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Arsenal continued their brilliant run of results by beating Bayern Munich 3-1 in the Champions League.
Mikel Arteta's men are the only team with a 100 per cent record still in tact in Europe's top club competition.
They made a slow start but found a way to take the lead, Jurrien Timber heading Bukayo Saka's corner past Manuel Neuer. The visitors got back into the match 10 minutes later as 17-year-old Lennart Karl finished off a wonderfully worked team move.
Arsenal went into another gear in the second half and were rewarded for their brilliant performance with goals from two substitutes. First Noni Madueke got himself on the scoresheet and then Gabriel Martinelli followed to seal yet another victory.
Take a look at The Athletic's live schedule this week.
Mikel Arteta’s side will take on Chelsea this weekend to round out a tough week of matches.
When they return to Champions League action in December, they will travel to Belgium to face Club Brugge.
They take on St Pauli in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
When they return in the Champions League, they will be at home against Sporting in early December.
It looks pretty good if you are an Arsenal fan!
It is all still to play for at this stage but the top eight is starting to take shape.
Arsenal scored from yet another set piece tonight.
They are so effective at them — from their movement to their delivery — that the psychological impact on the opposition defence is incredible.
You can see the panic set in and that must work in Arsenal’s favour.
The England captain knows to expect a tough match against Arsenal — here’s how he saw that defeat, when speaking to TNT Sports:
💬 “Tough game, kind of what we expected. The first half was fairly even and a draw would have been the same result. Second half we didn't have the same intensity.
“We are playing against a really good side, it's our first loss of the season and we don't want to panic about it,
“They're a good team, there’s a reason why they have won every game in the Champions League and they are top of the Premier League.”
Arsenal fans are having a grand old time this season.
Top of the Premier League and Champions League tables, their team has been playing some pretty entertaining football to boot.
There was another great display in the stands today (following on from Sunday’s north London derby tifo).
Another Champions League goal for Gabriel Martinelli!
He is so important to Mikel Arteta’s team in this competition.
Serge Gnabry knows Arsenal very well as a former player — this was a tough defeat for Bayern Munich tonight. Here’s how he reflected on that defeat when speaking to DAZN DE after the match:
💬 “You have to accept that you lose sometimes. Arsenal are a very strong opponent; they haven't won all their games so far for nothing. They had a period where they pressed us back with a lot of corner kicks. We didn't manage to do much in the second half.”
So, Arsenal are top of the Champions League table after five matches with their 100 per cent record still in tact — but he is, understandably, not getting drawn into discussions about their chances of going all the way.
He was asked if it is their year.
💬 “I don't know, we're still so far away. We have a really good record so far and we have to continue that. We can enjoy tonight because tomorrow we have to start to prepare to go to Stamford Bridge.”
He has enjoyed himself on plenty of occasions against Arsenal but this was not a night to remember for Harry Kane.
He got on the ball a fair bit in the first half by dropping deep but was pretty absent in the second half.
It will not derail his season but it was not his night.
An interesting quirk in the German football media is that the Einzelkritik — the individual marks awarded to players after games — is between 1 and 6.
The lower the score the better. Tonight, Lennart Karl was given a well-deserved 2 in most places. Harry Kane, Michael Olise and Aleksandar Pavlovic were all 4s. Manuel Neuer and Dayot Upamecano each received chastening 5s.
Mikel Arteta, wearing a smile similar to Declan Rice's, followed his midfielder into a TNT Sports interview — he was asked what he was most pleased about.
💬 “Probably the whole performance; the way we dominated the game, how we had to adapt to their quality and how we raised the standards — we knew we'd have to do that. Individually, we were exceptional.
“It will bring more confidence and more trust to the players. We made changes and whoever it is (that comes in for injured players) is performing in an incredible way. I'm so pleased.
“I know the difficulty of the match we played and we much (Bayern) demand, I thought we were excellent.”
The main criticism of this Arsenal team over the last couple of seasons has been that they have tended to crumble when one or two key players have been injured.
This season, they have rectified that weakness in some style. Ordinarily, Gabriel's injury during the international break would have been a huge blow but they haven't felt the effects whatsoever.
Tottenham had just three shots on Sunday — only scoring from a ridiculous Richarlison effort from 35 yards — and Bayern looked pretty blunt in attack this evening, especially in the second half.
More from Declan Rice to TNT Sports, discussing what has changed this season to make them look a threat on all fronts.
💬 “There are a lot more leaders in the team now, players who have been here a while and know what it takes to play for this club. We've been in a lot of title races and that feeling of not getting over the line hurts. We know how important it is every single game.
“The mentality has been different this season — there's a hunger and desire in us to want to win every game. We can do that if we're at our best.”
But they are unlikely to care after a performance and a win as impressive as that one.
Bayern are the first team to score a goal past Arsenal’s defence in the Champions League this season — and it was a good one.
On the whole, it was still a very strong night from the hosts’ back line.
Declan Rice was immense tonight and was the deserving recipient of the Player of the Match award. He spoke to TNT Sports after the match grinning from ear to ear.
💬 “If you look at Bayern Munich this season, they've been the best team in Europe and the games they have won tell you that. So we knew what type of game we were in for tonight — probably the toughest game tactically we've had all season. The way they move, drag you around, it takes a lot of thinking.”
He was then asked about the strength in depth in the squad.
“That's down to the manager and to the way we work. The players all believe in exactly what he does. Every game requires something different and every player knows their role — that's the main thing.”
Not every Arsenal performance was perfect tonight — Myles Lewis-Skelly had a tough time up against Michael Olise.
But he held in there and Arteta got his changes spot on, with his replacement Riccardo Calafiori and fellow sub Gabriel Martinelli really impressing in that second half.
As he should! What an occasion to score his first goal for Arsenal.
The German media is not going easy on Manuel Neuer. "Pannen-Auftritt von Neuer!" says Bild, the country's biggest tabloid — Neuer's performance was a disaster!
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Arsenal beat Bayern Munich in Champions League after superb second-half performance: Live updates and reaction – The New York Times
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