First half good...
Arsenal
It was supposed to be a tricky one this, but they made Napoli look ordinary. Breathtaking stuff in the opening 15 minutes as they passed the Italians off the park, and by the time Giroud had made it 2-0 the game was over. Mesut Ozil set it up, obviously, it’s said that he even assisted the nurses with his own birth… And he opened his own account too! Aaron Ramsey’s still fit and looking like a world-beater, the defence is still looking solid, no howlers from Szcezsny either. It’s a golden age, folks.
Chelsea
A straightforward win with some much-needed fluency and cohesion to their play. Funny how it took having Juan Mata playing alongside him to make Andre Schurrle look worthy of the Spaniard’s place in the side, mind. Can Mourinho just admit the little fella is brilliant and move on now?
You have to feel for Fernando Torres though, just as he looks like he might be finding a bit of form, he gets sent off in one game and injured in the next. That leaves just Eto’o and Ba in the fit striker parade, if only they’d kept hold of Lukaku eh?
Ryan Giggs
Leaving aside questions of whether he should have been brought on, and how much Moyes seems to be over-reliant on him, Giggs has now made 145 Champions League appearances. That’s a new record, one more that Raul’s 144. Extraordinary.
Second half, not so good...
Joe Hart
He was at fault for at least two of Bayern’s goals last night but this spell of poor form has been going on for over a year now. Luckily for him, the competition for his City and England jerseys is scarce. Ben Foster is still out with a broken foot and with so much riding on next week’s qualifiers, Roy Hodgson is unlikely to take a gamble on the untried Fraser Forster or John Ruddy, despite their impressive club form. Constel Pantilimon and Richard Wright aren’t exactly credible alternatives for Manuel Pellegrini either, might he look to strengthen in January?
Man City
A consolation goal and some signs of life late on, but for the majority of last night’s game it was easy for Bayern. That’s not to say a City win was expected, and the upcoming double-header against CSKA was always going to determine their fate in this group, it’s just that after spending so many hundreds of millions they ought to have come a bit closer.
David Moyes
Him again. A draw in Donetsk is nothing to be ashamed of, it’s more the manner of it that’s concerning. After going ahead early on, the United of old would have pushed on and added to their tally. Not last night though, with Shakhtar taking the initiative in the second half, all Moyes had to offer was swapping Marouane Fellaini (the creator of the goal) with Ryan Giggs, who’s 40 next month. Meanwhile, Nani, Young, Hernandez and Kagawa all remained on the bench, with the only other change coming in the 92nd minute when Phil Jones replaced Welbeck. The manager was happy to come away with a point, he shouldn’t have been.
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