Arsenal 1 PSV Eindhoven 0: Arsenal have at least avoided one of the principal dangers of European football. They will not be over-excited or unduly confident after beginning the long campaign with a win over PSV Eindhoven that rested on an own-goal writes Kevin McCarra at Highbury.
Nonetheless, the composure and care shown here will serve them well in times to come.
The Champions League is where Arsenal store their disappointments.
Impregnable in the Premiership and fallible in Europe, it is their aim to heal that split in their personality. PSV Eindhoven had come with a determination to sabotage the Highbury therapy.
Any Dutch coach will be treated automatically as a tactical savant by credulous foreigners, but Guus Hiddink has the track record to make him more deserving than most of the reputation. That is not to say that he is honour-bound to give us a reconstruction of the total football of the 1970s.
Quite the opposite, on this occasion.
Instead of fluidity, he sent out a line-up with a keen sense of position and there was a two-tier midfield so that Johann Vogel and Phillip Cocu acted as holding players.
No visitors ever come to this ground in a mood of frivolity, but PSV had rather more in mind than merely harassing Arsenal.
Others have already tried that to no avail. When Wenger's side broke the English record by beating Blackburn Rovers here to complete a 43rd Premiership game without defeat, the manager later implied coolly that the opposition could not have sustained its frantic harrying of Arsenal for 90 minutes.
PSV, by contrast, were aiming to resist in a manner that would not exhaust them. With just a single forward in Gerald Sibon, once of Sheffield Wednesday, there were many layers to chop up the space in front of Arsenal.
By now, at least, Thierry Henry cannot be dumbfounded when he finds, on these nights, that the usual 40 yards of open turf commonly left to him in the Premiership is shut off.
There was to be no immediate spree, yet Wenger had counselled beforehand that patience was essential and the crowd settled for being absorbed rather than excited, at least until Henry made the breakthrough. Arsenal's intention was a familiar one as they teased and manoeuvred to try to release someone on the left.
In the early exchanges, the PSV right-back Andre Ooijer twice had to demonstrate powers of recovery and nullify the danger after first José Antonio Reyes and then Henry broke into the space behind him. Arsenal's emphasis on working the left flank was all the more natural since Freddie Ljungberg was prevented by a back injury from appearing on the right.
Although Robert Pires switched to take over those duties, the angles on that wing do not make as much sense to him as they do on the opposite side. He caught the eye, though, by cutting in after 27 minutes, although he could not properly meet the low cross from Ashley Cole which flew slightly behind him.
Arsenal, though, were gradually stepping up their performance and when, in the 39th minute, the goalkeeper Edwin Zoetebier parried a Henry 25-yarder it was a little unfortunate that Pires should have been standing a yard offside before he knocked in the rebound.
Three minutes before the interval PSV were not to be spared. Van Bommel, like a few team-mates before him, lost his footing on the PSV right and Henry went on to beat Wilfred Bouma before laying off the cut-back that would have been converted by Patrick Vieira had not a frantic Alex turned the ball into his net.
Hiddink was willing to inch men downfield and there was a change of tone after the interval. PSV were a touch more adventurous even if this amounted to nothing more, for a while, than Park Ji-Sung trying his luck with a header from an infeasible distance. Even so, PSV must have felt that a recovery was possible and they could bring on Vennegoor of Hesselink, a regular scorer, in place of Sibon, who must have been picked for self-sacrificing effort.
With 17 minutes left, Dennis Bergkamp delivered a free kick from the right and Gilberto Silva's flicked header could not quite be forced home.
PSV, however, were also to be tantalised after 77 minutes when Lee Young-Pyo crossed and Vennegoor controlled his shot before mistiming a shot.
ARSENAL: Lehmann, Lauren, Toure, Cygan, Cole, Pires, Vieira, Silva, Reyes (Edu 78), Bergkamp, Henry. Subs not used: Almunia, Van Persie, Fabregas, Pennant, Clichy, Hoyte. Goal: Alex 42 og.
PSV EINDHOVEN: Zoetebier, Ooijer, Alex, Bouma, Lee, Van Bommel, Cocu (De Jong 82), Vogel, Park, Sibon (Vennegoor of Hesselink 66), Beasley (Farfan 59). Subs not used: Gomes, Lucius, Lamey, Feher. Booked: Ooijer.
Referee: Domenico Messina (Italy).
