Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger watched on as his team exited the Champions League at the last-16 stage for a fifth consecutive season on Tuesday night
Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League last-16 on Tuesday night, after winning 2-0 at Monaco, but drawing the tie 3-3 on aggregate and being eliminated on away goals.
This was the fifth season in a row that the Gunners have gone out at this stage of the competition.
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For yet another season Arsenal came close to making the quarter-finals of the competition, but did not quite do enough to get there.
Last season was the only time in the last five last-16 ties that the Gunners have suffered a defeat by more than one goal, when they were beaten 3-1 on aggregate by Bayern Munich over two legs.
In truth though, this defeat will be far harder to take for everybody connected with Arsenal.
Pushovers
Monaco were supposed to be the whipping boys of the Champions League last-16, the team that everybody wanted to get drawn against. Arsenal fans rejoiced at the prospect of facing the Ligue One team.
However, Leonardo Jardim’s team were no pushovers and the Gunners vastly underestimated the men from the principality. According to the Monaco boss ‘Arsenal lacked respect’ and that may not be totally wrong.
The first leg of this tie showed that the Arsenal players did not expect the Ligue One outfit to produce the display they did in north London. They were left shell-shocked by the 3-1 home defeat and travelling to Monaco needing a three goal win was always going to be near impossible.
The size of the task was illustrated by the fact Monaco had conceded just once in their last 12 home games and twice in their previous seven Champions League games. This was a team that were always going to be hard to breakdown and hard to defeat.
They were never going to be the pushovers that a lot of people saw them as. Monaco topped their group for a reason and that is because they are a decent team. Despite that they are not in the same bracket as a Barcelona, a Real Madrid or a Bayern Munich, as proven by their two goal second leg defeat.
Nearly Men
This tie epitomised Arsenal’s recent history. They are the nearly men of European football, in fact the nearly men of any football. On their day they can play superb one-touch passing football and defeat anybody, but they have the tendency to slip-up at vital times.
Last season’s Premier League title race summed Arsenal up, as they capitulated and allowed Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea to overtake them, despite leading the league for the majority of the campaign.
The Champions League has been a similar story, when they have often nearly made it to the quarter-finals, but have suffered a narrow defeat.
The Arsenal team is also full of players that are inconsistent, Danny Welbeck being a prime example. The England international has speed and can go past defenders, but just like a jigsaw seems to go to pieces in the box.
If he had any composure then Manchester United probably would not have let him move to the Emirates in the first place. Welbeck played a big part in the Gunners first goal and had a decent enough game, but he will never be good enough for a team that is serious about challenging for the big trophies.
Germany playmaker Mesut Ozil seems to fall asleep at times during games, usually big ones and his teammates have to pick up the slack. The former-Real Madrid star could quite easily have been hooked by Arsene Wenger in Monaco, instead Welbeck was replaced by Theo Walcott, who is yet another nearly man.
Arsenal does not have enough world-class players to win the big trophies and it seems not enough mental toughness to make it into the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Gunner’s fans cannot be happy with failing at the last-16 stage every season? The club are getting into a rather worrying pattern of getting out the group stage and then seemingly being happy with that achievement.
Disappointing
On paper Arsenal should have had enough quality in their team to defeat Monaco, good defensive record or not. The Gunners have better players, but they still seem to lack the ruthlessness and mental toughness teams need to be winners.
Arsenal fans will now be left to wonder what might have been if the Gunners had not produced such a complacent performance in the first leg.
Did Arsenal deserve to lose against Monaco over two legs?
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