On the bright side for Arsenal, it was only 2-0. This could have been seriously embarrassing. At least it wasn’t worse. But the truth is that this was a gubbing in all but scoreline. Arsenal have been taken apart by a brilliant Borussia Dortmund, who created chances at will and should have scored more. It’s been a tough night for Arsenal, whose flaws at the highest level have once again been laid bare for all to see. Thanks for reading and emailing. Night.

90 min: Lukas Podolski finds himself through on goal but overruns the ball under pressure from Weidenfeller and it trickles behind for a goal-kick. There will be three minutes of stoppage time. “The worst part about Ozil’s play this season is everyone who spent the last year bizarrely obsessed with how “terrible” he is now getting to lean back and slowly nod to themselves as if they were right all along,” says Luke De Smet. “It’s unjust I tell you!”

88 min: Jack Wilshere is booked. Go on, Jack, there’s still time to fly in late on someone and get a second yellow.

86 min: Before the resulting corner can be taken, Adrian Ramos is on for Ciro Immobile, who receives a hug and a slap on the backside from Klopp.

84 min: But Welbeck is up again now, hobbling a little, but seemingly able to continue. “Mkhitaryan will definitely never score,” says Ademola-popoola Oreoluwa. “God knows what he did to Klopp’s water retention in their second leg match against Madrid last season.”

You’re right, he never will score. He bursts through the heart of the Arsenal defence - after you, sir, after you, not a problem at all - and just as he seems poised to score, he’s tackled by Oxlade-Chamberlain.

83 min: Welbeck is down after being caught on the knee by Subotic.

80 min: The ball is hit over the top for Aubameyang to chase. Szczesny gets there first, heads the ball away and flattens the Dortmund striker. There wasn’t much he could do about it, though, given his momentum. Aubameyang should be okay after a spot of treatment. He just looks a bit winded.

79 min: Dortmund make their second change, Milos Jojic replacing Marcel Schmelzer. I’m guessing that will see Grosskreutz move to right-back, Durm go to left-back and Jojic slot into midfield.

78 min: Filip Gieldon is back with more on Ozil. “Obviously I rate his talent, but still, he was a bit so-so in the World Cup on the right wing. More so, Mr Wenger seems to play him in a non-obvious position. It’s a bit classic Wenger, isn’t it? The crown jewel being used as a luxury product...”

77 min: Arsenal make their final change. Lukas Podolski replaces Mikel Arteta. Elsewhere in this group, it’s Galatasaray 0-1 Anderlecht.

76 min: Anything Mkhitaryan can do, Welbeck can do better. He rolls Sokratis on the edge of the area and then rams his shot over the bar from 18 yards.

73 min: Mkhitaryan will never score. His finishing has been atrocious. This latest chance came after a grotesque error from the awful Arteta, who gave away possession in his own half. Koscielny tackled Aubameyang but the ball broke to Mkhitaryan. Off he went. Through on goal. On his right foot. His eyes lit up. Szczesny sat down. The ball went over. Jurgen Klopp raged.

71 min: This is why people spend so long worrying about their goalkeepers taking too long over clearances. Koscielny knocks a pass back to Szcznesy, who decides now is the perfect time to take a touch, have a breather, ponder Scottish independence. Before he knows it, Aubameyang is swarming him. Szczesny tries to go round the striker whose tackle almost diverts the ball into the net.

70 min: Everyone can relax. It turns out those uber-cool German fans also cheer the vanishing spray.

69 min: “Do you feel that the case of Ozil is him being mis-played by Wenger on the right, or is he just...well, poor,” says Filip Gieldon.

He’s not playing well for a long time but he’s obviously class. He’s just won the World Cup!

67 min: Grosskreutz tries to bend one in from the left. He does not bend it enough. “I might be missing the point, but why should the Arsenal players be doing anything anyway?” says Robin Hazlehurst. “They’ve already won this competition by getting through the preliminaries, and there is no real money in getting any further than they are now. It’s not as if they plan to win the thing. Focus for the season is now on getting fourth place in the league and being back here next year. Ozil being an electric bunny tonight won’t help that happen. It’s modern football philosophy, nothing false about that.”

66 min: Has it ever struck you how much of your life you spend worrying that your team’s goalkeeper is going to get closed down as he takes his time over a clearance?

64 min: Fashion watch: Mats Hummels is wearing a t-shirt that has a drawing of a panda on the front.

62 min: Arsenal make two changes. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replaces Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla comes on for Aaron Ramsey.

60 min: “About an hour ago you told us that Ozil was on the right supporting Bellerin,” says Peter Littley. “Just wondered if he had moved much since your first and only mention. Probably saving himself for some other important game I guess.”

He’s done nothing. None of Arsenal’s attacking players have. It’s been a risible performance.

59 min: Immobile chips a cross to the far post from the left. Aubameyang gets up but nods wide.

57 min: Chances at both ends. First, one for Welbeck. An astute reverse pass from Sanchez got Gibbs behind the Dortmund defence but Welbeck couldn’t make the most of the cross to the near post. He was under pressure. The ball squirted loose and Dortmund cleared - and attacked at great speed. All of a sudden, there was Aubameyang scorching away down the right, taking on Koscielny and then cracking a rising shot against the bar!

56 min: Schmelzer’s free-kick is headed away by Mertesacker but the ball is picked up by Sokratis, whose well-struck effort from 20 yards is held by Szczesny.

55 min: Dortmund’s centre-back, Neven Subotic, is allowed to run 40 yards forward unopposed. Dearie me. Eventually Arteta fouls him.

54 min: Arsenal haven’t been able to muster a response to the second goal. Has anyone told them the second half has started? Although here’s something. A booking for Ozil for a foul on Schmelzer. He’s a bit unlucky, mind you. Schmelzer milked what there was of that for all it was worth - and it was worth roughly 3p.

51 min: This could get ugly. Arsenal are a rabble. Mkhitaryan flicks a pass back to Immobile in the area. He lets rip with his right foot and Szczesny does well to push the ball over the bar. Nothing comes from the corner.

49 min: Dortmund smell blood. Mkhitaryan speeds up the right flank and knocks a ball into the six-yard box. This time Mertesacker is on hand to clear.

47 min: Sanchez has a dig from roughly 35 yards. A deflection takes the sting out of the shot and it’s an easy save for Weidenfeller. I wonder how many tea cups Wenger broke in the Arsenal dressing room during the break.

46 min: Here we go again. Dortmund have made a change, young Matthias Ginter replacing old Sebastian Kehl.

That can’t be right, though. Otherwise Wenger would have sorted that position out ages ago.

Forgive me, but do you know what Arsenal have really lacked so far this evening? A robust central midfielder. Dortmund have found so much space in front of the Arsenal defence.

“Sanchez is spent because he is in the last game of a long spell with lots of travel - in the past 2 weeks he was in California and Miami with Chile national team, and now 2 top opponents with Arsenal,” says Geg Kutylo. “Granted he’s not flying middle seat in economy in between 2 crying infants while he’s traveling but that is still a lot. He is in great condition but expends a lot of energy the way he plays. Wenger never gives these players a rest until they break down or can’t function.”

43 min: Mkhitarayan shoots wide again. This is becoming a recurring theme. He was teed up by a lovely pass from the right by Grosskreutz and may feel he should have hit the target from 20 yards, but instead dragged his effort badly wide.

41 min: Is Danny Welbeck ruthless enough? The latest compelling evidence suggests that he is not. Moments after Arsenal had an escape up the other end when an Immobile pass intended to send Aubameyang clear was cut out, the visitors broke, a long clearance allowed to sneak through the middle and spark Welbeck’s interest. Durm’s covering challenge ran to Ramsey and he turned a clever pass through to Welbeck. He was clean through on goal but he stroked well wide of Weideneller’s right post. A poor miss.

38 min: Sanchez has been dismal and now I’ve said that, he’ll score the winner, because it’s all about me. “I expect Shinji to come on, tear Arsenal apart and show Man Utd what they are missing,” says Mark Judd. “A man can dream.”

37 min: Ozil swings a free-kick into the Dortmund area. Sanchez is unmarked as the ball reaches him. Excitement levels rise for a moment. But the flag is up for offside. “BVB should buy a winger named Strang so that one of their flanks would be Durm und Strang,” says Peter McMurry. “Sorry. I watched too much Monty Python as a kid.”

36 min: “I think Wenger not purchasing another centre back while being Interreligious Match for Peace on transfer deadline represents a clear theological streak in his football philosophy,” says Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon. “Leaving years of patient team building work to be potentially ruined in a few injurious seconds is clearly a leap of faith of the highest order.”

34 min: Another chance for Dortmund goes begging. Kehl was all over the surprisingly lethargic Sanchez like a cheap one and suddenly Arsenal were exposed. Kehl had options left, right and through the middle. However his pass to the right to Aubameyang was poor and meant that the ball slightly got stuck underneath the striker’s feet. He sorted himself out but his shot from a tight angle was pushed past the post by Szczesny. The corner’s cleared but Dortmund pile forward again, Schmelzer pinging a low effort on target from 25 yards. Szczesny holds.

32 min: Mkhitaryan glides past an Arsenal midfielder to earn a sight of goal from 20 yards but he hammers a firm effort wide. “Please, don’t even bring up Marco Reus,” says Will Land. “I fear Bayern are reading your live blog and he will be bought before he’s even back from injury. No, I’m not bitter.”

31 min: Will Dortmund regret those two misses? They were almost made to pay for them instantly. Gibbs showed excellent initiative with a driving run to the byline on the left, from where he hung a cross to the far post. Schmelzer and Weidenfeller made a mess of it together and the ball dropped to Welbeck but it wouldn’t come down quickly enough for him to turn it into the empty net and Weidenfeller was able to scoop it away from him.

29 min: Now Mkhitaryan spurns a wonderful opportunity to give Dortmund the lead! A long pass down the left found Immobile haring away behind the Arsenal defence. He reached the ball before it went out and then tried to find Aubameyang at the far post for what would have been a tap-in. Szczesny managed to get down to get a hand to the ball and push it out, but only as far as Mkhitaryan, arriving at pace and ahead of Wilshere. A goal looked certain. He was six yards out. He blazed it over. What a glaring miss.

27 min: Ahem. Dortmund should be ahead. Durm started the move by drifting inside from the right. He seemed to have hung on to the ball for too long but then it opened up for him, allowing him to roll a pass to the left to Grosskreutz, who was in acres of space. He instantly knocked a low cross towards the near post, where Aubameyang was unmarked. He sidefooted it goalwards from six yards with his right foot, opening up his body, but Szcznesy spread himself to make a fine save!

25 min: Schmelzer lofts a straight free-kick into the Arsenal area. After a spot of head-tennis, Aubameyang nods harmlessly wide. After the opening 10 minutes, Arsenal are dealing with Dortmund’s threat with increasing comfort. They’re not keeping the ball well enough, though.

24 min: As well as Dortmund are playing, when they get to the final third you can see that they are still a work in progress and that they are missing the cut and thrust of Marco Reus. There has been a lot of pressure but Wojciech Szczesny hasn’t been overworked.

22 min: Immobile tries to score from 30 yards. But he doesn’t.

20 min: Alexis Sanches puts the ball into the empty Dortmund net but the whistle had long gone for offside. He points to his ears, saying he couldn’t hear it over the din. He’s lucky the referee isn’t Massimo Busacca.

19 min: Arsene Wenger isn’t happy. He thinks that Mkhitaryan, who’s already on a booking, has dived again in the middle of the park and gestures as such towards the referee, who’s not interested. The Armenian midfielder is on thin ice, though.

18 min: Arsenal enjoy some decent possession. Whistles. Ear-splitting whistles. Until the flag goes up for offside against Sanchez.

17 min: A moment of worry for Arsenal as Koscielny handles the ball on the edge of the area. But the referee has spotted that the Arsenal defender received a shove in the back and instead awards a free-kick to the visitors.

16 min: After a neat lay-off from the influential Aubameyang, Ciro Immobile has a pop from 20 yards with his left foot. It goes wide.

14 min: Sokratis wastes a fine chance for Dortmund. They took the corner short and the resulting cross from the right came to the Greek defender. But after a sharp piece of chest - or stomach - control, he snatched at his shot under pressure and turned it wide from eight yards. A let-off for Arsenal.

13 min: An innocuous ball down the inside-right channel somehow bounces all the way through to Grosskreutz. His cross is turned behind by the covering Koscielny.

12 min: It feels like Dortmund have managed to pack 90 minutes worth of running into the opening 10 minutes. The pace has just slowed down a little now. Arsenal won’t be too displeased with that.

10 min: A loose pass from Mertesacker reaches Grosskreutz, who charges into the area from the left, only to be halted by Mertesacker. He settles for a corner, which is a total nonsense from Mkhitaryan. He’s not quite done it for Dortmund yet, has he? Maybe this is to be his night.

9 min: Mesut Ozil is on the right of Arsenal’s attack at the moment, with Sanchez on the left, which means that Bellerin is being protected by Ozil.

8 min: A lull. A lovely lull, a chance for everyone to catch their breath and for Arsenal to try and take the sting out of this start from Dortmund.

7 min: Arsenal mount their first serious attack. Welbeck clatters into the area and seems to have won a corner off Sokratis. But the referee awards a goal-kick. Presumably because he hates Arsenal.

5 min: Dortmund scream for a penalty as Mkhitaryan tumbles over Arteta’s leg in the area but instead the Portuguese referee books the midfielder for diving! It came from another lightning break down the right flank. Aubameyang found Mkhitaryan, who deftly tried to duck inside, past Arteta. He went down and the whistle sounded - but for a dive! It looked like the correct decision.

4 min: This is breathless. Dortmund pour forward down the right again. Arsenal are overloaded down that side. Gibbs could do with some help. He’s not getting any. Immobile breaks clear and spots Aubameyang in the middle. The cross isn’t good enough but still reaches the Dortmund forward, who can’t quite turn and get his shot away.

3 min: Immobile tries to lob a pass through to Aubameyang. There’s an appeal for handball. Nothing doing. Arsenal need to stay calm. “Arsenal fan here,” says Rohit Kapur. “It’s not even deja-vu anymore. For it to be deja-vu, it has to remind me of something in the past; this, however, is a permanent state that Arsenal seems to be living in for the last decade or so. Wenger seems be flexing the purse strings more these days, but why he refuses to patch the giant, gaping holes in the squad is just plain astounding. Flamini is a liability, as is Arteta in important games. We’ve got five defenders in total, which in our injury-plagued squad is a guarantee of disaster. And no disrespect to Welbeck or Giroud, but even at full strength, they aren’t a very fear-inducing pairing. I hope they prove me wrong, but I’m a wee bit too jaded these days.”

2 min: In comes the corner from the right. It’s a dangerous delivery from Mkhitaryan and Wilshere awkwardly knees the ball over his own bar. Schmelzer takes the second corner. It’s headed away but Dortmund continue to press. Eventually Arsenal quell the storm. Dortmund have started at a furious pelt, as is their way.

Off we go! Arsenal, kicking from right to left and wearing a navy number with a touch of light blue here and there, get the ball rolling and the Dortmund fans whistle. Immediately it’s launched long towards Welbeck. How very Allardyce. Nothing comes from it and Dortmund attack down the right. Aubameyang flashes in a cross which is cleared, but Mkhitaryan’s subsequent shot is deflected wide for a corner.

The 74 officials are wearing grey shirts with white shorts and socks. I’m not sure how I feel about this. It feels wrong.

Here come the players, walking out into a Yellow Wall of noise. Both sides are needlessly wearing tracksuit tops. They’ll be taking them off in a minute. What a waste of time. They banned snoods but they can’t do anything about this?

Graeme Souness likes Jurgen Klopp because he doesn’t talk about “philosophy this, philosophy that” or about false nines. He finds him a breath of fresh air. He likes the no-nonsense, heavy metal approach.

Arsenal fans. Are you happy with your club’s business this summer? Not bothered by not signing a defender or a midfielder? Happy with Danny Welbeck as the new Thierry Henry? Or are you experiencing a sense of deja vu?

Wenger says that he knew that Chambers would only be fit enough for the bench at 2pm this afternoon and adds that Bellerin is defensively reliable. He also doesn’t think that Dortmund will target him. “He’s 19 years old,” he says. “If you don’t start at 19, you never start.”

Paul Merson is growing a beard. How grown up.

My colleague from the Independent, Jack Pitt-Brooke, is yet to work out how to spend his spare time properly and has therefore watched a lot of Arsenal’s Under-21s. Therefore he has seen Hector Bellerin play. Below he gives his prediction on how the Spaniard is going to fare tonight.

I suppose you’ve forgotten just how good former Arsenal midfielder Denilson was. For shame.