Opinion: Is The Champions League Dream All Over For Arsenal?

Another dark day in the life of Arsene Wenger, while many clouds have passed over his head since he picked up a couple of FA Cups, there has always been a desire from some of the fans for Arsenal to win more. The fact that Arsenal hadn’t won a trophy for nine years always led to the speculation of Wenger leaving the club but he held on to his job and this season was yet another familiar tale of what Arsenal can achieve, if they keep everyone fit.

The hopes of lifting the Champions League for the first team stays a dream as time and again Arsenal have proved to be incapable of surmounting a challenge for the European cup. This season it is yet another story that will go into the history books but all for the wrong reasons. Arsenal were paired in a relatively easy group of Dynamo Zagreb, Olympiakos and Bayern Munich while the Germans were the favourites for the group, Arsenal should have qualified easily as well.

Two games down without having faced Bayern and the fear of not qualifying from the group are real. Arsenal lost the opening game away at Zagreb, but that could have been forgiven since they would have had to play the Croatian side at home and a win should have been the least that Arsenal should have achieved.

The next game was against Olympiakos, a nailed on three points to start the campaign and prepare for the tie against Bayern but how the might Arsenal failed. The Gunners were beaten at home by a jubilant and exciting Olympiakos team and with no points from two games and a couple of matches against Bayern coming up, Arsenal could have no points from four games and that should spell the end of their Champions League journey.

There still is a slight possibility that Arsenal do a Manchester City, we all remember how City defeated Bayern and Roma last season to qualify for the next round in the last two games and that is exactly what Arsenal could do. They need to beat Bayern at least once and then hope that they get maximum points against the other games.

To be honest though, the fate of their Champions League qualification is still in their hands, but they need to win almost every game they play now. For a team to qualify from the group stage a tally of 10 points has been the minimum in most cases and that is still achievable from Arsenal but they need to pull their socks up. Unfortunately, this might be a task too tough for the Gunners, especially after their dire performances so far and frankly if they are to play in a similar fashion against the might of Bayern Munich, a real thrashing could be on the cards.