It's time Arsenal got our revenge on Bayern Munich after those 5-1 humiliations 

Ahead of Arsenal's eagerly-awaited Champions League clash against Bayern Munich Tim Cooper gives you the lowdown on the Gunners Bundesliga opponents 

It’s fair to say Bayern are our bogey team in the Champions League, writes Tim Cooper.

We’ve played them nine times and never beaten them.

We did win three of the 14 individual games but lost them all on aggregate. And over the course of those games they’ve scored twice as many goals as us - 30 to our 15 - and put five past us three times in a row. 

It’s high time we got revenge.

At least we’re getting closer. The last time we faced Bayern in the 2023-24 quarter-finals, we outplayed the German champions in both legs, drawing 2-2 at home but losing by a single goal in Munich. At least we showed signs of improvement after those three consecutive 1-5 defeats, in 2016-17 and the previous year (after beating them 2-0 in the first leg).

We beat them by the same 2-0 scoreline at their place in 2012-13 but it wasn’t enough to overturn a 1-3 home defeat in the first leg and Bayern went through on away goals. Prior to that, they beat us over two legs in the Round of 16 in 2004-05, and in the Group Stage in 2000-01.

Not a great record then.

Bayern are without doubt a formidable force, having won 11 of the last 12 Budesliga titles (the only blip coming when Bayer Leverkusn won two years ago), effortlessly hoovering up all the best players from their rivals at the end of each season, hand-picking talent from foreign leagues (including our own) and regularly changing managers without any dip in their fortunes. 

The Bavarian powerhouse are currently managed by Vincent Kompany, whom they recruited straight from his relegation season with Burnley.

If that seemed risky after Thomas Tuchel had failed to bring them a 12th title in a row the previous season - despite the arrival of record signing Harry Kane to replace their goal machine Robert Lewandowski - it didn’t show. Bayern won their 34th German title in May with two games to spare.

In last season’s Champions League, the Germans enjoyed mixed fortunes, beating eventual winners PSG 1-0 in the League section - just as we beat them by 2-0 before being knocked out by them in the semi-final - but losing by the same scoreline to Aston Villa, but being thrashed 4-1 by Barcelona and 3-0 by Feyenoord, and only just sneaking past Celtic by a single goal after that.

In the knockout section they hammered German rivals Leverkusen 5-0 over two legs but were then knocked out by future finalists Inter, losing at home and only managing a draw in Milan.

Over the summer their transfer business has been modest: they’ve brought in Liverpool striker Luis Diaz for £60 million and raided their closest rivals Leverkusen - a regular show of their financial strength - to acquire Germany centre back Jonathan Tah and Hoffenheim’s teenage midfielder Tom Bischof. 

Their outgoings include the underwhelming Mathys Tel to Tottenham for a generous £30 million and winger Kingsley Coman - recently rumoured to be an Arsenal target - to Saudi club Al-Nassr, and several loans: Palinha to Spurs, Leroy Sane (also linked with Arsenal) to Galatasaray and former Spurs defender Eric Dier to Monaco.

Meanwhile Bayern and Germany legend Thomas Muller, whose snarling face haunted my nightmares after that hat-trick of five-goal humiliations, finally left the club after a record-breaking 756 matches across 17 seasons and has gone to Vancouver.

Clearly they remain a formidable opponent, led by their 39-year-old goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, whose forays far from his goal always seem to invite a lob from the halfway line but, sadly, rarely seem to concede as a result.

The rest of the squad is packed with internationals, from a defence that includes arguably the world’s best left-back in the speedy Alphonso “Roadrunner” Davies and vice-captain Joshua Kimmich, and a midfield in which former Palace and Reading starlet Michael Olise notched up 12 goals and 18 assists in his first season. Not to mention former Arsenal youngster Serge Gnabry and another former Arsenal kid playing upfront. 

Despite the absence until next year of their injured prodigy Jamal Musiala, once of Southampton and Chelsea in his youth, they’ve started this season like a runaway train, racking up a 6-0 victory in their opening game against rivals RB Leipzig.

Trivia fact: Bayern scored in 85 consecutive matches between February 2020 and October 2021 - a record for Europe’s top five leagues.