UCL: Gnarby and Sane trap Arsenal as Kane, remembered familiar ground

The primary takeaways from Arsenal vs. Bayern Munich’s UCL quarterfinal match at the Emirate Stadium were Thomas Tuchel’s defensive strategy and Mikel Arteta’s team’s naivety.

Bayern had come prepared to suffer, but a nervous Arsenal blew the chance to give Tuchel and his boys another meltdown. 

A very clear reason was that Bayern Munich, a regular scoring side in the Champions League, registered just two shots on target compared to their past games against Arsenal and in the UCL. 

Unfortunately, Arsenal couldn’t exploit the laid-back Bayern as their naivety got into them, salvaging Bukayo Saka’s 12th-minute goal with careless tackles from Jakub Kwior and Gabriel Maghalaes to Serge Gnarby’s approach. 

Just in the 31st minute, William Saliba was insensitive enough to give away a penalty to Munich following a shivering tackle on Leroy Sane. It was an easy ride for Harry Kane, who sent David Raya to the wrong side for his eighth penalty goal against Arsenal. 

Munich made use of their chances in the box, while Arsenal seemed unprepared for the antics of their opponent. 

“Football is about what happens in the two boxes. How you get there and how much possession you have is irrelevant. It’s always good to play with a degree of humility. It helped us to take the game for what it was today,” said Thomas Muller. 

What happened? 

Tuchel knew that Bukayo Saka was more than enough to topple the defence of his side, and a decisive attempt was to use Joshua Kimmich at the right-back to shift Arsenal to the other flank for an attack. 

But Arteta’s nemesis caught up with him after believing that Kiwior would have stopped either Sane or Gnarby, whereas players like Takehiro Tomiyasu would have been a better option to stop any unfamiliar advances. To avoid any more chaos, Arteta replaced Kiwior as soon as possible in the second half.

Though Arsenal would have scored more if Arteta had taken a gamble and gone with an inverted fullback at the beginning, the goal was still scored. The players would have been able to identify the issue and possibly fix it.

UCL is for risk-takers 

Arteta needs to know that he isn’t playing in the Premier League, where a remedy might happen; it’s either you go hard or go home; that’s the UCL football style. 

The intentionality to get an equaliser paid off in the second half, opening the game, as opposed to the watertight mechanism Arteta started with in the first half. To increase the offence, he first gave Gabriel Jesus Jorginho’s No. 6 spot to increase the offence, then he substituted Martinelli for a more composed player in Trossard. It was a risk, but seeing the way Munich played, they were runners, and the flanks were the strength, unlike Porto, who were policing. Harry Kane’s role was to support the wingers, as shown when Bayern countered Arsenal twice in the first half.

Next week is near 

Just as Rapheal Honigstein of the Athletic has said in his article, the shaky or sleeping Lion in Bayern might tend to roar at the Allianz Arena. Unfortunately, the penalty call from Saka waved off by referee Glenn Nyberg would have been the focal point of Arsenal’s turn around at Emirate. 

In truth, however, this was an exception, not the norm. Bayern are in with a chance to progress against a better-functioning Arsenal side thanks to showing the basics of “passion, devotion, and quality,” as Tuchel put it—the very qualities that have been missing throughout their wretched domestic season.