Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger admits Bayern Munich are better than his side and has congratulated the Bavarians after they dished out a 5-1 thrashing to the Gunners in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie at the Allianz Arena.

Bayern Munich needed just 13 minutes to pull ahead on home turf when Arjen Robben hit a simply superb strike after running along the edge of the area, sending his effort into the top corner.




Arsenal were pinned back and offered little going forward until a dangerous free-kick from Mesut Ozil caused confusion in the Bayern Munich defence. And soon afterwards, Arsenal won a penalty after Robert Lewandowski tangled with Laurent Koscielny in the box.

And Alexis Sanchez drew the Gunners level in the 30th minute, but only after seeing Manuel Neuer save his effort from the penalty spot, swiping home after the ball was pushed out, and he initially missed it.
 


The visitors then had a golden opportunity to pull ahead just before half time when Ozil was through on Neuer, but sent his shot straight at the custodian.

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Arsenal lost Laurent Koscielny to injury in the 49th minute, while then ten minutes into the second half Bayern Munich took the lead, Lewandowski getting on the end of a Philipp Lahm cross. Then just two minutes later, it was 3-1 after Thiago drilled a shot into the back of the net following a neat move from the hosts.

Arsenal were reeling and it got worse in the 63rd minute with Thiago scoring again, hitting a long range effort which deflected off Granit Xhaka and into the goal.

A mistake by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain allowed Thomas Muller to make it five two minutes from time and Arsenal are all but out of the Champions League.

For Wenger, there was little to do other than admit Bayern Munich are the better team and he said on BT Sport: "It is difficult to explain. I felt we had two good chances to score just before half time.

"I felt we were unlucky for the second goal the referee gave a corner for us at first.

"Then we concede the second goal and then the most important was that we lost Koscielny. We collapsed.

"Overall I must say they are a better team than us.

"They played very well in the second half and we dropped our level.

"We were a bit unlucky we dropped our level and they were better than us", Wenger added.