Although Thierry "the flat track bully" Henry scored a sublime goal against Bayern (his second in 4 matches against Bayern and his 29th. goal no less in 59 Champions League games for the Arsenal over all by the way) it was, of course, not enough to turn the tie around as a whole.
I don't really need to tell you all where we the tie was really lost but what did strike me about the game at Highbury was how, even in defeat, Bayern were able to stamp their authority on the game for long periods of the game purely through being organised, being controlled in possession and a bloody minded willingness to make sure that mistakes are kept down to an absolute minimum.
For me, although I maintain that Bayern will not win the tournament this year, they still gave us another lesson in what the Champions League is really all about. The Arsenal were guilty of some naivety over the course of the two games but they were not alone. I was wrong for a start when I suggested that we could get past Bayern simply by doing what we invariably do better than anyone else certainly in this country and that is score goals.
Still, I'm not going to beat myself up over it all too much and nor should anybody else connected with the Arsenal. Three of the biggest clubs in the world also bowed out of the tournament last week and we all know who they were.
Therefore you don't need to be Einstein to draw the conclusion that the Champions League is a tournament that takes no prisoners no matter who you are or who you think you are.
So when we went to the Reebok last Saturday morning the heat was well and truly on the Arsenal. We were back in our usual position of being the team with everything to lose and nothing to gain and once again the vultures were not so much circling overhead in Lancashire but sitting in the press boxes, the TV studio and even on the commentator's gantry.
I have to congratulate Mark Bright on the job he did as BBC's co-commentator on the game. He may not have quite mastered the local Bolton dialect but such was the level of praise he heaped on Bolton for every little thing they did, he managed to do a convincing imitation of a Bolton season ticket holder nonetheless.
Still, in spite of all the cajoling words from Bright, the Arsenal carved out a victory which, in terms of character alone, was the sweetest I've seen the Arsenal gain this season bar none. Sam Allardyce was like a bulldog chewing a wasp after the game and make no mistake when it comes to having a good old whinge, I'm sorry but, he makes Arsene look like a monk.
How Allardyce had the brass neck to condemn the referee for sending Diouf off I will never know. And as for the obtuse suggestions made in some quarters that Diouf's sending off cost Bolton the tie, well I will respond to that in equally obtuse terms by saying that it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy and that the Senegal striker and Allardyce definitely deserve each other.
In fact, Allardyce should be counting his blessings that he is not taking a trip to Soho Sqaure to face the beaks at the FA because it was nothing short of a miracle that Kevin Davies and Stelios didn't join Diouf for an early bath and that his club only picked up a £25, 000 fine for six yellow cards his team accrued.
Statistics do not always tell you the whole story but if ever a stat could be held up as a damning indictment of the crude tactics that Bolton employed from start to finish last Saturday, it's that one.
The perverse thing was that although the Arsenal stood up to the wall to wall intimidation and provocation I couldn't believe some of the marks that were handed out in some of the Sunday papers. Philippe Senderos was accused of being "raw", Toure was accused of being "edgy" by Rob Beasley of the News of the World. Sorry, but that was complete bull.
I thought those two epitomised what we were all about on the day because as a team we refused to allow our opponents to bully us off the park with their agricultural, primitive interpretation of how football is meant to be played. And most of all what made me proud was the fact that the Arsenal did something that they didn't do against Bolton in the two league meetings - we earned the right to play.
As far as I am concerned, Allardyce and all his cronies in the press and in the game itself can take a big bucket of lemons and suck on them for all they are worth. Paybacks are a bitch, eh Sam? I'm glad that we have seen the back of you and your poor excuse for a football team I can tell you.
When the draw was made for the semi-final I have to admit I had mixed feelings. I wanted us to be paired with ManUre, I really did. The thought of us doing to them what they did to us at the same stage last year and guaranteeing that they would not win a trophy in the process would have certainly put right a whole lot of wrongs for us Gooners.
Maybe our time to take our ultimate revenge will come in May but in order to gain a shot at doing that we will have to overcome the same side that we face in the league this Saturday - Blackburn Rovers.
Now, if you told any Blackburn fan six months ago that they would be eight points above the relegation zone and in the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 1960 approaching Easter I bet they would have absolutely snapped your hand off.
That's exactly how things stand at Blackburn right now and without a shadow of doubt, Mark Hughes has to take an awful lot of credit for that. In fact, you only have to look at the last two league games just to get measure of how things have improved. Rovers have faced Everton and Liverpool in their own back yards in consecutive games and come out of those games with four points without conceding a goal.
I watched their game against Everton at Goodison the other day and I have to say that were really good value for the 1-0 win they got there. If anything they played the Toffees at their own game and the goal that Jon Stead scored to win the match was no more than they deserved.
And after seeing off Leicester in the cup they went to Anfield minus the services of Paul Dickov and Robbie Savage and restricted Liverpool to just one tame effort on goal in 90 - odd minutes.
I think that one of the biggest factors in their revival has been the return of David Thompson. The lad has missed a large chunk of the campaign through injury. Like Savage, he is not an angel but for me, the difference between him and Savage is that he capable of taking whatever he dishes out without being a drama queen about it. I respect him for that.
The same could be said of Paul Dickov. The boy is an absolute pest but his heart is genuinely in the right place. It's no surprise that Mark Hughes is never slow to call on this boy whenever he is fit because in many ways there is a lot about Dickov that surely reminds Sparky of his heyday.
Whether the ex-Arsenal man will be fit for Saturday is highly debatable given that he has had a groin problem and is nursing a nasty knee injury that he picked up at Goodison on top of that.
So it's highly likely that Hughes will have to turn once again to Jon Stead or alternatively Paul Gallacher as the main spearhead of their attack on Saturday. Don't rule Gallacher out as a threat. I have got a lot of time for this boy. When he first burst on the scene about 18 months ago I honestly thought that he had the potential to go the very top in the game - the very top. And even though things haven't quite gone his way in recent times I still wouldn't rule out the possibility of it happening just yet.
In many ways Blackburn are very much becoming like their neighbours Bolton in so far as they are not only awkward to play against, they are generally tougher to beat these days.
The Arsenal will need to prepare for another physical contest at Ewood Park. Mark Hughes will send his team out to confront us with a mandate that will not differ too greatly from the one Allardyce gave to his men at the Reebok last Saturday.
Perhaps the key to this game will not so much be whether we will win it or not but whether all of our players will come out of it in one piece! My fellow Gooners, you have all been warned!