Arsene Wenger wore a black suit and looked for all the world like a bank manager who’d wandered into the wrong building when he briefly ventured out from his seat during the difficult early knockings of another torrid night in Munich. He slapped his hips at some indiscretion or other on his players’ part. This man did not seem to belong to the febrile space where Champions League trophies are claimed.

The impression was compounded when it had all ended and he arrived, looking like a broken man, to discuss the defeat. Wenger meandered through a half-hearted explanation – essentially, the loss of Laurent Koscielny – but had to concede that his players were “mentally jaded” and that the last 25 minutes had been “a nightmare.”

Answers breed further questions at junctures like this: such as, how a team can be psychologically bereft on the most significant night of their season? Wenger didn’t have the stomach for that. He seemed to have made an arrangement with Arsenal’s communications director, Mark Gonnella, that they wouldn’t be hanging around.

After two minute and 50 seconds, Gonnella called time and the two men leaped to their feet and marched out of the room.

It was hard to feel angry or indignant about the manager having no predisposition to talk. It was pathos which accompanied Wenger out of this place last night; melancholy that an individual who has delivered so much to his club and his sport is caught on a carousel of defeat. It’s about 18 months since Arsenal lost 5-1 on their last visit here. A very basic statistical extrapolation tells us the team are flatlining in failure.

Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Show all 22 1 /22 Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Manuel Neuer – 6 out of 10 Lucky not to be punished when he spilled Ozil’s first-half free-kick. Got down well to Sanchez’s penalty, perhaps should have stopped the rebound. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Philip Lahm – 7 out of 10 Weighted the cross for Lewandowski’s goal perfectly. Will miss the second leg after picking up a booking. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Javi Martinez – 7 out of 10 Looked uneasy when Arsenal’s forwards could run at him before the break, but was protected by his team’s dominance of possession afterwards. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Mats Hummels – 8 out of 10 Assured at the centre of Bayern’s defence, but in truth was rarely troubled. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings David Alaba – 7 out of 10 Took a while to ease himself into the game but won his battle with Bellerin decisively. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Xabi Alonso – 7 out of 10 Failed to exert his usual influence in the first half, and should have done better to stop Sanchez’s effort, but was instrumental once Bayern started to move through the gears. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Arturo Vidal – 6 out of 10 A quieter influence on the game than his Bayern team-mates, but had little to contend with in the middle of the park. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Arjen Robben – 9 out of 10 His simply stunning strike in the opening exchanges set the tone for the evening. A reminder why he has been one of the continent’s best over the past decade. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Thiago – 8 out of 10 An excellent display was capped off with two sweet goals. Eased the ball past Ospina for Bayern’s third, slightly fortunate for his second. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Douglas Costa – 5 out of 10 Bayern’s only real disappointment of the night, he failed to fizz and crackle like the rest of their forward talents. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Robert Lewandowski – 8 out of 10 Somewhat unlucky to concede the penalty, but atoned with a magnificent header to put his side back in front. His assist for Thiago was even better. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings David Ospina – 6 out of 10 Improved after a nervy start, and despite conceding five, stopped Bayern on several occasions. Produced one brilliant save to deny Martinez. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Hector Bellerin – 4 out of 10 Still looking bang out-of-sorts, the young Spaniard offered none of the invention and threat we have come to expect. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Shkodran Mustafi – 5 out of 10 No contest for Lewandowski, who used him as a climbing frame for Bayern’s second. Looked more comfortable with Koscielny as a partner. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Laurent Koscielny - 7 out of 10 Looked excellent early on and did well to win the penalty. His departure through injury at the start of the second half was the harbinger of Arsenal’s collapse. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Kieran Gibbs – 4 out of 10 Left-back continues to prove a problem area for Arsenal. Robben had it all his own way. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Francis Coquelin – 4 out of 10 Elected to stand off Robben rather than get tight, allowing the opening goal to fly past him. Recovered, but utterly over-ran by Bayern’s midfield after the break. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Granit Xhaka – 5 out of 10 Forced Neuer into action with a well-taken first-time shot from the edge of the box in the first half. It was his only real moment of note. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Alex Iwobi – 4 out of 10 A quiet night for the youngster. Substituted after Bayern’s fourth goal, replaced by Theo Walcott. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Mesut Ozil – 5 out of 10 Missing in action, once again. Could have punished Bayern when he broke in behind in the closing stages of the first half but ran down a blind alley. Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 4 out of 10 Failed to justify his surprise selection on the left-flank, rarely troubling Lahm. Getty Bayern 5 Arsenal 1 player ratings Alexis Sanchez – 7 out of 10 Kept running into brick walls until the penalty. His initial effort was poor but showed composure to guide the ball home at the third time of asking.

This might well prove to be the night which brings the curtain down on Wenger’s long and frustrated search for a European trophy, though he has certainly been coming here for long enough to know where his side’s deficits reside and to do something about them. That mental failing is precisely what he talked about before leaving the city 12 years ago, after a 3-1 defeat. "I don’t know if it’s down to psychological reasons or physical reasons,” he said that night. “What do you expect me to say? I could cry - it would be easier - but life goes on.”

There was an initial challenge of sorts on Wednesday night. Koscielny did offer a robust barrier to Robert Lewandowski and his departure was significant, not least because the absence of Petr Cech, whom Wenger had steadfastly kept on the bench, removed the alternative organiser. But it really only felt like time had been suspended since the teams' last meeting here.

The English side’s left was the flank the Germans targeted: a place where Arjen Robben versus Kieran Gibbs was a match made in Munich heaven. Wenger’s players tried doubling up on Robben by putting Granit Xhaka there but it made little difference. Bayern danced around the back on the overlap and Robben danced towards the extreme right edge of the Arsenal box. He had buried the ball into the high reaches of David Ospina’s net before as much as a solitary challenge had been placed. ‘Red and White Kings’, one of the banners on the north stand states. It didn’t take royalty to crash though these defences.

It was not just the despair but the momentary hope that proved devastating. This was not a vintage Bayern and for 20 minutes or so after the clock ticked past 9pm here, we saw that slight drop-off in German intensity that comes with a more benign manager. It offered Arsenal a shaft of light in the depths of a very black tunnel. Alexis Sanchez, the one player on the level Arsenal need to occupy, seized upon it like a man possessed.



The threat he posed and penalty he scored were only fragments of the story. Sanchez raged with the referee, was booked, raged some more and was pushed away by his captain. At the end he crouched alone, pitch side, looking for all the world a man who wants away, to a club with more ambition than this.

You wondered when the second half began, at 1-1, whether there might be a way of finding the intensity to turn the screw on Bayern and start to make them suffer. The pace of Danny Welbeck going at Hummels sprang to mind.

Instead, when we reached the defining minutes of one of those nights on which seasons hinge, Arsenal conceded again to a transparently obvious threat that all of football had been talking about, these past few days. A delicately lifted cross from Philipp Lahm was the only requirement for Lewandowski to rise above Shkodean Mutsafi and score. The Lewandowski heel was the axis of the third goal. Even the careworn Thomas Muller joined the party by the end.