‘Arsenal’s loss to Bayern Munich is embarrassing for the club’

Feb 16: Arsenal’s 5-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League was an “embarrassment” for the club, according to Sky Sports expert Paul Walsh.

Barring an unlikely four-goal turnaround at the Emirates Stadium on March 7, Arsene Wenger’s side are set to exit at the last-16 stage for the seventh season in a row after goals from Arjen Robben, Robert Lewandowski, Thiago (2) and Thomas Muller condemned them to a heavy loss at the Allianz Arena.

Defender Laurent Koscielny limped off injured four minutes after half-time but, after watching the game in the Sky Sports News HQ studio, Walsh said there could be no excuses.

“It turned into a bit of an embarrassment,” he said. “Bayern absolutely battered them in the end and it is embarrassing, that’s official.

“We can look to make excuses for what happened, but ultimately they were just outplayed.

“The nature of the second goal, Lewandowski got a header. Could you say it was because Koscielny wasn’t in the defence? No. Gabriel is a big strong defender.

“Once Bayern got their noses in front they kept passing and moving it in great positions. In the second half I can’t really remember Arsenal creating anything, which is disappointing.

“If they could have just stayed in the game at 2-1 or even 3-1, but it is difficult when their top players, Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are not even getting a touch. They couldn’t even get a kick of the ball because Bayern were keeping it so well.

“It’s really demoralising and in the end they just picked Arsenal off.”

Walsh believes the result will fuel calls for Wenger to stand down as manager after more than 20 years in charge.

And he says that change is now looking likely to happen.

“This is just playing into the hands of the Wenger out camp,” he added.

“‘It’s the same old Arsenal. Familiarity almost breeds contempt for some of the supporters who just want a change.

“They are bored. They want something different. They might get that in the near future and it will be interesting to see how Arsenal move forward then.”

David Ospina was preferred to Petr Cech in goal, but Walsh refused to blame him, instead pointing at star names such as Ozil and Sanchez.

“We were questioning Ospina before the game, but he had a really good game and made several good saves. The goalkeeper was nothing to do with it.

“No continuity at centre-half and you could argue that unsettled the back four and made it harder, but I’m looking for reasons. They were beaten by a better team.

“Sanchez and Ozil are their saviours in the Premier League, but they hardly featured in tonight’s game. That shows you how little of the game they were in.

“At this stage of this competition you come up against good teams and they came up against a much better team tonight who deserved to win by a million miles in the end.”