Arsenal players walk back to the half way line after Dinamo scored…
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The repercussions in Group F: Bayern Munich are a virtual shoo-in for first, leaving Arsenal, Dinamo and Olympiacos to battle for second.
Arsenal began the Premier League campaign with a 2-0 defeat by West Ham and have again started their Champions League challenge with a defeat following a 2-0 loss by Borussia Dortmund at the same stage of the competition at the start of last season.
Özil received a rating of 6.4 from whoscored. The World Cup victor maintained a passing accuracy of 78%.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s own goal gifted the home side a first-half lead before Giroud was dismissed five minutes before half-time for a second bookable offence. “I think we were a bit unlucky”.
Thing went from bad to worse for Arsene Wenger’s men just before the break and it was Giroud who was the culprit, going in late on Pinto and giving referee Ovidiu Hategan no choice but to show a second yellow card. “We’ve still got a long Champions League run”, he said.
Pivaric had crept in behind the visitors’ defence and although his initial effort was kept out well by Opsina the rebound ricocheted back off the unfortunate Oxlade-Chamberlain and over the stranded Colombian. A second yellow card in the 40th minute sent the Frenchmen to the locker room and forced the Gunners to play a man down for the final 50 minutes.
Wenger felt his striker had been unfortunate to receive two bookings for the incidents, but conceded Giroud should have controlled his temper better to avoid the first caution. While a desperate block from Mathieu Debuchy prevented a goal immediately arising, some poor defending from the resulting corner allowed Junior Fernandes to head in and give the Croatian champions a commanding advantage. Among them was the well-known Wenger-sceptic Piers Morgan, who commented: “In Arsene We Rust”.
It was far from a vintage Chelsea performance, but Mourinho will hope it provides a foundation for future success, starting with a sterner test against Arsenal in the Premier League this weekend.
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There was some good news yesterday though with centre back Per Mertesacker set to be passed fit for the game.
