Football News

A disconsolate Mikel Arteta has admitted that Arsenal were made to pay for one 'big mistake' as the Gunners bow out of the Champions League at the hands of Bayern Munich.

Following a 2-2 draw in last week's first leg at the Emirates, where the Gunners were left to lament uncharacteristic defensive sloppiness, Arteta's side were made to pay for falling asleep in the box at the Allianz Arena.

While struggling to unlock an indestructible Bayern defence — marshalled by the sturdy pairing of Matthijs de Ligt and Eric Dier — the fatal blow arrived from Joshua Kimmich, who ghosted into the box in the second half to head home from Raphael Guerreiro's delivery.

Barring a Gabriel Martinelli strike which fell straight into Manuel Neuer's gloves and a Martin Odegaard effort which was tipped behind by the goalkeeper — and inexplicably preceded a goal kick — Arsenal severely lacked penetration in a performance akin to the weekend's Premier League loss to Aston Villa.

Throughout the second 45 minutes, Arsenal only chalked up a paltry three shots for an expected goals total of 0.15, and they have now lost back-to-back games without scoring for the first time this season.

On the back of Arsenal's latest Champions League elimination at the hands of Bayern, who have now beaten the Gunners on eight occasions, Arteta conceded that one huge blunder was responsible for his side's excruciating exit.

«At the moment it is a gutted dressing room. We are very disappointed. We have to go through it. We tried against a team with a lot of experience. Through the tie the margins have been very small,» Arteta told TNT Sports.

«There were moments that we were better, we gave them two goals — that is a big

Mikel Arteta Declan Rice Aston Villa Martin Odegaard Leandro Trossard Gabriel Martinelli Matthijs De-Ligt Bukayo Saka Raphael Guerreiro Eric Dier Manuel Neuer Joshua Kimmich