

Alaba, allowed space to turn full circle 25 yards from goal, unleashed a fine left-footed effort into the top-right corner past Cech, as a dominant Bayern took a deserved three-goal lead into the break.