CSKA Moscow - 1 Arsenal - 0: Arsenal made the long trudge home with a burning sense of injustice for company. Defeat here, which leaves them trailing CSKA by a point, might have been averted but for the intervention of the referee Mejuto Gonzalez in a controversial late decision which denied the Gunners an equaliser.
Thierry Henry collected Kolo Toure's long, high pass and swept a fine shot past the goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev, but before he had wheeled away to celebrate the Arsenal captain was called back and booked for allegedly having handled. As Henry left the pitch he harangued the officials, claiming the ball had hit his stomach. Manager Arsene Wenger was flabbergasted.
"The referee hasn't seen anything; it was a goal," he said. "You have to accept that a referee gives goals because he doesn't see things but this is a new thing; the referee has cancelled it because he sees things that didn't exist."
Henry was even more vexed than his manager. "I'm more than angry," he said. "If you look at the replay you'll see it's not a handball. I was shocked the referee gave me a yellow card. It was a good goal. Do you think if the keeper had seen a handball he would not have reacted and appealed?"
Arsenal's anger is understandable but CSKA, the Russian champions and league leaders, played with an assuredness that confirmed a football powerhouse is emerging in the east to match the financial muscle of this mineral-rich nation. The Muscovites' run to Uefa Cup victory in 2005 was part-financed by the generous £5.4 million-a-year sponsorship from Roman Abramovich's oil giant Sibneft, and the Brazilian talent that delivered that triumph remains in Moscow.
It is married to a native obduracy that suggests the next decade could well see Russia produce a European champion. But last night Arsenal's fluidity was also unravelled by the horrendous state of the pitch. "Uefa has to look into that because it is not acceptable to play on pitches like that in the Champions League," said Wenger.
That, however, was of little concern to the forward troika of Dudu, Vagner Love and Daniel Carvalho, who combined to ensure Arsenal were often outpaced and outwitted in their defensive third. It was their kaleidoscope of movement that drew Toure's foul on Dudu 19 yards out, giving CSKA the perfect chance to execute a training-ground set play.
A back-heel from Sergei Ignashevich confused Arsenal; Carvalho then unleashed a drive of such ferocity that the 19-year-old defender Johan Djourou, who had been charging down the shot, turned his back. The ball flashed past the unsighted Jens Lehmann.
Five minutes later the German was called into an acrobatic save, tipping Carvalho's dipping drive over. From the resulting corner he had to gather Dudu's header. CSKA seemed to have doubled their lead on 35 minutes only for the linesman's flag to deny them. Again Carvalho delivered from the left and Vagner Love headed in, but from an offside position.
Cesc Fabregas was woefully off his game and sending passes regularly awry: the Premiership side were being stifled. Eventually, though, Arsenal became more involved. Robin van Persie was released from his own halfway line by Toure. Two speedy defenders chased back and the Dutchman found an outlet in William Gallas. But the Frenchman had to chase 80 yards to overlap for the pass and was too breathless to shoot before the covering tackle.
After the break it was again CSKA who enjoyed superiority and only exquisitely timed blocks from Toure, Gallas and Djourou prevented Vagner Love from scoring. It required managerial intervention and Emmanuel Adebayor was duly called off the bench, providing an outlet for an aerial assault. Only then could Arsenal come back into the game.
The Gunners, now with Gael Clichy and Theo Walcott also on the pitch, threw bodies forward in search of the point that would make the trip worthwhile. Gallas's short pass found Toure in the box and just as quickly he had found Henry with a low ball; the captain's first-time shot, though, was saved.
Arsenal had another late "goal" overruled. The ball was in CSKA's net as Toure met Adebayor's flick from Fabregas's cross but it was overruled for offside. At the other end substitute Ivica Olic almost guaranteed the home side's victory before the final whistle. Meeting Elmir Rahimic's left-wing cross with a downward header, the Croatian's effort flew just over.
The defeat is likely to be innocuous to Arsenal's hopes of progressing but a win would effectively have put this competition to bed until February.
Guardian Service
CSKA MOSCOW: Akinfeev, Vasili Berezutsky, Semberas, Alexei Berezutsky, Aldonin (Krasic 90), Ignashevich, Rahimic, Zhirkov, Vagner Love (Olic 85), Dudu, Daniel Carvalho (Taranov 88). Subs Not Used: Mandrykin, Kochubey, Salougin, Grigoriev. Booked: Rahimic, Ignashevich, Vagner Love. Goals: Daniel Carvalho 24.
ARSENAL: Lehmann, Hoyte, Toure, Djourou (Clichy 75), Gallas, Hleb, Fabregas, Silva, Rosicky (Walcott 80), Henry, Van Persie (Adebayor 68). Subs Not Used: Almunia, Denilson, Song Billong, Aliadiere. Booked: Henry.
Referee: Manuel EM Gonzalez (Spain).
