Arsenal suffer killer blow in Kiev

UEFA Chmpions League: Dynaml Kiev 2 - Arsenal 1Arsene Wenger had been categorical in the build-up. Defeat here would leave his Arsenal side's Champions League progress out of their hands. The portentous tone of the Frenchman's words was born of bitter experience. Now, it is eight matches since Europe's fifth-ranked side won in this competition.

Thierry Henry's late consolation - not a pretty goal, scrambled in from Robert Pires's thrusting through ball - served only to highlight his team-mates' inability to assume the responsibility for goals. Arsenal's defending may be the subject of regular comment but it is at the other end that their failings are most acutely felt.

Wenger insists he is not looking to spend in January but the need for a proven scorer is patent. Sylvain Wiltord, whose contract expires at season's end, is popular with his team-mates but the bottom line must be the goals that all too rarely come.

Arsenal knew the size of their task before a ball had been kicked. Lokomotiv Moscow had upset the odds with a 3-0 win over the leaders Internazionale, throwing the group wide open. But it also raised the pressure on Arsenal, for whom defeat here would render qualification all but mathematically impossible. Wenger, though, did not shrink from the challenge.

Having requested that others alleviate the burden on Henry, the only Arsenal player to have scored away from home in Europe in 12 months, Wenger backed his demand with an innovative line-up. For the first time since the 2-1 defeat in Valencia last season, Wenger departed from his favoured 4-4-2 to provide the French playmaker Pires with a free role behind the strikers, one that he had fulfilled for his previous club Marseille.

It was up to Ray Parlour and the Brazilians Gilberto Silva and Edu to screen the back four from the incisive midfield runs of the Croatian Jerko Leko and the deep-lying forward Oleg Husyev. A lack of width in the three-man midfield, though, often exposed Ashley Cole at left-back and the stadium was soon in full voice.

Arsenal's early pressure won a series of corners, one of which was headed against the bar by Pires on eight minutes. Yet fewer than 60 seconds later, it was Kiev's turn, with Valentin Belkevich feeding Maksim Shatskikh from the right. The striker escaped Sol Campbell and drove a low shot that forced a fine one-handed save from Jens Lehmann.

Lauren's run from the right, ending with a shot that was blocked by Andriy Nesmachnyi, was pretty but merely a precursor to Wenger's dismay. First Kolo Toure and then Campbell made a hash of clearing the ball before it fell to Leko.

The Croatian's shot rebounded off Shatskikh's heel, prompting Arsenal justifiably to appeal for offside. But the striker instead played to the whistle and was rewarded when he despatched the ball into Lehmann's goal.

Arsenal should perhaps have been lifted by their vaunted captain Patrick Vieira's entrance to the fray shortly after the hour but it had been obvious from the start that Kiev's counter-attacks, were proving too much for a regularly over-committed Arsenal side and they would soon capitalise again.

Shatskikh made a run that drew Lehmann out of his area but the German failed to clear. Again came the Uzbek forward, driving against the goalkeeper's chest, the rebound falling to Valentin Belkevich, who delivered the ball into the open goal and with it a likely fatal blow to Arsenal's Champions League campaign.

DYNAMO KIEV: Shovkovskyi; Fedorov, Gavrancic, Dmytrulin (Sablic, 34); Peev, Ghioane, Belkevich, Leko, Nesmachnyi; Husyev, Shatskikh.

ARSENAL: Lehmann; Lauren, Toure, Campbell, Cole; Parlour, Edu (Vieira, 61), Gilberto Silva; Pires; Wiltord, Henry.

Referee: K Plautz (Austria).