A few weeks ago, Mikel Arteta called February the key month of Arsenal's season. So far, it has led to elimination from the FA Cup, and after being thoroughly outclassed by Bayern Munich, it appears the same will happen in the Champions League.

Wojciech Szczesny - 5 – Could have done better with Daniel Van Buyten's header that led to Bayern's second goal, but otherwise was pretty blameless, although he did flap badly at a corner in the second half.

Bacary Sagna - 6 – Wasn't helped by having to patrol the right flank on his own, but struggled to make an impact going forward. His crossing was poor, and he was closed down quickly when in possession. Got caught the wrong wide of Mario Mandzukic for the killer third goal.

Per Mertesacker – 4 – His strong early season form appears to have deserted him. He was unable to deal with Mandzukic all game, and often got dragged out of position, leading to a “house of cards” effect in Arsenal's back line.

Laurent Koscielny - 6 – Was forced to do a lot of covering for Mertesacker and Thomas Vermaelen, and did well to cut out a series of Bayern crosses. However, he was unable to cut out Phillipp Lahm's assist for Mandzukic's goal.

Thomas Vermaelen - 5 – Always surprised how uneasy the captain looks as a left-back, as he seems to have all the tools to do the job. Struggled with the movement of both Mandzukic and Thomas Muller (and latterly Arjen Robben) all night. Also offered little when going forward.

Mikel Arteta - 6 – He comfortably had more passes (110) than any of his teammates, and while a better presence in the second-half, he was unable to control the tempo of the contest. At times looked out of his depth when up against the likes of Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez.

Aaron Ramsey - 5 – A performance full on energy, but lacking in nous. His defensive positioning still needs a lot of work, as evinced by Kroos goal. He also gave the ball away far too often – a pass accuracy of 78% is nowhere near good enough. Did a lot of unsung work down the right to try and help out Sagna.

Jack Wilshere - 6 – Produced his now trademark display of driving dribbles and prompting passes. However, a lot of his runs led to him either being dispossessed or fouled (often without getting a free-kick), and his through-balls to Walcott came to naught. Gave everything he could, but looked to be targeted in advance by the Bayern midfield.

Santi Cazorla - 5 – He was another one to run himself into the ground, often trying to find space in between the lines. However, this meant it left Arsenal short in defensive areas. This would have been fine if the Spaniard had managed to create problems for Bayern, but that didn't materialise as he was dispossessed 5 times. His failure to track Lahm for the third goal was costly.

Theo Walcott - 5 – This rating may be a bit harsh. While he made little impact on the Bayern defence, this was in large part to having next to no service. Some of his teammates treated him as if he was Andy Carroll, having nothing but a series of long balls to deal with. In hindsight, he would have been better starting out wide.

Lukas Podolski - 5 – While the German deserves credit for showing his finishing instincts, scoring Arsenal's only goal, Podolski's impact was otherwise negligible. In the battle between him and his national teammate, Phillipp Lahm, Germany's captain had “Poldi” in his pocket for most of the match.

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Tomas Rosicky – n/a – Was a lively presence when coming on, starting the move that almost led to Olivier Giroud scoring with his first touch. He may be worth a starting place against Aston Villa on the weekend.

Olivier Giroud – n/a – Had an effort from Manuel Neuer well saved, which would have brought the scores level. He probably would have given Van Buyten and Dante more of a test than Walcott.

Sometimes – as we saw on Saturday – a team that's weaker on paper can get a good result against more established opponents. However, that requires the “stronger” team to underperform, and the “weaker” team to play near their optimum.

Neither happened, and as such, Bayern Munich were always going to win, as they have better players, and are a better team.

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