Absent their suspended manager Arsene Wenger and first choice midfielders Ramsey and Wilshere, Arsenal started with Szczesny, Gibbs, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Sagna, Arteta, Song, Benayoun, Gervinho, Van Persie (C) and Walcott lined up in the raucous cacophony that was the Signal Iduna Park, home of the German champions, against a highly fluid and attacking 4-2-3-1 formation including Weidenfeller, Schmelzer, Subotic, Hummels, Bender, Kehl (C), Piszczek, Großkreutz, Kagawa, Gotze and Lewandowski. Only 1300 Arsenal fans were in attendance and although both teams played similar systems in theory, the home side took the initiative from the off in what many would say is Arsenal’s hardest group-stage game.

It was end to end action in the opening stages, Arsenal threatening through the agility of Gervinho and Dortmund through the skill of Gotze. Gervinho fashioned a magic chance in the fourth minute but was too close to Weidenfeller to pull the trigger and a slip from Sagna opened up a great chance for Stefan Großkreutz at the other end, which he skied over the bar. In many ways the game opened up like the away leg in Udinese, with neither team keeping sustained possession and cagey passing turning –over the ball. A high offside line from Arsenal allowed Kagawa a clear sight of goal in the 9^th minute after a ball was lofted over the top; again, the Dortmund player fired over but surely the Gunners wouldn’t continue to ride their luck. Unbelievably, the Arsenal back line were lobbed again, with Koscielny playing Lewandowski onside and Sagna clearing his shot off of the line after the Polish striker had passed Szczesny in goal.

credit to the telegraph/Getty images

It has to be stressed how poor our possession play and passing was in the early stages, with almost no patience and even less guile; it took at least 15 minutes for Arsenal to reach full flow. Dortmund made it hard by playing a very high pressure defence and you could sensse they weren’t as well equipped to sustain the tempo of the game as the visitors. However, they continued to pose a threat and counter attacked well from a corner – only for Großkreutz to shoot high and wide again. One avenue where Arsenal were very clearly the better team was along the wings, with Walcott and Gervinho easily able to win corners off of their markers; as usual though, these came to nothing time and time again. The usually rock-solid Sagna was suffering on the right flank while receiving no defensive cover from Walcott – one such scenario led to a Dortmund corner in the 23^rd minute which proved harmless to the scoreline but left Koscielny with a head injury after a Mertesacker and Hummels sandwich.

Koscielny was bullied by Mario Gotze for the first half an hour and questions were raised about Alex Song’s role – he was chasing the ball all over the pitch but neglecting to man-mark the Dortmund dangermen; bad play or risky tactics? Yossi Benayoun was inconsistent to say the least, as demonstrated by a terrible pass followed by an inspirational ball over to RVP on the rebound, which earned an Arsenal corner in the 31^st minute. Once again, the Germans counter attacked with Gotze beating Koscielny, but Song tracked the run of Kagawa and the attack fizzled out. After 40 minutes Arsenal had 55% possession, but you wouldn’t have known it with all the promising attacks coming from ‘Die Schwarzgelben’. A truly superb interceptive slide tackle on the Dortmund captain Kehl from the Arsenal captain Van Persie gave Walcott the possession in central midfield, who thread an excellent through ball back to the Dutchman, which he dispatched effortlessly with his weaker right foot making it an unlikely, but welcome, 1-0 to the visiting side in the 43^rd minute. And in the one added minute at the end of the first half, you could hear the faint chants of the 1300 Arsenal fans amongst the 80,000 Germans in Signal Iduna Park.

credit to daily mail/getty/bogart

The second half started as a continuation of the first, with Dortmund threatening and Arsenal lacking composure with the ball. By the 50th minute the home side were conceding more and more niggly fouls and were being caught offside where they weren’t at the opening of the match; Kieran Gibbs was noticeably poor in terms of composure and gave Piszcek a great change in the 54th minute after a poor pass, which he squandered. Gervinho was far busier than his fellow winger Theo Walcott and won a 30-yard free-kick in the 56th minute, which the quiet Mikel Arteta stepped up to take (and wasted) – Arsenal’s best chance since the goal came when RVP and Walcott teamed up again but the other way round, with the Englishman blasting his captain’s through ball hopelessly over. Encouragingly, Arsenal once again dealt with a Borussia corner confidently, Mertesacker winning the first header and Arteta winning the second, but not without Hummels leaving a huge gash behind the ear of the Basque midfielder, forcing him to leave the field for treatment.

Gervinho had an incredible chance just after in the 61st minute when he controlled a long ball and was tripped by Subotic, staying on his feet (perhaps too honestly) and unable to beat an onrushing Weidenfeller. By now it was clear the Germans couldn’t deal with the physique and pace of players like Song and Gervinho who tormented the home side in defence and attack – however, Arsenal failed to translate this superior conditioning and strength into set-piece success, with wasted free-kicks and corners. Jacob ‘Kuba’ Blaszczykowski and Ivan Perisic replaced Großkreutz and Kehl in the 68th minute in an attacking Borussian substitution which saw them change to all-but a 4-1-2-3 formation with a lot of pace and skill; even the centre backs were marauding into the Arsenal half and the Gunners were taking a lot of flak. Mikel Arteta and Alex Song were nothing less than inspirational in the Arsenal midfield and together covered for the miserably quiet Benayoun but Dortmund continued to press and press, with every turnover of possession resulting in an attack of blistering pace.

Dortmund welcome

The first booking of the game was to Schmelzer for a rash scissor challenge on Gervinho right on the edge of the Arsenal box – needless and fairly punished. Frimpong replaced the frequently absent Walcott in the 76th minute, pushing Benayoun on to the wing. Gotze, Kuba, Kagawa and Piszczek all had fruitless efforts on goal with Sagna recieving a booking for time-wasting around this time: it truly was all hands on deck going in to the final ten minutes with Subotic gathering the ball on the six yard line from a corner and firing it mercifully near Szczesny to keep the Gunners’ lead intact. Mohamed Zidan replaced Shinji Kagawa in the 85th minute and the inconsistent Marouane Chamakh took the place of leggy Arsenal captain Robin Van Persie in addition to Andre Santos making his Arsenal debut in place of Gervinho. A nothing free-kick was headed out by Kieran Gibbs but only to Perisic on the edge of the area, who volleyed into the top corner past a hopeless Szczesny to level the scoreline.

A huge cheer rose from the Dortmund fans when it was announced there would be four minutes added time and directly after Lewandowski was free in the area, only for Szczesny to make an epic dive at his feet to block; Koscielny made a last-ditch tackle of his own on Mohamed Zidan to stop the resurgent home side nicking a late win. Arteta set the bait for yet another foul from Sven Bender who was booked in the final minute of injury time wrapping up the game with a nearly perfect, but nonetheless great opening result for Arsenal; if we can defend this resolutely at home in addition to playing with more offensive impetus, we should have no problem clearing the group.