Maybe I went too early this week with my statement about ‘statement win’?

Nah. I’m happy with what I said. Like I’m happy with what this Arsenal team are doing right now and if you’re somebody who questioned the idea of Tottenham being a statement win given how shocking they were, I bet you’re not questioning that this morning, eh?

This was such an impressive victory and I think it was such a fascinating game to unpick, because there were plenty of sub-plots within it that are worth talking about.

Battle of the teenagers

Myles Lewis-Skelly was given his first start in a while and so too was Christina Mosquera, but there was another teenager that outshone him last night, which was that little Bayern playmaker Karl, who I thought had a pretty good first half it has to be said. The goal Bayern scored was well-worked and the ball from Kimmich was followed up by an equally impressive cross from Gnabry, for Karl to smash home before us.

Myles was guilty of a bit of ball watching I think on that one, but for the night in general he had a really tough evening of it, because Gnabry and Olise both had the beating of him on multiple occasions. Hey, he’s still young, he’s probably a bit rusty, plus you’re going up against one of the in-form teams in Europe who haven’t lost a game in Bayern Munich. I think we can let him off. But Karl certainly won the ‘teenager-off’ between the two I thought.

A tale of two divisions

At halftime I went for my usual concourse pint and a chat with a few of the lads and the conversation was on second balls. We didn’t seem to be winning many of ours and Bayern seemed to be profiting a lot for those loose balls as a result of their intensive pressure.

I posed the question why it was and one of the gents reminded me that whilst we had the intensity of a North London Derby (yes, The Scum from the Lane were sh*t, but the atmosphere and the game itself and everything around it is intense), Bayern played out a 6-2 win against Freiburg. This is a German League that doesn’t have the same levels of physicality, intensity and hype that the Premier League does every week. The Premier League is relentless for every game and that’s ramped up for an NLD. I don’t think you can say that about Bayern v Freiburg.

So that might explain why, in that first half, I thought we looked a little leggy and I thought Bayern probably edged it overall.

Timber delivers again

Ben White is fantastic. We all love him. But Jurrien Timber has gone levels above him. He now overlaps, he wins aerial duels, he isn’t usually beaten for pace, plus as he showed last night, he’s an aerial threat too. I loved his header, although quite why Bayern left him unmarked is a bit of a strange one to me. A case of the ‘he’s only a little fella, focus on the centre halves’ perhaps?

Whatever it was, we don’t care, because it got the ball rolling (into the net) on what was to become a superb night of football by The Arsenal. I also enjoyed Manuel Neuer’s complaints about getting a little bump by Timber as he was running past him from back post to front. Then, when you see the replays, you see that Neuer was just poor on the goal and left in no man’s land. And that wasn’t to be for the last time on the night.

Second half gears

With us looking so leggy in the first half yesterday, I did wonder what we’d do in the second half as the legs started to tire even more, but what I mistook for a bit of fatigue from the Arsenal players, turned out to be just our boys sussing Bayern out in the first half because our second half was Arsenal moving up the gears to just put our foot down on this match.

Within the first few minutes of the second half you could tell that we were going to be better. We had a bit more of the ball, we were getting behind Bayern on the flanks, plus the likes of Declan Rice were just starting to purr. There was one moment in which the ball was passed to him on the left and side and with one touch on the outside of the boot he just glided past the Bayern right back. It caught them out of position and we fashioned a chance from the effort. But that stuff was happening all night and when we finally went ahead in that second half through Madueke and his first Arsenal goal, nobody could deny it wasn’t fully deserved.

Impact from the bench

That second goal was made from the bench. A cute ball to set Calafiori in behind the full back, was met buy a superbly whipped ball by the Italian, with Madueke arriving in front of his man to do the business and slot it home. Excellently worked and you could tell how much it meant for him as he screamed to the heavens right in front of us in Block Five.

Good work son.

But that ability to bring on top quality players and have them make a tangible impact was not to be finished there, as a superb ball in behind by Eze was met by Martinelli, whose touch took it beyond the stranded Neuer once again in no man’s land, for the Brazilian to tap into an empty net.

He has a habit of getting those types of goals when the game is stretched and I think it’s no coincidence that he thrives in the Champions League. Teams come to play us in this competition and as a result, particularly later in games when they attack a bit more if behind, spaces open up. We saw it against Real Madrid last season as an example. What a player to be able to bring on to test tired legs, eh?

It was such an impressive night. I feel like I could go on and on and on, but much like Arteta and his charges, it’s now done and we need to look at the really tough away game to Chelsea on Sunday to see if we can complete a treble of wins in just over a week that could have a massive bearing on our season.

Back tomorrow as preparations begin for that huge game.