Harry Kane shackled by old rivals Arsenal on rare night to forget for Bayern Munich talisman | OneFootball

Former Tottenham hero failed to register a single shot in a 90-minute outing against the Gunners for the first time in his career

The England captain was suitably shackled in Wednesday’s prestige Champions League fixture against Arsenal, though his Bayern team-mates did not exactly keep up their side of the bargain, either.

Arsenal “have won every game in the Champions League for a reason”, Kane said on Tuesday. Until Wednesday, so had Bayern, “one of the favourites [to win the competition]”, according to Kane. That may need reassessing.

Kane has freely admitted that the era of set-piece percentages means watching the Premier League is not as enjoyable as it used to be, so Arsenal supporters, plenty of whom booed the former Spurs man whenever he touched the ball, will have delighted in the fact it was a corner that earned them the game’s first goal with its very first effort on target. Bukayo Saka’s delivery, Manuel Neuer fenced in, Jurrien Timber nodding home.

Kane has hit soaring heights in his two-and-a-half years in Bavaria, but even at this European superclub there is sometimes a sense that he cannot do it all by himself, that he needs a little more help.

Having skippered England through a World Cup qualifying campaign in which they did not concede a single goal, what must he have thought as that Saka corner earned Arsenal their lead? Bayern are top of the Bundesliga by six points yet also boast the third-worst defence in the division for defending set-pieces.

And even after Timber’s goal there were close shaves at the back where Arsenal might well have scored from another corner or free-kick. Kane’s night was taken fully away from him as Gabriel Martinelli rounded the needlessly advanced Neuer and rolled home the third.

In the first half, by happy accident, the defensive attention Arsenal allotted to Kane freed up the necessary space for Lennart Karl to arrive on to a loose ball and slip through unnoticed. The 17-year-old was a nuisance all night and levelled for 1-1 from ex-Arsenal man Serge Gnabry’s cushioned cross.

It only got worse for Bayern, and no better for Kane, who played the full 90 minutes against Arsenal without taking a single shot for the very first time in his career.

Naturally, there were flickers of the No9’s immense quality as England boss Thomas Tuchel watched on. Kane floated around in a pocket between William Saliba and Martin Zubimendi, sprayed one nice pass to Karl, took down an early long ball from Dayot Upamecano but could not quite bring it under his spell.

He received the ball on the halfway line with his back to goal down the left and turned Saliba smoothly, popping off to Konrad Laimer and chugging on. But the fact he had dropped so deep in that moment was a tale well told of Kane in an England shirt. With the Bavarians not functioning, neither could he.

Bayern’s frustrating night was also Kane’s, as the Arsenal faithful jeered, “Harry, what’s the score?” after Martinelli made it 3-1.