Arsenal slammed by German press after Bayern Munich rout

North London may be waking up to a nasty hangover, but Munich is still delirious after Bayern's 5-1 hammering of Arsenal. Few in Germany expected Bayern to lose on Wednesday night. But very few indeed expected them to win so convincingly. This was, by some distance, the most impressive performance that Bayern have managed this season. In a year in which they have at times looked clunky, this was the first time the team had been so ruthless, so irresistible. 'I'm a little surprised myself at how good we were,' admitted Arjen Robben after the match. 'But it just shows that we always turn up when it really matters.' Some, like Arturo Vidal, had promised before the match that fans would see the 'true Bayern' against Arsenal. Having delivered on that promise, the team's praises are now being sung from the rooftops. 'Bayern were unchained,' wrote the Munich Abendzeitung. 'Against their favourite opponent Arsenal, they put in their best performance of the season, and can now dream of winning the treble.' For many, the performance was proof that coach Carlo Ancelotti has the capacity to deliver in the big games.  The perfectionism of Pep Guardiola may be gone, but the pragmatism of Ancelotti seems suddenly to be working. 'This game proves it: the Champions League is Ancelotti's competition,' wrote Bild.  The sneaking suspicion that Ancelotti would lead Bayern to European glory is a now no longer sneaking. It is transforming into an expectation. Yet there was not just praise for Bayern's revitalising performance. Many in Germany were also left scratching their heads at Arsenal's capitulation. 'Arsenal were simply overrun in the second half,' said Bild, while TZ remarked that the Gunners had 'retreated very quickly into their shells.' On the live ticker of popular magazine 11 Freunde, the headline by the end of the night simply read: 'cannon fodder'. 'We are not sure whether to laugh or cry,' the 11 Freunde writers wrote of Arsenal's abject performance. Mesut Ozil came in for particular criticism from the German press, with almost every single publication giving him the lowest popular rating and tearing into his apparent lack of motivation. 'Ozil was excessively disappointing,' wrote Abendzeitung. 'He has faced a lot of criticism in England recently, and he was a shadow of his usual self.' Arsenal, in general, were a shadow of what most of the Germans had expected them to be. As Mats Hummels remarked after the game: 'they just seemed to lose all their belief after we made it 3-1.' Above all, though, this was a night for celebration in Munich. In the midst of what has been a curious, at times sleepy season for Germany's biggest club, Wednesday night may have been the long expected awakening of the beast in Bayern's belly.