Borussia Dortmund kicked off their Champions League campaign in perfect fashion on Tuesday night with a resounding 2-0 win over Arsenal in the opening heavyweight duel of Group D.Jurgen Klopp's side were just about favourites for a game that many considered an even contest between two teams with plenty to prove in this year's competition.Yet, as we now know, it was Arsene Wenger's team who finished the match with more questions than answers.What was perhaps so obvious to fans and neutrals alike was the glaring inefficiencies in the Premier League side's game and just how Dortmund were able to simply pick them off over the course of the 90 minutes.Klopp's Bundesliga side were excellent, but Arsenal were certainly just as poor. No cover in Arsenal's midfieldThe major flaw in Arsenal's setup on Tuesday night was the total lack of cover between the midfield and their defensive line.It's a problem that has plagued Arsenal for some time; Wenger's side were completely undone for the first and second goals by Dortmund's smart and comprehensive buildup play.The first goal came from Ciro Immobile picking up a cleared ball in the middle of the pitch with no Arsenal opponents in sight. There the Italian forward turned and ran straight at a nervous Laurent Koscielny and ultimately found himself in the Arsenal box before anything resembling a challenge came his way.As we can see from the Squawka graphic above, Dortmund based most of their buildup play in front of the Arsenal box, where they clearly found plenty of space and time to pull their opponents apart.If Arsenal had just one defensive midfielder in the team on Tuesday night, things may have turned out a little differently.Yet they didn't. And instead of a midfielder who could have got stuck in and controlled Henrikh Mkhitaryan's continuous runs into the Arsenal box, Wenger had just Jack Wilshere and Mikel Arteta; two players who simply couldn't keep tabs on Dortmund's midfield runners.A right-back who wasn't up to the taskOne of the surprise decisions by Wenger ahead of such a tight affair was the inclusion of Hector Bellerin. The 19-year-old is a product of Arsenal's famous production line but one who simply wasn't up to scratch against one of Europe's most prolific attacking sides.The young Spaniard looked fine in attack, but it was when Dortmund focused on his defensive gamethrough committedleft-winger Kevin Grosskreutz and left-back Marcel Schmelzerwe finally began to see cracks in the North London club's defense.To almost add insult to injury, Wenger's decision to play none other than Mesut Ozila player who certainly doesn't exactly track back and help his full-backin front of thefledglingtalent essentially condemned him tochasing shadows for the duration of the night.Slow buildup play from ArsenalWhen you play Klopp's Dortmund teams, you have to expect to have a side full of young, hungry players who will be in your face for the entire 90 minutes.Someone clearly forgot to tell Wenger or his attacking players that, as the Arsenal attack fell apart time and time again through a total lack of awareness against the strong, bullying German defence.Most notable for such crimes were Wilshere and Alexis Sanchez, who continuously gave the ball away whenever they found themselves swamped by the pillaging gang of Dortmund's defensive midfield.As seen above, we have a graphic from Squawka which shows just how many times Dortmund were able to turn the ball over just in front of their box.Klopp clearly made a point of flooding the midfield with two defensive midfielders on the pitch at all times, and it worked wonders as this defensive sheet picked off Arsenal's laboured attacking over and over again.At the end of the day it was Dortmund who drew first blood in a game that they really should have won by a much stronger margin than just two goals. Arsenal looked sloppy, tired and ultimately at odds with what a relatively understrength Bundesliga side showed before them.@SbienkowskiRead more World Football news on BleacherReport.com
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