Arsenal surrendered a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 to FC Bayern and leave themselves a mountain to climb to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals.
I have rarely seen a team collapse like Arsenal did, aside from maybe once in an u-17 Friendly where Germany were 3-0 up with 49 minutes played and ended up losing 4-3 to France. So it was a shocking team effort from the 60th minute until the end of the game.
It felt like the Titanic going at full tilt towards the iceberg, unable to change course.
Football is a team sport and the players and staff win together and lose together too. It has to be said that the 400 Arsenal away fans were excellent throughout the game. No players should be scapegoated really. It is a collective responsibilty from the squad.
What is strange is that the first half was so good, the pressing intense and Arsenal deservedly 2-0 up and cruising in the second half. I have just rewatched the full second half to try to understand why and how the collapse happened.
The rewatch of the full game replay was really strange because it does not look like a huge collapse, as it appeared watching the game live. The team seemed disjointed and really in bad shape as the match progressed, while on the replay, the defensive structure did not collapse as much as I expected.
There were a lot of individual mistakes on the three goals. Two of goals came from defensive transitions again. It is clear that the double pivot at Arsenal leaves some big holes, if both players are too high.
But if Arsenal wants to move and sign a defensive midfildier in the January window, it has implications on the way the team plays offensively and defensively in term of pressing structure and build up play.
Does Renee Slegers want to use a 4-1-1-3-1 system or a 4-1-2-3 instead of the current 4-2-3-1/4-4-2? That is the main question here.
The balance in the double pivot is a problem, especially when both are not defensively minded, and it ends up with the distance between the midfield line and the defensive line being way too big.
In terms of the table, Arsenal are in the play-off places, and they will not finish in the top four unless a miracle happens. That means there is likely to be a two-game play-off to reach the quarter finals.
Those games will be played 11/12 and 18/19 of February with the quarter finals being played at the end of March.
The north London derby is next and it’s an away game at Leyton Orient FC. It is a must-win as the team need to climb up the table from fourth place.
With the games coming thick and fast, I expect some rotation to keep everyone fresh. The big question is how mentally affected will be the team following that defeat. Will the players have recovered to go and fight against Spurs?