Bayern Must Plan Without Olise as Arsenal Come to Munich

Bayern without their in-form winger for the visit of Arsenal

Bayern Munich must plan without Michael Olise for Wednesday's Champions League meeting with Arsenal, with the French winger ruled out of the fixture at the Allianz Arena. The news, confirmed in the build-up to the third round of the league phase, robs Bayern of one of the most in-form wide players in Europe at the worst possible moment.

The timing could hardly be worse

Olise has five Bundesliga goals to his name this season and sits among the division's leading scorers after six rounds, carrying much of Bayern's creative weight from the right flank. Facing Arsenal — last season's Champions League finalists, to Bayern's beaten semi-finalists — without him forces a rethink of the shape behind the front line and puts the onus on the rest of the attacking group to stretch a defence that has kept three straight clean-sheet-winning runs going.

Opposition in form, hosts short

The opposition arrive with momentum. Arsenal, the reigning Premier League champions, ground out a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest on Sunday — Noni Madueke's 80th-minute deflected strike their only shot on target — to make it three straight wins since the international break. Goalkeeper David Raya called the response to last month's defeat by Brighton "incredible", and the champions then travel to Munich before hosting Everton at the weekend.

What Bayern's team sheet loses

Olise's absence is a team-news problem with knock-on effects. Without the wide-right outlet that has driven Bayern's best attacking moves this season, the question for the hosts is whether to push a forward into that channel or restructure the midfield to create from deeper areas against an Arsenal side that closes space quickly. Bayern's Bundesliga form has kept pace at the top of the table; Wednesday is the first marquee fixture where they must solve it without their chief creator.

The exact nature of Olise's absence and his expected return date have not been specified; the immediate fact is the one that matters for Wednesday — Bayern v Arsenal, no Olise.