There are nights when a late equaliser away from home is the whole story. A team goes behind, keeps pushing, and somehow finds a way back with the clock running down, and everyone connected with the club goes home happy. Arsenal’s trip to the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night had that ending. It just did not feel like the main event by the time the final whistle went.
Ten minutes in, with the game still finding its rhythm, Bukayo Saka pulled up while shaping to make a pass. Nobody had touched him. He gestured towards his left thigh, had a brief word with Mikel Arteta on the touchline, and did not make it back out for the rest of the match. Eberechi Eze came on in his place, and Arsenal had to find a way through the rest of the game, and the rest of a demanding week, without their most important attacker. Arteta’s assessment afterwards was blunt. He said the club were “a bit concerned” and admitted the injury “doesn’t look good at all.” Nobody will know the full picture until he has been scanned, but the tone of that response told its own story.
A Breathless Night in Munich
What followed was one of the more entertaining 2-2 draws Arsenal will play in this season’s Champions League, even allowing for the unease hanging over it. Eze himself had a hand in the opening goal, with Martin Odegaard picking him out for a finish that was initially flagged offside before VAR overturned the decision in the 25th minute. Bayern responded ten minutes later through Alphonso Davies, who finished off a Harry Kane through ball to level things up, and David Raya was called into action more than once either side of that goal, denying Serge Gnabry early on and clawing a Davies header off the line.
The game turned again just after the hour, when Kane’s shot struck Jurrien Timber’s arm and the referee pointed to the spot. Kane converted it himself, joked afterwards that he “always seems to get penalties against Arsenal,” and for a long stretch it looked as though that would be enough to settle it. Arsenal had not lost in 14 league phase or group stage games in this competition and were staring down the barrel of ending that run, until Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyokeres combined to send Declan Rice away down the right of the box in the 82nd minute. Rice finished from an angle that gave him very little to work with, beating Manuel Neuer, who had already denied Bruno Guimaraes with a second half save and would make a further stop from Timber before the end.
It was, by any measure, a thoroughly deserved point against a Bayern Munich side that had won their first two league phase games without conceding a goal. Arteta called the overall performance “remarkable” and “special,” and said his players “did everything to deserve the first goal.” On another evening that would be the headline, and deservedly so against a team of Bayern’s quality, away from home, missing their captain for the best part of an hour.
A Concern That Followed Them Home
Saka’s withdrawal is the kind of early blow that changes the whole complexion of a match, and not simply because of what he might have added going forward. Arsenal reorganised around Eze for the remaining eighty minutes, which worked out well enough on the night but leaves Arteta with a decision to make this week with far less certainty than he would like. Christos Tzolis is already unavailable through injury, which thins out the options further on the flanks.
The timing is unhelpful in every sense. Arsenal are at home to Everton in the Premier League on Saturday, with a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool to follow on 1 November, and five matches to get through before the November international break gives anyone a breather. Nobody connected with Arsenal was putting a number of weeks on Saka’s absence in the immediate aftermath, and reports on the night suggested the full extent of the problem would not be clear until he had undergone proper assessment. Given how central he has been to almost everything Arsenal have done well this season, any lengthy spell out would be felt immediately, whatever Eze and the rest of the forward line manage to produce in his absence.
Where This Leaves Arsenal
On paper, this was still a night of progress. The draw takes Arsenal to seven points from three games in this season’s Champions League, having won their opening two fixtures without conceding, and they remain unbeaten in the competition proper. Bayern, by contrast, have now dropped points for the first time having also won their opening two matches, and the pair will head into the business end of the league phase with Arsenal still very much in control of their own destiny.
Domestically, Arsenal go into the weekend sitting second in the Premier League on 18 points, three behind leaders Manchester City, having beaten Nottingham Forest at the City Ground last weekend. The pressure, such as it was, going into Munich was more about whether Arsenal could back up their league form in Europe against one of the continent’s genuine heavyweights. In that sense, the result answers the question asked of them. The injury to their best player is a separate, more pressing problem, and one that will not resolve itself in time for Saturday.
For a club that spent last season reaching a first Champions League final in twenty years, nights like this are a reminder that progress in this competition rarely comes without cost. Arsenal left Munich with their unbeaten run intact and their manager generally pleased with the performance. They also left with a worry that will follow them into the weekend regardless of how Saturday’s team sheet reads.
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