Gunners demolish Bayern with set-piece masterclass

Another victory of outstanding quality, that may yet set up more to come. And maybe a new Champions League winner.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

If a theme of this second campaign of an expanded Champions League has been the sense of lower stakes, this 3-1 Arsenal win over the next best side in Europe may yet be a sign of how this season is actually decided. That isn't just for the fact that Mikel Arteta's supremely complete side comprehensively won a tactically-rich contest between fine sides, or even that 17-year-old Bayern Munich revelation Lennart Karl looked so promising.

There was also the nature of the tactical contest, which has started to form another theme of this season.

While Arsenal are notionally the best examples of a newly technocratic Premier League, where set-pieces have become the most prominent example of this attempt to use its ample wealth to really maximise every single margin, Bayern are another continental side who continue to almost exclusively insist on a more open positional game.

That could initially be seen in the first-half goals. First, Arsenal showed off their speciality with Jurrien Timber scoring an almost indefensible corner to go ahead, and ensure that the last five goals Bayern have conceded have been from set-pieces.