The referee had a big call to make when Lewandowski picked up a yellow card for catching Laurent Koscielny with his elbow. The question I have, is what was the booking for? I thought the rules were that if a player intentionally caught an opponent with an elbow then he should be dismissed. Is there

Going on an unbeaten run of games has contributed to the pain felt after last nights match. We all knew that defeat would inevitably show up on our doorstep at some point but it never easy to deal with. What makes it all worse is that it didn’t need to happen as we had wrestled control of a game that for spells proved difficult.

It reminded me of that first home match against Barcelona, not the Arshavin match but the 2-2 draw. Allowing the opposition to run out of energy before stamping our authority on the game. This time it went a different way.

I thought Ramsey’s mistake was a consequence of his current confidence. A nervous Ramsey may have looked to get rid of that ball as quickly as possible, ironically the Dortmund player who won the ball back was doing just what Ramsey has been doing since the winning run at the end of last season to now. Snapping in and dispossessing their opponent before the ball carrier had known what was happening. Mkhitaryan’s finish was smart and clinical.

We took a while to get a grip of our game and I think that was because shape and organisation was the priority, we didn’t support Giroud enough and that is also because of the game plan.

An Arsenal error gifted the away side the opener but the Germans repaid that favour just before half time when centre back and keeper made a mess of Sagna’s cross, allowing Giroud to fire into an empty net.

Giroud and Rosicky were our only players of quality going forward on the night and that is disappointing. Rosicky could have scored when his left foot shot beat the keeper but not Hummels who was on the goal line, in the right place to clear. Wilshere was disappointing, Ramsey was not at his majestic best and Özil was virtually anonymous throughout.

We had dropped off early in the second half, not allowing Dortmund to find spaces in our penalty area, the shape work is really paying off but on the break we had no tools to open up a team of Dortmund’s quality. We are really missing an outlet. I am not sure if someone like Lukas Podolski would have made any difference whatsoever but Theo Walcott and even Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may have given the team an option when breaking. The quicker Theo returns the better.

Santi Cazorla had replaced Jack Wilshere in the second half and looked to have left his weekends rust at home, his introduction visibly improved our attack as soon as he entered the pitch. Cazorla had a few chances to score. Dortmund’s pressing game had taken a back seat just as Barcelona’s had all those years ago and we started to assert ourselves.

The referee had a big call to make when Lewandowski picked up a yellow card for catching Laurent Koscielny with his elbow. The question I have, is what was the booking for? I thought the rules were that if a player intentionally caught an opponent with an elbow then he should be dismissed. Is there now different levels of elbows? Is there a version of a punch that is worthy of a yellow card? Strange.

While that decision played it’s part in our end of game downfall, our failure to protect ourselves from Dortmund’s greatest strength was equally as bad. We were caught lacking numbers at the back and when the Dortmund player’s cross flew across the box it had to be Lewandowski to find space in the box to side foot past his good friend Szczesny.

You can see why Arsene Wenger was clearly upset at the end, his team had worked themselves into the position to keep tight and use our greater energy in the dying minutes. With Santi smashing the woodwork and Ramsey having a goal chalked off it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that on another night the very same performance could have yielded three points and a foot in the door of qualification. Such is the very fine margins at this level of this competition. Yet in our over eagerness to grab the winner we exposed Wojciech Szczesny and now we will require some big performances and more importantly big results to get through this group.

We certainly have the quality to do so. What we must not let happen is to feel sorry for ourselves and carry this result into our domestic fixtures.