That was an excellent football game. Arsenal traded blows with Bayern Munich to play to an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena. You really can’t have any complaints about drawing against your Pot 1 opponent away in the Champions League League Phase. The Gunners opened the scoring, conceded one in each half, and scored late to share the points.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, Bukayo Saka was forced off with a non-contact injury that appeared to be left thigh / knee early in the match. The winger
had started brightly, too. Hopefully it’s not too serious but you always worry about non-contact stuff. The Gunners did really well to adjust on the fly, bringing on Eberechi Eze and swapping Noni Madueke from the left to the right wing. Any change, particularly losing a star attacker early in the match, threatens to throw off the rhythm and cohesion. Arsenal didn’t miss a beat.
The Gunners opened the scoring in the 25th minute. Martin Ødegaard picked out Ebere Eze’s run, who timed his volley perfectly to put it past Manuel Neuer. Eze was initially flagged offside, but a VAR check determined he was onside by the slimmest of margins.
Bayern responded 10 minutes later. Harry Kane put Alphonso Davies in with a brilliant through ball. The Canadian defender, who was playing midfielder this evening, scored with a tidy, first-touch finish. Sometimes it be like that — quality opponents have good players who make excellent plays. Jurrien Timber would probably have been better served trying to jump up to put Davies offside rather than tracking his run behind.
Bruno Guimaraes had two excellent chances from corners on either side of halftime but couldn’t find the back of the net. The first, a difficult volley, he put wide. The second Neuer somehow managed to keep from going over the line. Arsenal have had rotten luck on goalmouth scrambles this season. At some point, that’s going to turn. If you keep putting the ball into good areas and creating chaos, it’ll start ending up in the back of the net.
As always seems to happen, when you don’t take your chances, you wind up trailing. And Arsenal found themselves 2-1 down in the 61st minute from a Harry Kane penalty. Jurrien Timber slid through to try to block a shot, the ball hit his slightly raised arm, penalty awarded. They should ban all forms of stutters on penalty run-ups, by the way. Either that or allow the keeper to come off the line if the shooter stutters.
There were a couple of minutes after Bayern took the lead where it looked as if they might extend their lead, but the Gunners did well to steady the ship and regain control. Once they did, Bayern retreated into a low block. Yeah, that’s how much respect Arsenal command. Bayern Munich, at home, bunkered down against us. I suppose it’s a reasonable decision given Arsenal’s periodic struggles against set defenses.
It backfired, though. Arsenal hemmed Bayern in and attacked in waves. You could almost feel that the equalizer was coming. Declan Rice provided the breakthrough, ripping a shot past Neuer after a brilliant touch by Viktor Gyokeres put him in on a give-and-go after a long passing sequence.
By the way, Arsenal average 7.3 passes per scoring move, the most of any club in Europe’s Big 5 Leagues. So much for being unwatchable, right? Manchester City, whose attack everybody fawns over, are second, averaging 6.6 passes per scoring move.
What a great game. Isn’t it fun when teams actually try to play football against Arsenal? It’s almost as if all the criticism of the Gunners play in the Premier League would more appropriately be directed at their opponents who do everything possible to avoid playing football against Arsenal. It’s probably because they all know they’d get battered if they did.
There were excellent performances all over the pitch for the Gunners. David Raya made two absolutely brilliant saves. Declan Rice was at his best. Both Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke were great at both ends of the pitch — each had a standout defensive moment. Martin Ødegaard ran the show and assisted the opening goal. Viktor Gyokeres set up the tying goal. Encouraging signs, particularly if Bukayo Saka is going to miss time with whatever injury he picked up.
The draw drops Arsenal out of the cluster of sides with perfect records in the League Phase, but as noted, a draw from the Pot 1 Away match is a fine result. That’s the toughest match of the slate, and the Gunners have already played two of their four away matches. Their next CL contest is away too, which will leave them with three home tilts, one away in the back half of the League Phase. They’re in excellent position.
