Arsenal’s meeting with Bayern Munich and Harry Kane is a litmus test in Europe for a team playing ugly football, writes IAN LADYMAN – as David Raya fires back at ‘boring’ critics

It is 144 days since Arsenal came within a couple of bad penalties of winning the Champions League Final in Budapest.

Manager Mikel Arteta still hasn’t got over it.

‘I have tried but when I see the ball and the music I realise how much I still want it so badly,’ he said here last night.

In terms of his players, perhaps the biggest test since that early summer defeat to PSG comes on Wednesday in Bavaria. Bayern Munich have lost just once at home since last April and not anywhere so far this season.

A meeting with Bayern and Harry Kane rightly stands as some kind of litmus test of progress. Arteta said after last season’s disappointment that his team had to evolve yet here we are in mid-autumn with similar themes at play.

Sunday’s win at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League came courtesy of one shot on target and that in itself a deflection. It was a dreary and rather ugly way to win. Arsenal are our English champions but don’t always seem to play like them.

Arteta made light of it all as he sat and talked at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday evening but his goalkeeper David Raya did not.

Does – he was asked by Daily Mail Sport – the criticism of Arsenal’s style irritate the dressing room or not?

‘No it doesn’t,’ Raya said.

‘People have their own opinions. We have our own opinion.

‘At the end of the day, we have lost one game in eleven this season and if you call that boring or irritating, I don’t know what to say.

‘We enjoy playing football. We enjoy going out there every single day to win football matches and that’s the most important thing.’

That game in Budapest last May ended with Arsenal having seen only 25 per cent of the ball. That’s the kind of number we expect to see when, say, Manchester City face Burnley at home.

Again Raya was happy to engage on the subject and the argument he presented was not without its merits.

Asked whether Arsenal are confident of imposing themselves more successfully on the best European teams this season, he said: ‘I think so. But you have to see that in perspective as well.

‘It was our first Champions League final in so many years and we score in the fifth minute and sit back a little bit knowing how good they are offensively. We didn’t want to give anything away.

‘It is different now. I think you can see the way we play, you can see the different ways of playing that we have.

‘I think we are more prepared this year than last year so hopefully we can keep that going.’

On Wednesday in Bavaria, Arsenal will face an opponent that at least wishes to play in their opponents’ half of the field. In the Premier League it is not always the way.

Equally, Arteta’s players have a European memory bank containing more than images of just one game against just one team. Arsenal beat Bayern at home last season. The season before they ran all over Real Madrid at the Emirates and then beat them in Spain, too.

When the mood takes them, they can run hot. The puzzle is – given the attacking talent at their disposal – why it doesn’t happen more often.

Wednesday may well be informative from that point of view while exactly what Arteta really feels about it is hard to know. The Spaniard is as inscrutable as they come in public but if he wasn’t motivated by the noise that tends to follow his team around then he wouldn’t be human.

On this occasion, he chose to approach the issue with a hint of deadpan and a little sarcasm.

‘I heard our style was incredible,’ he said.

‘Because we scored so many goals, we have had more possession, more shots, different players participating, no goals from set-pieces.

‘So the story is completely different to last year.

‘I think we are talking about a very small minority [who criticise] and the other ones they know they have enjoyed a lot the way we have played and dominated games this year.

‘I think we have proven that so that’s my opinion.

‘If you analyse all the top teams in England they all have a list [of criticism]. We all have a list because none of us are perfect.

‘Thank God that we are not perfect. Thank God that we can still improve even though we have won the amount of games that we have done because otherwise the next day, what do you do?

‘You just expect to be better than the opponent and that’s it. Especially in the Premier League we know that is very far from the reality.

‘I think on Sunday [at Forest], we could have done things better. And that’s in our hands. We need to recognise that openly as well.

‘But we did a lot of great things as well against a really tough opponent. Very, very well coached as well. And we did something that we didn’t manage to do two years in a row. So that’s another step. A really positive one. And then we’re done from it and we’re okay.’

Arsenal will face a Bayern team on Wednesday expected to be without coach Vincent Kompany on the sidelines. The former City defender has been struck by a virus that is impacting on his ability to walk and has been ordered by his doctors to rest.

Raya opened his part of the media proceedings by offering Kompany his best wishes and that was a nice and clearly pre-meditated touch.

In terms of the game, the nature of the competition’s league format makes these match-ups feel marginally less significant than they once did. But there is a bigger picture at play for this Arsenal team.

Opportunities for statement performances don’t come round very often in a Premier League where the low block is king. In Europe – at places like this – it is different. A win on Wednesday for Arsenal would mean more than Arteta is perhaps willing to admit.

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