Arsene Wenger slammed an ‘extremely poor’ defensive display from his Arsenal side after their 5-1 Championship League destruction by Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.
Defeat left their hopes of Group F qualification dangling by a thread; they sit on three points alongside Dinamo Zagreb and six points off pace-setters Bayern and Olympiakos with two games left.
Having beaten Bayern at the Emirates Stadium a fortnight ago, the Gunners brought a decent record to Germany only to be blown away by one of Europe's super-powers.
Robert Lewandowski needed just ten minutes to head the hosts in front before a brace for Thomas Muller and goals from David Alaba and substitute Arjen Robben wrapped up a convincing 5-1.
"I believe first you have to give credit to Bayern for their quality and on top of that we made things quite easy for them with our defensive performance," said a clearly frustrated Wenger.
"We were extremely poor defensively and were not at the races.
“The funny thing was that when we went forward every time we looked like we could create chances but with a defensive performance like that you are going nowhere.
"My memory is not good enough to tell you in 19 years if it is not the worst performance.
"It will certainly not remain in my memory for anything positive.
He continued: "There is still a chance to qualify, Olympiacos have to lose here, we have to beat Zagreb and then beat Olympiakos in Olympiakos; there is a small chance but it is a real one.
"We have to realise with the kind of performance we had here that our chance is at a minimum."
Wenger's cause was not helped here as both Hector Bellerin and Laurent Koscielny were ruled out with injuries.
And the two players drafted into the Gunners defence were found wanting.
Gabriel partnered Per Mertesacker at the heart of the defence but played Lewandowski onside for the opener while Mathieu Debuchy completely missed a Philipp Lahm cross that led to Muller doubling the lead.
And Wenger was in no mood to sugar-coat his side's deficiencies at the back as he saw Arsenal suffer their heaviest Champions League defeat in their history.
A north London derby at home to rivals Tottenham on Sunday could prove the perfect tonic for the Gunners boss and his players as they look to keep up the pace at the top of the Premier League.
The Frenchman is focused now on that fixture, although he did admit his players may suffer psychologically after this drubbing.
"No matter how many we have, we have to give it all for a chance to qualify," he added.
"Anyway we now focus on the championship on Sunday and turn up with a different performance; we are in a strong position in the league because if we play like we did today we are going nowhere.
“Bellerin I don't think will be available for Sunday and Koscielny has a small chance.
“From this match we have no more injuries, apart from in their heads we have no more injuries."
