Milan mauling for Gunners

It may not have been a St Valentine’s Day massacre, coming 24 hours after the day romantics cherish most, but the way the Gunners were gunned down in the San Siro was nothing less than fatal for their Champions League hopes.

Despite the defiant words of Wojciech Szczesny, spoken more in hope than realism, that Arsenal can turn around a four-goal deficit at the Emirates Stadium in a fortnight’s time, the rest of the world knows that AC Milan sent Arsene Wenger’s side crashing out of the competition in humiliating fashion.

The Arsenal manager knows too. He admitted: “Statistically it is too big a deficit.