Arsenal found the Wembley way much to their liking last night as their own twin towers brought them their first group victory in this competition.

A goal each from Tony Adams and Martin Keown amply rewarded a dominant display by the English champions in front of 73,455, a record crowd for an Arsenal home game, before the substitute Mauro pulled a goal back for the Greeks a minute from time.

The club's experiment of playing their home Champions League games at Wembley got off to a stuttering start when the game's kick-off was delayed by 25 minutes to cope with the late arrival of fans caught up in north London's creaking transport system.

Though the lack of national anthems or any presentations to royalty fuelled the unfamiliarity of this Wembley evening, the Double winners were rewarded with what the change of venue was designed to do, and that was provide double their normal crowd and a cracking atmosphere - even if much of the noise came from the equally enlarged visitors' contingent.

Arsenal quickly rose to the occasion, and could - perhaps should - have opened the scoring from any of three tantalising chances fashioned in the first quarter of an hour. After only three minutes, Dennis Bergkamp swung over a free-kick from the left which a diving Adams headed just wide at the back post.

Shortly afterwards, Lee Dixon's through-ball down the right set up Nicolas Anelka, who beat the covering defender Ioannis Goumas before firing in a tight shot which the goalkeeper diverted for a corner with an outstretched leg.

The third chance was engineered down the left by Emmanuel Petit; the Frenchman's astute pass bisected two defenders and found Nigel Winterburn near the edge of the six-yard box. But the full-back's shot across the face of goal buzzed the wrong side of the far post.

While Arsenal were making light of Ray Parlour's loss through injury, it was difficult to gauge early on just how much the Greeks missed their absent invalid, the record scorer Krzysztof Warzycha. The Gunners' tireless midfield - with the experienced Remi Garde drafted in for Parlour - expertly denied the Panathinaikos forwards any decent ball for most of the first half.

When the fit-again David Seaman was called on to make his first save, the cause was a 30-yard shot from the left-wing-back Andreas Lagonikakis, which the Arsenal goalkeeper was relieved to tip over.

But Arsenal ran the first half, and three minutes before its end went as close as a team can get to scoring without doing so. Bergkamp, heavily guarded in the Greek area, released Overmars on goal with a cunning back-heel. The Dutch winger's shot was blocked by the goalkeeper but fell to the on-rushing Patrick Vieira, whose blast was blocked on the line by a desperate combination of Goumas and Erik Mykland, covering back from midfield.

The Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, could have been forgiven an anxious feeling of deja vu after watching 45 minutes of football in which his side had dominated large parts but managed to spurn the many chances created by those labours.

A similar scenario of missed opportunities blighted the Gunners' opening Champions League game in Lens, from which they could take home only a point while Panathinaikos were coming from behind to beat the group favourites Dynamo Kiev.

But Wenger did not have to worry for long. Nineteen minutes into the new half Arsenal took the lead. Petit, booked minutes earlier for a foul on Lagonikakis, swung in a corner from the right which the Panathinaikos goalkeeper, Josef Wandzik, dropped under pressure. The ball fell to Vieira who passed it on to Adams and the Arsenal captain lashed it into the net from six yards.

A minute later Bergkamp shot inches wide, and Overmars from 20 yards forced a fine save as Arsenal powered forward looking for a second.

It came on 73 minutes, again from a Petit corner swung in from the right and again scored by a defender, this time Keown's glancing header finding the net.

Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn, Vieira, Adams, Anelka, Bergkamp, Overmars, Keown, Petit, Garde (Vivas 79). Subs Not Used: Manninger, Bould, Wreh, Hughes, Grimandi, Mendez. Booked: Petit, Vieira. Goals: Adams 64, Keown 72.

Panathinaikos: Wandzik, Apostolakis, Milojevic, Asanovic, Goumas, Lagonikakis, Mykland, Strandli (Sypniewski 83), Kostantinidis, Liberopoulos (Mauro 83), Kiassos (Kola 70). Subs Not Used: Nikopolidis, Nikolidis, Kolitsidakis, Vokolos. Booked: Milojevic, Goumas. Goals: Mauro 87.

Referee: A Nieto-Lopez (Spain).