Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has insisted that the Gunners can take pride from their performance against Bayern despite being knocked out of the Champions League.
The Gunners were knocked out of Europe’s elite club competition at the hands of Bayern Munich for the second season running after a 1-1 draw in Germany condemned them to a 3-1 aggregate loss.
The 20 year old, who impressed at the Allianz Arena, believes they didn’t have the necessary class in the final third to beat the reigning champions.
Speaking to the Arsenal’s official website, he said:
It’s a very similar feeling to last year [when Arsenal went out despite winning at Bayern]. We didn’t win here this year but I think we can take pride out of the performance to come here and get a 1-1 draw.
It isn’t what we wanted or needed but I think we put in a really good shift and worked really hard all over the pitch. We were up against a really tough Bayern side. I think we did well and we can hold our heads high.
We’re just gutted that we couldn’t do enough. Maybe on another day our final ball could have been a bit better and we could have found some more cutting edge, but it wasn’t to be.
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There are definitely positives for us to take from this performance and we can take that into the league and into the rest of the FA Cup [campaign].
The England international is hopeful that Arsene Wenger’s men have what it takes to respond to the disappointment when they travel to White Hart Lane this weekend. He added:
Football’s about picking yourself up from defeats and bouncing back. That’s what we’ve got to do now. We’ve got a really good game coming up on Sunday, one that all the fans want to win and we want to win.
It’s a massive game for not only the Club and for the city and the rivalry, it’s also a big opportunity for us to stake a claim on the league, so we’ll be looking to do that and bounce back. We’ll get over this as quick as we can.
The Gunners performed beyond expectations in the second leg against Bayern Munich, holding the German giants to a draw despite a last minute penalty afforded them a big opportunity to win. It was an decent result, but unfortunately the first leg performance had left Arsenal with a tough job. The task proved beyond us, but there were still plenty of positives to take from the game with the performances of Chamberlain and Fabianski.
Arsenal may be out of the Champions League, but there is not much time to look back at the result. This might be the end of their European dream, but it is far from the end of their season as we are strong favourites to lift the FA Cup and are engrossed in a fascinating climax to the Premier League.
We will travel to Tottenham for what should be a thrilling North London derby and the Gunners will be keen to reassert their diminishing title credentials. The Champions League may be out of Arsenal’s reach, but there is still so much to play for the rest of the season.
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