Arsenal's Champions League campaign got off to the worst possible start following a 2-0 defeat at German giants Borussia Dortmund.
The Germans were in control for the majority of the match and the away fans will be relieved the scoreline wasn't even worse on what was a torrid night for the Gunners.
It was easily Arsenal's worst display of the season. Although I am often known for being over optimistic about my beloved Arsenal, even I struggled to find any positives from the game.
Before the match I would have taken a draw and a defeat was always possible, but it is the performance that hurts more than the result. How can we go from being the better side, and unlucky to only draw against English Champions Manchester City, to being so lacklustre in the Champions League.
The most important thing now for Arsene Wenger's men is to dust themselves down, put it down to simply a bad day at the office and to not dwell on the result and focus all their energy into putting it right against Aston Villa at the weekend.
Dortmund took control of the game from the off and had a penalty call for a waved away after five minutes before the hosts continued to launch attack after attack at the Arsenal goal. After 25 minutes had passed I found myself wondering how on earth it was still only 0-0 and that maybe, just maybe, it could yet be Arsenal's day as Dortmund were being so wasteful in front of goal.
Arsenal created very little in the first half but had a chance to take the lead in the latter stages when Aaron Ramsey set up Danny Welbeck, but the former Manchester United man dragged his shot wide.
The Gunners were made to pay for that miss as Ciro Immobile scored a deserved opener for the hosts on the stroke of half-time. The Italian striker ran at the Arsenal defence, getting the better of Laurent Koscielny before firing a shot into the bottom corner beyond a helpless Wojciech Szczesny. That was already Dortmund's 15th shot of the evening and highlighted their dominance against the English side.
Injuries in defence had forced Wenger's hand into giving teenager Hector Bellerin his first senior start. In the circumstances the 19-year-old defender didn't do too badly, but the overall team performance left a lot to be desired and Wenger's men will need to improve a lot for the rest of the group stages. Personally I strongly believe that the Gunners, who are competing at this stage of the Champions League for the 17th consecutive year, will again qualify for the knock-out stages but performances must get a lot better and quickly.
Possibly being over optimistic, I thought Arsenal could turn things around in the second half, but the game continued in the same vain with Dortmund very much on top. Things went from bad to worse when the hosts doubled their advantage within three minutes of the restart.
Substitute Matthias Ginter played a lovely ball over the top for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who was able to take advantage of a defensive mix up to skip round Szczesny and bundle the ball over the line. A scrappy yet well-deserved goal.
The result should have been a lot more comfortable for the hosts but thankfully for us Gunners' fans it didn't get any worse than 2-0. What disappointed me the most, even more than the result, is the lack of fight we showed on the pitch. At 1-0, we didn't even seem to attempt to get back into the game when it was still within reach. It was far too casual a performance and we gifted possession away too frequently and were just lucky that the hosts seemed to have left their shooting boots at home for large portions of the game. I hope the performance never gets repeated again this season and can act as a lesson to our players.
We have proved we have resilience to come behind from losing positions - against Everton. We have proved we can compete with the best and more than hold our own - drawing with Manchester City in a game we could even have won. So I am lost as to how the Dortmund result happened! I know we are lacking depth in some areas of the squad and a defeat was always possible but how we collapsed in such a poor manner I am still unsure. The result will lead to the inevitable usual criticism of Wenger but, despite the poor start to the group stages, he is still definitely the right man for the job.
The Gunners have to remember there are still 5 games left of to play in the group stages and still plenty time to turn things around, it is definitely doable to get out of this group. But for now we must focus on getting more back to the kind of performance we showed against City and ensuring we take maximum points off Aston Villa.
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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