Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League on Wednesday night by Bayern Munich at The Allianz Arena – as Thomas Tuchel takes a step closer to saving his side’s desperately poor season.
Following last week’s 2-2 draw at The Emirates in which Arsenal surrendered an early lead and had to rely on Leandro Trossard to come off the bench and equalise, they went to Bayern with the game up in the air.
It proved to be a step too far for Mikel Arteta’s side, as The Gunners suffered a 1-0 loss in Germany. It was Thomas Tuchel‘s side tactics that arguably won the game, stopping Arsenal from any major chances.
The moment of the match was the goal. Raphael Guerreiro came into the side as a replacement for Serge Gnbary who was injured, and his cross was headed past David Raya into the net by Joshua Kimmich.
Thomas Tuchel praise two Arsenal players after Bayern defeat
The Gunners could not get going and despite having more possession than Bayern, the German side did not look under any pressure throughout the night. Arsenal were far from their best on Wednesday night.
Speaking to Sky Sports – as per TMW – after the match, Bayern manager Tuchel heaped praise on two of his players in Guerreiro and Noussair Mazraoui on the left – in stopping Ben White and Bukayo Saka.
“Incredible to reach the top four in Europe, very tough opponent. Mazraoui and Guerriero are excellent technically, we needed this understanding on the left because the right chain of Arsenal is really strong.”
What went wrong for Arsenal against Bayern last night?
Mikel Arteta made the surprise decision to hand Takehiro Tomiyasu left-back duties on Wednesday night, despite having Oleksandr Zinchenko and Jakub Kiwior on the bench. He struggled, on his weaker side.
Arteta’s thinking, clearly, was to try and stop Leroy Sane – a man that he has coached before, while at Man City. But Tomiyasu struggled. Arsenal fans were not impressed with the Japan star after the game.
Matt Upson even claimed that Gabriel, playing on the left side of central defence, had to keep helping Tomiyasu – saying the latter was “all over the place”. The goal came from that side. Maybe, the difference.
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