Key Takeaways from Arsenal's Loss to AS Monaco in Champions League

It wasn’t supposed to end this way for Arsenal. After years of drawing impossible round-of-16 fixtures in the UEFA Champions League, the Gunners were seemingly given a break by being paired with a Monaco side that has underwhelmed all season.

But in the home fixture, during which the Gunners were expected to dominate and possibly put the tie to bed before even heading to France, things went terribly wrong.

A 3-1 shocker against the Ligue 1 club leaves Arsenal in a familiar position, needing an almost impossible result in the second leg of the tie if there is to be any hope of advancing to the next round of the Champions League.

Here are some key takeaways from Wednesday’s Champions League match.

Olivier Giroud Isn’t Robin van Persie (and Probably Never Will Be)

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There were a lot of players who didn’t play up to potential in Wednesday’s loss for the Gunners. Whether it be defender Per Mertesacker or much-maligned midfielder Mesut Ozil, the 3-1 loss was a forgettable day for pretty much everyone involved with the north London club.

But if there is one player who can’t wait to get back on the pitch so as to wash himself clean of the awful performance, it is striker Olivier Giroud.

The Frenchman had been on a good run of form heading into the match, scoring five and assisting on three goals in the team's previous eight matches in all competitions.

However, he was atrocious against Monaco. Six shots, all of which were off target, and no real impact on the match saw him substituted on the hour mark for Theo Walcott.

Bought in the summer of 2012 and left with the unenviable task of replacing superstar Robin van Persie, Giroud has hit high points, but has never established into the consistent star the club needed him to be.

As The Daily Telegraph's Charlie Eccleshare points out, Giroud has performed well, but not when it matters most—against the best teams in England and Europe.

Surrounded by a number of world-class players, such as Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Santi Cazorla, Arsenal has to expect more from Giroud moving forward if the team is to take the big leap forward to one of the world’s best clubs.

The Battle for the 4th-Place Trophy Is in Full Effect

It was a running joke for years among those who weren’t very fond of Arsenal that the club, despite failing to earn a major trophy for nearly a decade, was taking home a different piece of hardware each and every year.

Coined by manager Arsene Wenger in 2012, the fourth-place trophy is a metaphorical prize given to the team that finishes fourth in the Premier League, thus earning a spot in the Champions League the following season.

It was a spot Arsenal found itself in almost every season, with the club never truly challenging for the title but never missing out on a spot in Europe’s most prestigious competition.

Although the club ended its trophy-less run last season with an FA Cup victory, the surprising loss to Monaco means it is time for focus to shift on earning a spot in the top four again this season.

Currently, the Gunners sit third in the league, but with four teams all within four points of Arsenal, there is no guarantee that the position will hold.

Arsenal does still have a shot at the FA Cup, and a good one at that without Chelsea or Manchester City in the competition, but a sixth-round draw against Manchester United is no walk in the park.

Arsenal is definitely talented enough to finish third, but if the European struggles find their way into domestic fixtures, it could prove a bit of an issue moving forward.

With the Exception of Chelsea, English Clubs Continue to Struggle in Europe

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Let's ignore Chelsea for a brief moment. Here is a comprehensive list of the teams eliminated in the knockout rounds of the Champions League by English clubs in the last four years.

Olympiacos by Manchester United in 2014.

That’s it, despite the rich history—and pockets for Manchester City—of English football. The only team that any non-Chelsea club has eliminated from the knockout rounds of the competition is the best team from the 13th-best league on the continent.

This is also assuming Arsenal isn’t able to turn around the 3-1 deficit it carries into the second leg against Monaco, a feat that hasn’t been done since the late 1960s by Ajax. City could take down Barcelona at the Camp Nou as well.

Sure, the list of teams that Arsenal, City and United have lost to is a who’s who of the best teams in the world—Barcelona, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Real Madrid—but this is still considered the best domestic league in the world, and you expect to take on the best in the Champions League.

While Chelsea has claimed the title, been to the semifinals and is in a decent position to advance this year against Paris Saint-Germain, it doesn’t make up for the English struggles in this competition in the last half-decade.

The money is there, the players are there and the coaches are there, but something is still missing for English clubs in the Champions League. That will remain until one of the teams takes another step forward.