Zimpapers Logo

LONDON. – Arsenal were branded “spineless” and “gutless” while many leading English football writers viewed the loss as further proof that Arsene Wenger should call it quits at the end of the season, as a furious British media piled the agony on the hapless Gunners.

Arsenal collapsed in the second half in Munich on Wednesday evening to lose 1-5 all but ensure that they’ll exit the Champions League in the round of 16 for the seventh year running.

And with Arsenal seemingly out of the Premier League title race as well, sitting 10 points behind leaders Chelsea, the British media focused on what effect the latest damaging setback will have on Wenger’s future.

The Frenchman’s contract expires at the end of this season and has yet to make a decision on whether to stay on for a 22nd year and beyond.

The Sun

“So it’s goodnight Arsenal. Goodbye Arsene. It is the end game now – the end of an era for one of English football’s historic clubs. Arsenal collapsed inside the Allianz Arena like a deck of cards.

“Bayern Munich, boasting some of the best players in European football, are the real deal. Arsenal are not. There is nowhere to hide. Not for Arsene Wenger.

“Not for Arsenal Football Club. Not for these players. Arsenal reserves would have done better out there. They tanked this. Gave up. Jacked it in. Unforgivable . . . Soon enough – today would be an idea – Wenger will have to decide whether it is time to stick or twist. Here, he folded.

“He can scratch for the feeblest of excuses, grasp at the filmiest of straws but Arsene Wenger is to blame. This was one of his WORST nights, one of his most humiliating defeats in an ever-increasing litany.

“This was a capitulation, a wretched loss of heart, organisation and tactical nous. For Wenger to watch his team toyed with, rolled around like a ball of wool in the keen claws of a cat’s paw, must have hurt. Hurt upon hurt upon hurt, the story of Wenger’s recent years, lifted only by the odd, gladdening domestic narrative. It is a question asked too often to even mean a great deal any more but here goes. How much more of this can he take? The latest team he has assembled, the latest methods he has employed, the latest systems he has used, have no place at the very top table of European football.”

Daily Mirror

“The hammering the Gunners took on this turf in November 2015 was repeated and now a seventh consecutive round-of-sixteen departure is inevitable. At this second-round stage, Arsenal are The Exiteers. Wenger’s team were simply and emphatically out-classed, yet old failings displayed themselves in this wonderful space colony of a stadium. And they showed themselves early. Another 5-1 humbling puts the skids under Wenger’s apparent aim to go on and on in a job he adheres to with astonishing faith and stubbornness. But in a sense, that’s old news. We have been saying as much all season. Yet the decision on his future is not made in the court of public opinion. It will be made by him and his inner circle.”

Daily Telegraph

“Arsenal spent £96m in the summer and £101m two years before. Their wage bill is a smidgen lower than Bayern’s, their net value a touch behind, fifth in the world plays fourth in the world. And yet at times inside this wondrous illuminated giant doughnut of a stadium they looked like novices up against the all-galaxy champions, or at best an elite team that has simply sat for too long in the same place.

“It is almost impossible at moments such as these to see how Wenger can take this team to a higher level, just as it is impossible to argue there is not another manager out there who could build more successfully on the stable foundations he will leave. The question, as ever, is simply who and when. Radical change is rarely a good idea. A Conte-style hard-pressing disciplinarian, some Simeone-style maniac in charge of the current squad might be disastrous. A more familiar Young Arsene type might just bring more of the same. Departures, exit music, farewells. One thing is certain. It all got a lot closer in Munich.”

Daily Mail

“When the pressure is on against the elite of Europe, Arsenal collapse. It can hardly have come as a surprise, either, having happened for seven straight seasons now. Might it be the last time under Wenger, though? Maybe, after this. At the end of this season, Wenger and his employers have a decision to make. They can’t be happy for this to continue indefinitely. It wasn’t even a new scoreline. Bayern Munich beat them 5-1 here in the Champions League group stage in November 2015. Yet every year is going to be different; every humiliation will be a lesson learned. Except they don’t learn. Arsenal went in at half-time drawing 1-1 and with a couple of chances to take the lead after that. Within 20 minutes they were out of the tie. They have so much experience, so much quality – they shouldn’t just be swept aside like this. Something is wrong. Something has to give.” – ESPN.