Shortly before the goal that left Arsenal’s supremacy in no doubt, Harry Kane embarked upon a lonely jaunt up their left flank. Much like the majority of Bayern Munich’s attacking endeavours, it ended almost as soon as it had begun. In common with a sizeable percentage it was terminated by Declan Rice, who thundered in and took the ball cleanly with a hooked right foot to a cheer that rivalled the night’s loudest.
The Emirates Stadium crowd was always going to enjoy that one, as Rice knew full well. He responded in kind with a roar and an exhortation to the gallery, perhaps to his teammates too: keep it going, crank up that volume, let’s see this thing through. Rice is the best player in Europe right now and, with that, there are standards to drive.
Moments later Arsenal, so often cowed in the past when given the chance to see off the elite at this level, scored a goal of devastating poise through Gabriel Martinelli to seal a 3-1 win and it felt impossible not to sense a weight lifting.
Or, perhaps, the shift in trajectory of a jet that has long since taken off. If Rice is the continent’s standout footballer then Arsenal are its supreme team. It is worth saying because, while that argument will be settled definitively in Budapest six months from now, there had been plenty to prove at the outset here. Nobody can deny any more that Arsenal are overwhelming favourites to win the Premier League; the evening’s big question was whether they could finally outsmart an old nemesis who are, familiarly, streaking clear at the top of their own domestic competition.
It is always tempting to place asterisks against these elite match-ups in Uefa’s revamped Champions League. Arsenal and Bayern will both qualify automatically for the last 16: that much was nailed on before a ball was kicked here. Games such as this risk being stripped of context, turned into boutique exhibition pieces with an appropriate number of highlights-reel sequences. But they mean more when you can finally glimpse the crowning glory of six years’ work, as Mikel Arteta surely must. Every monkey shaken off the back makes that long run to the finish line feel lighter.
As it happened, Arsenal’s second-half performance was all thriller, no filler. That owed plenty to a remarkable effort from Rice, who resembles four players in one when tuned in to this extent. Nowadays, that means every week. Rice had admitted in a matchday programme interview that his confidence is now sky high; if Arsenal’s biggest step forward this season has been the creation of a squad with the depth to compete on all fronts, there is one player Arteta can simply not countenance dropping.
Arsenal's Luis Muñoz became the youngest player to feature in a Uefa Youth League match on Wednesday when the 13-year-old came off the bench in the closing stages of their 4-2 win over Bayern Munich in the under-19 competition.
Muñoz, who does not turn 14 until 18 December, replaced Kyran Thompson in the 85th minute. The midfielder beat the record set by Liam Payas, who played for the Gibraltarian club Lincoln Red Imps aged 14 years and 93 days in September 2024.
Max Dowman, the 15-year-old who has played for Arsenal's first team, scored twice against Bayern, including a stunning solo goal. Arsenal are 30th in the Youth League table, with the top 22 teams qualifying for the knockout stages. Reuters and Guardian sport
By the time Rice had embarked on a lungbusting run down the inside left in the 62nd minute, skinning Joshua Kimmich while Bayern’s defence stood off as if through sheer deference, Arsenal were already overwhelming their visitors. Rice’s burst ended with a fingertip save from Manuel Neuer, but the die had been cast since half-time. Bayern could barely deal with his set pieces, whether driven or looped, and Mikel Merino should have converted one. They could not get past him on the rare occasions they ventured forwards; nor could any of their number, bar the extraordinarily gifted 17-year-old Lennart Karl, move the ball on as quickly.
Thus Arsenal had the platform to produce a second 45 minutes of pulsating quality and intensity. This had been billed as Europe’s best defence against its most vibrant attack but little was seen of Bayern beyond a brief spell of encouragement after Karl’s smart equaliser. They were swamped in both departments, Kane reduced to those ultra-deep positions that usually serve as a tell.
It had also been mooted as a meeting of two close friends and mesmerising playmakers, the Crystal Palace alumni Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise. In the end Olise, largely restricted to the flanks, was quiet bar a few nibbles at the vulnerable Myles Lewis-Skelly. Still inhaling the fumes of his derby-day ascension to Arsenal greatness, Eze produced the wonderfully lofted ball that Martinelli cushioned past a careering Neuer and rolled into the vacant net.
Martinelli had won the ball from Olise, who was dribbling into one of those penalty-box thickets that make David Raya a virtual onlooker, and set off on a run up the pitch that Eze rewarded within seconds. The surge in intensity Rice had just demanded? It was personified in that blistering sequence: against opponents who have so often embodied the chasm Arsenal need to bridge, they were relentless and irresistible to the last.
Can anyone touch Arsenal? On this evidence it is hard to think so. They would certainly require a brand new way to undo this season’s progress if they were to emerge with nothing, although that has not stopped them before. Arteta had said before the game that Bayern’s Champions League pedigree put them in a “different universe” – Arsenal, though, may be overtaking them at warp speed.
