Match Report: Tale of Two Strikers as Arsenal Overcome Dortmund

Any team will hope a victory of any sort will kickstart a run of form. Coming into this game, Arsenal had failed to win any of their previous 3 games in all competitions, so 3 points here was crucial. This run began with the 3-3 draw with Anderlecht in the Champions League at the beginning of the month and included consecutive 2-1 defeats to Swansea City and Manchester United. A meeting with Borussia Dortmund, 1 of only 2 teams to still boast an unblemished record in Europe's elite competition coming into the encounter, was hardly ideal.

However, the Gunners took it all in their stride, opening the scoring inside 2 minutes. Yaya Sanogo was picked out by Santi Cazorla and the Frenchman was able to cooly slot between the legs of Roman Weidenfeller to net his first competitive goal since joining from Auxerre 18 months ago. Dortmund grew into the game and it took a fine Damián Martínez save to deny Henrikh Mkhitaryan to keep Arsenal ahead going into half time. The hosts appeared the more likely to add a second before Dortmund scored and after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain crashed an effort off the woodwork, the Gunners were duly rewarded for their exertions.

Alexis Sánchez has been one of the Premier League's players of the season so far and it was the Chilean who doubled Arsenal's advantage with a little over half an hour remaining. Cazorla fed Alexis, who excellently curled an effort past Weidenfeller. It was the 25-year-old's 4th Champions League goal, including qualifiers, at the Emirates this season.

Dortmund pressed timidly as the game wore on, but bar a late Adrian Ramos effort, did not look as though they would find a way past Martínez in the Arsenal goal. All in all, it was a deserved victory for the Gunners, who churned out a much improved performance after a month of underwhelming displays. Perhaps surprisingly, given Dortmund's approach to games, it was the away side who had more possession (48% to Arsenal's 52%) in Wednesday's Champions League meeting, but the German side struggled to make their time on the ball count.

In the absence of Marco Reus, who suffered an ankle injury in the 2-2 draw with Paderborn at the weekend, Die Schwarzgelben lacked the cutting edge in the European tie. Dortmund lined up in an uncharacteristic 4-4-2 formation, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Ciro Immobile leading the attack. Evidently, the onus was to heap further pressure on an Arsenal defence, which has looked labourous of late. However, Aubameyang and Immobile were both poor by their standards, earning respective WhoScored ratings of 6.27 and 5.86.

Prior to Arsenal's win, only Reus (8.87) had a better average rating in the Champions League of all Dortmund players than Aubameyang (8.28). Following the defeat in London, however, that figure dropped to 7.88. Perhaps the main shock in Dortmund's approach was Jurgen Klopp's decision not to line up in his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, with Aubameyang operating in the left wing position vacated by Reus in light of his injury. Calum Chambers was disappointing when Arsenal faced Swansea City prior to the international break, with Jefferson Montero continuously getting the better of the young defender, and one felt Aubameyang could do similar damage on Wednesday night.

However, the Gabon international was ineffective up against Per Mertesacker and Nacho Monreal, highlighted in that he failed to get a shot away prior to his 60th minute withdrawal. It was a far cry from the performance of Alexis, who excelled. The Chile international was once again the WhoScored man of the match (rating 8.60), the 4th time he has picked up the award in his last 8 competitive appearances.

Alexis on Wednesday night once again showed why Arsenal spent big to bring him to London this summer. The former Udinese and Barcelona star was a constant attacking menace throughout the 90 minutes, completing more successful dribbles (6) and winning more aerial duels (6) than any other player on the pitch. His performance, along with those of Sanogo and Cazorla, gives the Gunners a fighting chance of progressing to the last-16 stage of the competition as group winners.

Arsène Wenger, though, is less confident of topping Group D. "(There is a) 90% (chance) we will finish second and Dortmund first," the Frenchman said in his post match conference. The performance of his side against the Bundesliga outfit, coupled with Dortmund's lacklustre form, should give the Gunners belief they can qualify for the knockout stages as group winners, however.

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