Arsenal is on the brink of a fifth successive exit from the UEFA Champions League at the round of 16 stage following a sbock 3-1 loss at home to AS Monaco in a first leg match in London on Wednesday.

Despite avoiding the supposed tougher draw last December, the Gunners were outclassed by a clinical Monaco side that took the lead through Geofrey Kondogbia’s deflected effort in the 38th minute.

Kondogbia was linked to Arsenal before joining Monaco from Sevilla

The Premier League club had begun the match bright but Kondogbia’s strike snuffed the life out of Arsenal as Monaco went into the break with the crucial away-goal lead.

And as in the first half, Arsenal began the second period on the ascendency and should have equalised eight minutes in when Subasic, in goal for the Ligue 1 side, pushed an Alexis Sanchez effort to Olivier Giroud’s path.

But with Subasic out of position and the goal at his mercy, the Frenchman with five goals in his last seven appearances blazed the rebound over from close range.

That miss was punished minutes later as former Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov then doubled Monaco’s advantage, firing in a low shot at the end of a counterattack prompted by a lapse in concentration from Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker.

Substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain however reduced the deficit for the Gunners with a curling, long range effort a minute into stoppage time.

But Monaco restored their two-goal advantage with virtually the last kick of the match when Bernard Silva intercepted an Oxlade-Chamberlain ball and set up substitute Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco to seal a big win for the 2004 finalists.

The result leaves Arsenal needing to at least win by a three-goal margin in the return leg at Monaco in a fortnight’s time in order to reach the last eight of the competition.

Meanwhile in the other round of 16 first leg match played in Germany, 2002 finalists Bayer Leverkusen edged last season’s finalists Atletico Madrid by a lone goal.

The Spanish champions edged proceedings at the BayArena but fell to a well worked goal finished off by Hakan Calhanoglu in the 56th minute.

Atletico now need to win by a two-goal margin to reach the last eight but would be without midfielder Tiago who got sent off in the 76th minute for a needless foul on Bellarabi.