Disciplined Arsenal let down by finishing

Lokomotiv Moscow 0 Arsenal 0

Arsenal rediscovered their discipline but were let down by their finishing as they were held to a goalless draw away to Lokomotiv Moscow.

A hard-fought point away to a side that qualified for the second group stage last season might have been considered a creditable result if only Arsenal had not lost their opening tie to Inter Milan.

Indeed, they may now have to win three of their remaining four games to make it through to the knock-out stages.

However, even with a depleted side, they only had themselves to blame as they failed to capitalise on a resilient defensive display in which it was their discipline, rather than lack of it, which was to the fore.

Martin Keown may have been the chief culprit in those ugly recent scenes at Old Trafford but he channelled his fierce competitive instincts in exactly the right way this time as stand-in skipper.

Kolo Toure also emerged with great credit for holding Lokomotiv at bay, but many Arsenal fans may well consider this as two points dropped rather than one gained.

For the chances to win it were there as Thierry Henry, Robert Pires and Ashley Cole wasted clear openings and it is now 10 months and seven games since Arsenal last won a Champions League tie.

The Gunners’ list of absentees was not only long but also illustrious, with Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira, Fredrik Ljungberg and Dennis Bergkamp all ruled out.

Just one look at the bench showed the scale of the problem, with Kanu and Pascal Cygan joined by youngsters Graham Stack, Justin Hoyte, David Bentley, Stathis Tavlaridis and Jeremie Aliadiere.

Vieira’s central midfield replacement, Edu, was nevertheless an industrious figure, matched only in his considerable workrate by Ray Parlour and Henry.

Keown and Toure, meanwhile, produced exactly the kind of rugged defensive display that Arsenal needed to find again after their collapse against Inter.

It was just as well too as Lokomotiv, encouraged by an ear-splitting cacophony of noise from their fans, hit the ground running at a lightning pace.

Arsenal sensibly concentrated on soaking up that early pressure and hitting the home side on the break, a tactic which has served them well on numerous occasions in the past.

Indeed, Henry twice came close to opening the scoring, with one snap-shot saved and another effort rather uncharacteristically fired a few inches over the top after a fine through-ball by Edu.

Lokomotiv nevertheless upped the tempo once again, with winger Dmitri Khokhlov twice coming close.

Only a combination of Cole and Jens Lehmann kept out a header from Mikheil Ashvetia, who also just failed to connect with a defence-splitting cross, while Dmitry Loskov struck the top of the net with a curling free-kick.

Arsenal nevertheless rallied and took charge as the interval approached, with Robert Pires and Parlour both having long-range efforts saved, while Toure also headed narrowly wide.

Wenger’s side were back under pressure after the restart and when Lehmann pushed out Khoklov’s cross, he was fortunate that Pires was on hand to clear the loose ball.

Lehmann also denied Maminov, but Wenger’s side still carved out better chances of their own, only for Pires to shoot straight at the keeper after he was put clean through by Henry.

Cole was also blocked out from close range after Henry made inroads through the Lokomotiv defence.

What Arsenal really needed was a flash of inspiration or creativity from the bench, but sadly Ljungberg was absent and Wenger was too concerned about losing to throw on the unpredictable Kanu.

And so it is off to Kiev in three weeks’ time with the qualifying pressure unabated.

Arsenal must stand up and be counted soon in the Champions League or it will be too late.