by Mark Bassey

One would imagine Arsene Wenger and his players waking up still shell-shocked this morning. That is even if they were able to sleep.

The Gunners were stunned by Monaco on Wednesday night, in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 match.

A lot of fans and pundits had tipped Arsenal to get rid of the Ligue 1 outfit easily, but that was not to be the case, as Monaco exhibited a fine mastery of organisation and counter-attack.

“Arsenal have excellent individuals, but this is a team sport and we were able to render them harmless. We were very organised, but also able to attack with quality,” Leonardo Jardim, their coach, said.

“Nobody thought this was possible, and we did it. But the task in the second leg still remains.

“We’ve won nothing yet, we just took an advantage. Football is also art – you have to know how to attack, how to defend. My team is very balanced.”

Bull’s eye.

Although most of the players in a red and white shirt performed woefully on the night, Wenger could have made different substitutions to change the direction of the game.

Olivier Giroud was having a stinker. Mesut Ozil reverted to his clumsy old self. And Alexis Sanchez was blatantly unaware it was a knockout tie. But Wenger persisted with all three, only pulling out Giroud after he missed from six yards out.