Gunners Suffer CL Blow as Germans Prove Too Strong

Heading into their UEFA Champions League Group F fixture against German side Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal were proving to be the team to beat following an impressive start to the Premier League season and previously being unbeaten in the European competition but manager Arsene Wenger was not prepared to let their form get them too worked up.

Dortmund, who were beaten finalists last season in the competition, knew the task ahead of them and named their strongest starting eleven and their inform striker Robert Lewandowski showed his ability with a clinical in the 82^nd minute to settle the hard fought battle between the two sides.

Following the Polish internationals winning goal Arsenal looked to be deflated and will be sure to feel that the inform Dortmund striker shouldn’t have been on the pitch at all following an incident that seemed to show Lewandowski elbow Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny, for which match official Jonas Eriksson opted to only caution the striker with a yellow card, leaving his red card and automatic three game ban firmly in his back pocket.

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan fired the visitors into the lead before French international Oliver Giroud pulled the London side back into contention just before half time.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was celebrating his 64^th birthday and was hoping that he would have call for a double celebration last night but fate was not on his side and he could only watch as Lewandowski struck to take the three points and make the group one of the most contested this year with Arsenal, Dortmund and Napoli all now sat on six points each.

Arsenal who now have to travel to Germany to face off against Dortmund in the return fixture will be even more upset about the Swedish officials decision not to issue a red card to Lewandowski due to the ban crossing over to their visit to Westfalenstadion, ruling the striker out of the fixture.

Thoughts before the fixture showed that with the form that the Londoners were showing in the Premier League, they would be able to hold tight at The Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal now have reached the halfway point of the competition having placed all three of their group rivals and find themselves sitting at the top of the table based on alphabetically order, however with Borussia Dortmund and Napoli still to line up against them again in coming weeks, the battle is far from over and the Londoners will be looking to take all three points on their visit to Germany on 6^th November.