Three things we learned from Arsenal's Champions League exit at the hands of Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.

Here's Alan Alger's essential column in the aftermath of Mikel Arteta's KO this week

Squad management is the next lesson the boss needs to learn…

It’s clear we need to rotate more in the easier matches we might encounter.

Or indeed when we are sufficiently ahead in games.

One valid criticism of Mikel Arteta after last night’s European exit, is that he hasn’t got this part right.

He hasn’t always got this wrong either, let’s just be clear.

But you do need to tick all the boxes across a long season. It’s easy in hindsight, but the players do look tired and the back-up players don’t look as if they’re up to speed.

It’s a frustrating combination.

There is another element too.

Some of the fringe players are simply not good enough. We’ve found this out on numerous occasions over the last few years.

I get the feeling that Arteta had a three phase plan for squad management and delivering that third section is at the top of his in-tray for the summer.

Phase one was ridding the squad of bad apples. Regardless of talent these guys had to go. They were on easy street from the latter Wenger days and the attitude became almost contagious.

Phase two was to add exceptional talent to the good apples that remained in the ranks. We’ve completed that (barring a decent striker).

Phase three this coming June and July is to discard those fringe players who have served our transition periods well.

Build a bench and beyond of players you can rely on. The more versatile the better.

Let’s not return to the dark days of players being rated for not being in the team…

Between about 2007 and 2017 the best place for an Arsenal player to have a good performance was well away from the pitch.

The team would get a bad result and fans would suddenly clamour for players who missed out. For instance ‘if player x had been fit then we’d surely have performed much better today’.

The following week that player might make an appearance and no difference to the team and then you’d get ‘if player y had been playing today we’d surely have won’ etc etc.

None of these statements took into account the relative performance of those players prior to their absence.

This past week we’ve seen players like Thomas Partey lauded for what he might have offered in certain situations, despite all evidence showing he’s off the pace at the moment.

Other players have also been within a clamour for changes, without having much evidence backing up their inclusion.

Most sensible fans are now aware of how each player fits into the following buckets.

Vital, first team, valuable squad player, one for the future, get rid.

Let’s hope Mikel has the right names in the right groups.

Reactions matter, both players and fans…

We owe it to ourselves, the players and the manager not to overreact after results like last night.

However disappointing the final outcome, this was a narrowly won cup tie over two legs in which we had both good and bad periods.

The way both games played out it wouldn’t have been unrealistic to take Bayern into extra-time last night or indeed be the beneficiaries of a 1-0 win. It just wasn’t to be.

This absolutely isn’t like going there and losing 5-1 or 10-2 on aggregate.

Those days hopefully are consigned to the past and not in our near future either.

It’s fine to be disappointed and to call out bad performances or decisions too.

Some of the overreaction from the usual places had to be expected, but was mostly unwarranted.

It’s time to look at the following week as a run of cup finals culminating in a game against that lot down the road.

They’ve been poor this season and if we had a fully fit and fresh squad I think we’d be in for a big win - their usual style will play into our hands.

Unfortunately we go there after a gruelling month, while they’ve been resting.

I still fancy our chances although we must beat Wolves and Chelsea for any of it to be of note!

The players have been challenged by Mikel to react right.

We must do that too, whatever the result.