Santi Cazorla started the game sat alongside Mikel Arteta, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sat behind Oliver Giroud with Mesut Özil playing wide right. If I was to guess the reasons for this, I’d say Arsène played Cazorla deep to escape the Bayern Munich pressing machine. His low centre of gravity and two quick feet mean that he can receive the ball in the tightest of positions and wriggle his way out and still have the quality to release a quality pass. Chamberlain has the engine and pace to upset Bayern’s deep midfield passer as well as their centre backs while Mesut Özil could move undetected from that wide position. That was my interpretation of the changes, whether it worked or not is subjective. It is difficult to say that Mesut Özil had anything other than a disappointing first half although talk

So there was to be no repeat of our last score line at the Allianz Arena. As so many have already said, the tie was lost in the first leg at the Emirates. Arsène threw a big curve ball with not only the team selection but how the players set up on the pitch. Someone far more tactically aware will do a better job in explaining the reasons to the shift in positions, but I shall give it a go.

Santi Cazorla started the game sat alongside Mikel Arteta, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sat behind Oliver Giroud with Mesut Özil playing wide right. If I was to guess the reasons for this, I’d say Arsène played Cazorla deep to escape the Bayern Munich pressing machine. His low centre of gravity and two quick feet mean that he can receive the ball in the tightest of areas and wriggle his way out and still have the quality to release a accurate pass. Chamberlain has the engine and pace to upset Bayern’s deep midfield passer as well as their centre backs while Mesut Özil could move undetected from that wide position. That was my interpretation of the changes, whether it worked or not is another story. It is difficult to say that Mesut Özil had anything other than a disappointing first half although talk was that he played through most of it with a hamstring strain which forced him off.

I’d guess the plan was to keep the game level, stop Bayern from scoring and then when the home side tire out try and score 2 or 3 goals.

Bayern Munich are the best team in European football at present, they have gone 49 domestic league games without defeat and have scored goals for fun at home. Attacking them from the off and trying to play in their half would have lead to the game being over within the first 45 minutes.

Defensively I thought we did very well. Per Mertesacker was immense and so was his partner Laurent Koscielny. Away from home in the Champions League we look a far stronger defensive side than we do against the top teams domestically.

In the second half we had a few opportunities to hurt Bayern on the break but were not good enough in the final pass, this is where we could have done with Mesut Özil but he was replaced with Tomas Rosicky at half time.

Bastian Schweinsteiger opened the scoring, darting into the box unnoticed before applying the finish. Lukas Podolski leveled moments later when his push on Lahm was unusually ignored before smashing the ball past Manuel Neuer.

After that would have been the perfect opportunity to go on and knock on the Bayern door but simply we didn’t have enough firepower to do so. Without Walcott’s movement and speed, Aaron Ramsey’s goals and creative passing and Jack Wilshere’s drive we could not put the European Champions under enough pressure and the game ended level.

We are currently a work in progress and not the finished article, I don’t see any shame in accepting that we are not the best team in the world right now. That said had we scored the penalty in the first leg and not had a man sent off then maybe, just maybe it would have been a different game. Maybe Bayern would have just turned the screw last night and beaten us. We will never know now.

A word of praise to Arsenal’s best attacking player on the night. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was skipping past Bayern players as if they were not there at times and since his return from injury he has gone from strength to strength. It will be great for him to know that he can do that against the best players in the world. He has been remarkably consistent since his first team return so that certainly bodes well if he can keep his feet on the ground.

If he continues to progress and develop as expected then he may well force his way into our starting 11 full time even when injured players return. I expect big things from him over the next year or so.

So that’s the Champions League for another year, hopefully the result can allow us to kick on in the league and FA cup. Starting with victory at White Hart Lane on Sunday. I hope.