Hamburg - 1 Arsenal - 2: The Champions League provided a sanctuary for Arsenal last season and it offered familiar relief for the team last night. Arsene Wenger's players may be without a win in the Premiership but they got a European victory at the first attempt in this group albeit against a side who played all but the first 12 minutes with 10 men.
If that made it harder to assess the side's performance level, they will go into Sunday's game at Manchester United with raised confidence.
It remains to be seen whether Kolo Toure will feature after the centre-back went off injured in the first half. Though William Gallas is a more than able deputy, Justin Hoyte looked understandably uncertain at times when again pressed into emergency left-back duties.
Nonetheless Arsenal had seemed in little danger once Tomas Rosicky made it 2-0 with an excellent shot, but a late Hamburg burst saw Piotr Trochowski hit the bar and Boubacar Sanogo score from David Jarolim's cross.
There had been occasional alarms before Rosicky's goal, even though Hamburg were a man down after losing their goalkeeper Sascha Kirschstein in an incident which brought Arsenal a penalty. The Gunners dominated possession but again struggled for periods and showed a lack of killer finishing at other times, with Gilberto Silva heading wide from a corner.
The visitors's hopes were raised further when Arsenal took a 12th-minute lead from a penalty which saw Kirschstein sent off. The whistles that greeted Wenger's players when they had possession for a period after the incident showed the home fans' anger at what they felt was gamesmanship by Robin van Persie to win the spot-kick and prompt the dismissal.
It was a swift, incisive Arsenal counter-attack that brought the penalty. Midfielder Alexander Hleb picked out Emmanuel Adebayor. The leggy striker cut infield and had the awareness to find Van Persie in the box, and the Dutchman sent Kirschstein to ground with a shimmy close to goal before he tumbled over the goalkeeper's raised left foot.
Contact looked minimal but Van Persie was poised to stroke the ball into an empty net with his right foot; the Swedish referee deemed it the denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity and sent off Kirschstein. Gilberto stroked in the penalty.
The goal and red card were a relief to Arsenal as Hamburg had been dominating through swift passing and movement with Rafael Wicky, who was taken off to make way for a replacement goalkeeper, helping to keep them ticking over.
Hamburg, not surprisingly, lost momentum after going down to 10 men but they created flashes of danger even as Arsenal monopolised the ball. The striker Danijel Ljuboja was lively and he forced a sharp save from Lehmann just before half-time..
Arsenal's defence was disrupted midway through the half by an injury to Toure that forcedWenger to bring on Hoyte at left-back and push Gallas into the centre.
A reminder of the need to kill off the game arrived shortly after half-time when Hleb ignored his defensive responsibilities and was fortunate that Joris Mathijsen shot wide from a Sanogo cross. The warning was heeded this time, though, because soon Rosicky put his side 2-0 ahead with a spectacular shot.
The Czech was in a surprising amount of room when he collected a square pass from VanPersie and as Hamburg failed to close he fired a shot into the top corner from about 25 yards.
Guardian Service
HAMBURG: Kirschstein, Demel (Mahdavikia 55), Reinhardt,Kompany, Mathijsen, Jarolim, De Jong, Wicky (Wachter 11), Trochowski, Sanogo, Ljuboja (Guerrero 82). Subs Not Used: Fillinger, Berisha, Laas, Benjamin.Sent Off: Kirschstein (10).
ARSENAL: Lehmann, Eboue, Toure (Hoyte 28), Djourou, Gallas, Hleb (Flamini 70), Fabregas, Silva, Rosicky, Van Persie (Julio Baptista 69), Adebayor. Subs Not Used: Almunia, Ljungberg, Song Billong, Walcott.
Referee: Peter Frojdfeldt (Sweden).
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