Thomas Tuchel makes bold Arsenal prediction as he concludes the ‘title is over’

Arsenal kept their title hopes very much alive on Sunday with a draw away at Manchester City but their Champions League opponents Bayern Munich weren’t as lucky

Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel backs his side to knock Arsenal out of the Champions League despite conceding their hopes of the Bundesliga title are over.

The reigning Bundesliga champions were beaten at home by Borussia Dortmund on Saturday to drop 13 points adrift of league leaders Bayer Leverkusen with just seven games remaining. It’s a stark contrast with Arsenal, who sit two points off the Premier League summit after drawing at Manchester City while rivals Liverpool ground out a win against Brighton.

While it might be over for Bayern domestically, that’s far from the case in Europe. Tuchel’s team finished top of their group with 16 points from a possible 18 before overturning a first-leg deficit against Lazio in the round of 16.

Standing between them and a Champions League semi-final is Arsenal. The Gunners only scraped through by the narrowest of margins, beating Porto on penalties in the last round, and Tuchel remains optimistic despite his team’s league hopes disappearing.

“Yes, of course,” Tuchel said when asked if the title race was over. “This is clear. Naturally, I have no hope anymore. No no no. After today’s game, I do not need to tell you anything more. How many points behind are we? 13?” Congratulations to Leverkusen.”

Still, he remained hopeful of Champions League success, something he achieved with Chelsea in 2021. “That is not the first time that it happens to us and it’s not the first time we could bounce back with a crazy good performance,” the German said.

“That is basically the hope. It’s a bit strange but that is actually it. If we are honest, we could not have to guarantee that if we perform today at highest level that we do this again at Heidenheim.”

“This is our point for many, many months,” Tuchel added. “We struggle to find this consistency. So today we didn’t find and now we prepare for Heidenheim. We are able to beat Arsenal even if today this is hard to believe. We have very different performances within a short period of time so this is not new to us.”