5 Truths: Arsenal's loss could aid title push; Bayern Munich rightfully frustrated

The Gunners will have to produce one of the best results in their history to turn this tie around after losing 2-0 at home to Barcelona and logic suggests they aren't going to do it. Bowing out of Europe is always a bitter pill to swallow, but come May Arsenal fans may well look back on it differently.

Wenger's men have their best chance of pushing for the title in many a season and not having a midweek tie against one of Europe's best to contend with may well aid their hopes. Leicester just have the league to focus on and Arsenal can't afford to take their eye off the ball with Manchester City and Spurs also in contention.

So Arsenal can be like Leicester, if they try. That is, in the first half against Barcelona they were disciplined, kept their shape, snapped at the heels of the creative men in the middle of the Catalan side’s midfield and… kept a clean sheet.

In the Premier League, they usually dominate possession and try and pick apart the opposition. But against Luis Enrique’s men, they were happy to try and soak up the pressure and hit them on the break with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain using his pace from deep positions to carry the ball. And just when they seemed to be growing into the match, Lionel Messi caught them on the break to score.

There is only so much you can do against Messi, Suarez and Neymar but it shows that Arsenal can play in a more defensive mindset when they have to – which might yet serve them well domestically this season. It’s a fad that is catching on at the top of the Premier League it seems…

Yes it was a bad tackle. But Mathieu Flamini should not be the fall guy for the Arsenal defeat after giving away the penalty that handed Barcelona a 2-0 lead. Arsenal were always chasing the game after the blistering breakaway goal scored by Messi. And the Frenchman came on cold only seconds earlier into a full-blooded match, having been marginalised of late. It’s tough enough to play Barca at the best of times, let alone when you are already off the pace.

Oxlade-Chamberlain should at least shoulder some of the responsibility after missing an excellent chance in the first half. But given the timing and the importance of Flamini’s tackle, the blame is likely to fall at his door.

“Pep Guardiola has reinvented football”. Those were the words of David Alaba in one of his pre-match press interviews, exalting the brilliance of his Manchester City-bound manager. But reinvented is a very strong word. Guardiola’s style of football is remarkably controlled, extremely impressive and wonderfully entertaining (at times). But it is still football. As Leicester City have shown in the Premier League this season, it doesn’t matter if you have 70 percent possession or 30, you can still achieve great things.

For all of Bayern’s control for the first hour of their 2-2 draw against Juventus, they were still just two goals ahead against a team packed full of game changers. And come full-time it seemed as if Bayern were hanging on for a draw, with little to no sign of that Guardiola ‘carousel’ in the face of Juve’s wave-after-wave of high-energy counter-attacks. Bayern may well progress to the quarter-finals and they deservedly remain among the favourites for this competition. But there are plenty of ways to play this game and the final half an hour in Turin proved that Juventus at their best can be just as dangerous and exciting as their German visitors.

After an hour in Turin, Pep Guardiola could have been forgiven for thinking that he had solved this football lark. As Arjen Robben came over to celebrate his fine goal with the manager – a statement in itself, considering Guardiola is soon to defect – Bayern were 2-0 up away to one of Europe’s most respected defences, playing a high line and dominating the ball and the chances.

What is more, Bayern were doing all that without a recognised centre-back; with all their players either injured or not fit enough to start, Guardiola was forced to press David Alaba (a versatile full-back) and Joshua Kimmich (a callow holding midfielder) into emergency action. The fact Bayern were in such control, despite this key weakness, was a testament to the tactical mastery Guardiola has shown he has.

Of course, football is rarely so predictable, and by the end of the game Guardiola would be cursing his luck. A tentative defensive touch from Kimmich enabled Paulo Dybala to latch onto a Mario Mandzukic through-ball and completely change the momentum of the match, before substitute Stefano Sturaro managed to slip around Kimmich and lash home a close-range equaliser.

Suddenly a tie that looked over is very much alive, even if Juve remain outsiders heading to the second leg at the Allianz Arena. A rational manager may accept that, given the defensive reshuffle, such an outcome is no disaster – but Guardiola has never been that sort of man. He will fume at a game squandered in the closing stages: it is that perfectionism that undoubtedly makes him the brilliant manager he is, but equally underlines why he will never stay in one place too long.