Arsenal and Bayern were the favourite teams in their group after the draws were made. But after uncharacteristic consecutive defeats to group’s supposed whipping boys Olympiakos and Dynamo, the Gunners have left themselves a Mount Everest to climb in that they need to win at least one of their double-decked ties against the German champions who have won all their competitive matches since losing the German Super Cup to Wolfsburg!
The Gunners actually defeated Bayern twice in their last four encounters at the knockout stages of this competition, though the two victories which both came at Bayern’s Allianz Arena proved inconsequential as the Bavarians had all but wrapped up the clashes in impressive first leg victories at the Emirates.
However, the real dampener is this new Bayern are by far a very different proposition and are arguably the best Bavarian team of all time. They win matches and score plenty of goals. And in Robert Lewandoski, they have the hottest striker in the world on current form. But Gunners faithful will be pleased he failed to score for the first time in seven matches last weekend, having hit a massive 15 goals for club and country in his last six matches – or is he reserving his potent venom for the Emirates? Time will tell.
So with all the odds stacked against them, how do Arsenal beat Pep Guardiola’s rolling juggernauts? This is what I will tell you in the next few paragraphs.
Having been honoured to watch Bayern in live action when they routed hosts Mainz 3-0 at the Coface Arena, I came to appreciate both the Bavarians and their manager Guardiola better. But at the same time I saw a couple of chinks in their impressively shining armour in that match.
I have to say first and foremost that beating Bayern would be a horrendous task for even the best teams in the world at the moment, and Arsenal are not in that bracket yet.But difficult as it may seem, it is doable. How? Happy reading:
The first weakness I think teams can exploit against this Bayern team is their excessive and sometimes overconfident involvement of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in building up play from the back. Neuer plays practically as a goalkeeper-sweeper and is very good at his trade, easily the best in the world for me.
But as it is with every mortal, he and his defence line are not perfect and have conceded very cheap goals through occasional mistakes like the joint fastest goal they conceded to Hoffenheim’s Kevin Volland early this season.
David Alaba is fond of passing to Neuer sometimes blindly whenever under serious pressure. It was one of those passes that Volland capitalized on to punish Bayern at the WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena late August.
Watching Bayern against Mainz last month Alaba still committed the same error, though Mainz failed to capitalize. I’d like to think Arsenal would not be similarly generous at the Emirate. And to capitalize on such, the Gunners will have to press hard from the front. I’d like to see a trio of Theo Walcott, Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the Gunners attack, though I know Arsene Wenger will most likely go with his trusted Aaron Ramsey instead of Chamberlain.
With Chamberlain or Sanchez pressing Alaba while other midfielders have closed spaces up with Bayern’s engine room, Walcott could then sprint and capitalize on any blind backpass by the Austrian international.
The second way Bayern could be punished is through a long lofted kick from deep. I noticed that anytime Bayern had a set-piece deep inside the opponents half, Neuer would come almost to the centre circle, especially in corner-kick situations. I know why he does this: he fancies himself as a sweeper.
But a swift counterattack which could produce a long range effort at goal could catch him out and punish his team. Of course, this is not an easy skill. But it’s a skill which players like Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, Xabi Alonso, Luis Suarez and most recently Stoke City’s Charlie Adam have profited from.
Ok, Arsenal don’t have any of these long range launchers. But one could be developed for this purpose, somebody like SantiCazorla.
Another way I think Bayern could be punished is by unleashing fast, hard-pressing forwards on their defence. As assured as they often appear, Bayern’s defence usually struggle against aggressive pacy forwards. And in the trio I mentioned above, Wenger have the boys to surprise the high flying Bavarians at the back if he dares.
Arsenal’s task is difficult, very tough indeed, but also very doable. Bon chance, Prof Wenger.
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