Borussia Dortmund vs. Arsenal: 5 Things We Learned About the Gunners

As Ivan Perisic ripped an incredible volley into the top corner in the 88th minute, breaking the hearts of Arsenal fans everywhere, Borussia Dortmund celebrated as they rightly should have—they had salvaged a deserved draw from a very exciting match.

While Arsenal almost managed to brush over the glaring faults and lack of consistent quality in their squad with another desperate and labored victory similar to those against Udinese and Swansea before them, the Gunners were deservedly held to one point.

The match was thoroughly exciting though, despite the fact that the wrong team provided the excitement.

Here are five things we learned from an exciting draw, both positive and negative—but mostly negative, after a match like this.

Enjoy.

Arsenal Tend to Start Slowly

Arsenal seems to be setting a pattern of starting matches very slowly before finally getting into gear and holding their own.

Against Dortmund, the Gunners were thoroughly dominated in the first fifteen minutes, but after a half an hour, they were retaining more possession and fashioning considerably more chances.

Another perfect example of this pattern was Arsenal's away match against Udinese. The boys in red and white were steamrolled for the opening minutes of the game, only to come back and beat the Italians 2-1.

While it is still apparent that the side is deficient in certain areas, namely at left back with Kieran Gibbs, Arsenal are showing the ability to use their maturity to not get completely overwhelmed by a slow start against a determined side and fight their way back into games.

Arsenal still need to correct the problem this problem, as it will come back to bite them sooner or later.

The Gunners' resilience in nevertheless encouraging.

Robin Van Persie Is Back

Compared to the impossibly high standards he set for himself last year, our new captain was not quite playing up to his quality. And, as Arsenal's best player, goals and assists from our flying Dutchman are vital.

Van Persie truly worked his tail off tonight, linking up with midfielders and forwards, tracking back to help in defence, and most importantly, scoring a cool goal with his "chocolate leg" to make the score 1-0 to the Arsenal.

Though he was substituted for Marouane Chamakh, he certainly put in a good shift as our lone striker, as he looks to build his form whilst not getting himself injured.

Indeed, this will be crucial to an Arsenal team that is still lacking in creativity, as well as the ability to keep possession of the ball for long enough periods to create chances and goals.

Gervinho Still Needs to Improve Significantly

Many Arsenal fans were extremely excited to see Gervinho return to the Arsenal squad, having not seem him since his solid display against Udinese because of his Joey Barton-instigated domestic ban.

Well, after this match, I'm not sure I'm excited to see him return to the fold quite so quickly.

While I hold the player in the highest regard—and I believe he will rise to become an extremely important member of the squad in time—it is clear that he has a tremendous amount of work to do and coaching to listen to before he approaches that level.

Time and again, the Ivorian would attempt to finesse and dribble his way past an opponent instead of looking for a pass—any pass—and helping the team retain possession. Nearly every time he was stymied.

Gervinho certainly shows a good amount of potential, but he still needs a large amount of adaptation and coaching to be a consistent contributor to an ambitious Arsenal team.

Alex Song Is Immense

One of the only bright spots to be taken from a poor display overall from Arsenal was the tremendous play of Alex Song, who was my Man of the Match.

Every time the Germans created a dangerous move or forayed into the Arsenal penalty area (which seemed like every single minute of the second half), Song was there to make a heroic last-ditch stop.

The best tackle in a long line of amazing efforts was his stop on play-maker Mario Gotze as he waltzed into the penalty area and cocked his leg to shoot from a mere six yards out.

If it was not for the massive Cameroonian, Arsenal may well have lost on the night, and perhaps not by a small margin, either.

While I am not quite so eager to embrace Gervinho back into the squad, I cannot open my arms enough to welcome Alex Song back into the heart of the Arsenal midfield.

Arsenal Need to Start Playing with Quality

Let's face it: Arsenal's new style of living on the edge of a draw while they cling to a one-goal lead like their collective lives depend on it is a result of the fact that there is a distinct lack of quality in the squad.

Arsenal may have held it together for the latter portion of the first half and some parts of the second half, but they were, for the most part, thoroughly dominated by a fantastic Borussia Dortmund side.

This is an absolutely incredible statistic: Arsenal, a side that always owns the majority of possession even in losses, conceded 57 percent of the ball to Dortmund.

We've seen it before against Udinese in both legs, against Manchester United to a horrific extent, and, most pathetically, against Swansea three days ago.

Arsenal simply fall apart and end up having to battle a tsunami of pressure for minutes on end.

It is a testament to the side that they have not conceded more, I guess, but no team can live on a knife's edge as perilous as this and expect to come away with any measure of success in any competition.