Kieran Gibbs pulled a hamstring whilst winning a header. Gibbs was superb until that point. Seven minutes later Philipp Lahm lofted a perfect pass over our defence to Robben who got there before Szczesny, our keeper went into Robben and it almost didn’t matter that Alaba

It is difficult enough trying to contain the best team in Europe with a full compliment of players on the pitch so when Wojciech Szczesny was sent off for catching Arjen Robben in the 38th minute it was then always going to be about how long could Arsenal keep the European Champions from scoring.

The disappointing thing is that Arsenal had flown out of the traps and punched Bayern within an inch of the first goal. Sanogo the surprise inclusion on the night had a shot saved, Chamberlain raced onto a wonderfully flighted pass by Sanogo but Manuel Neuer who was excellent when he needed to got to the ball first. But we should have taken the lead, should have capitalised during our strong moment. Mesut Özil who was tripped took the kick, his one step run up failing once again. Naturally we know that he isn’t a goalscorer so what he is doing 2nd on our spot kick list is a little baffling. That said, when you look around the starting 11 there isn’t really a natural penalty taker. Mikel Arteta, Oliver Giroud and Lukas Podolski were not available. I would have preferred Santi Cazorla to have taken it but I guess had he blasted over the bar, I would have said that someone else should have taken it instead. It is much easier after the event I guess.

That was the first turning point on the night. Bayern started to assert their dominance onto the game and our waves of attacks were disappearing and it was then about maintaining our shape and hitting Bayern on the break, which we were doing just fine. We were having problems down our left but Kieran Gibbs and Laurent Koscielny were doing very well defensively.

But on the half hour mark it started to fall apart. Kieran Gibbs pulled a hamstring whilst winning a header. Gibbs was superb until that point. Seven minutes later Philipp Lahm lofted a perfect pass over our defence to Robben who got there before Szczesny, our keeper went into Robben and the Dutchman fell to the floor, penalty. It almost didn’t matter that Alaba had hit the post because the game was about to change for the worse. We all knew it.

Arsenal’s attacking game was dead, Cazorla was replaced for Fabianski and it was then a training session for Bayern Munich. Pulling us around the pitch, creating triangles all over the place.

At one point during the second half I thought to myself how much I am not enjoying watching a Bayern passing drill, I’d much rather be watching Arsenal but there was little we could have done to prevent it.

On 54 Tony Kroos curled a wonderful shot high past Fabianski. The lad can really strike a ball can’t he? Had we kept it at 1-0 then we would have had a decent chance in the second leg. We held on until 2 minutes from time, a little like this time last year. The substitute Muller ghosted in behind Flamini to head past Fabianski to make it 2-0 and an almighty task for Arsenal to qualify.

Football as we know, is a game based on margins. If Özil rolls the ball to his left rather than straight down Neuer’s throat then who knows where that would have taken our confidence and how much it would have deflated them. Szczesny probably wouldn’t have been in a situation to take out Robben, at least not that occasion. 11 vs 11 with Arsenal 1-0 up at home is a different story. A story we will never get to read now, fate took us down a different route one that has probably knocked us out of the Champions League but that right there is football.

If there are any positives to be had then let us bag up that first half an hour and open that every week in the league. If we do that then our record against the Premier League’s best clubs will change.

Disappointing result but we have it our best and you can’t ask more than that.