Oleg's old boys are even more worldly wise now

"Every year, things are getting better in Ukraine," said Luzhny. "I am not talking about football. I am talking about for all the people there. There are more jobs and the standard of living is rising. It is different and so is the number of foreign players in the country. Look at Dynamo. There are players not only from all over Europe, but all over the world."

Alessandro and Diogo Rincon come from Brazil, Roberto Nanni from Argentina, Tiberiu Ghioane's a Romanian, there's Bulgarian Georgi Peev, Badr El Kaddouri of Morocco and Goran Sablic and Jerko Leko of Croatia. A league of nations - with wage packets to match.

"The top players in Ukraine can earn £7,000 to £10,000 a week," said Luzhny. Not quite in the Michael Owen or Thierry Henry bracket yet, but a considerable increase in the last five years. It shows how quickly things are changing out there." There does seem to be one constant, however, when it comes to the Eastern bloc - Arsenal can't win there. They can win in Rome, Eindhoven, Auxerre - all difficult venues. But if the time difference is more than an hour, they have problems.

Luzhny played for Dynamo in the 3-1 defeat they inflicted on Arsenal five years ago, Shakhtar Donetsk won 3-0 against a weakened Gunners two years later and Arsenal have since lost 4-1 in Moscow against Spartak and drawn 0-0 there this season against Lokomotiv.

So why such a dismal record? "Well, first of all, they are good teams that they were playing, you have to remember that," said Luzhny. "And, also, maybe there was a lack of concentration and focus by Arsenal. But they looked very disciplined against Lokomotiv, I have to say that. And they will need that same focus against Dynamo because they are a very strong team at home. Not many teams win there in European football.

"Always, they have 80,000 supporters and always they get behind the team. And I know how much they are looking forward to playing Arsenal. I was there a few weeks ago and this is the game everyone is talking about. They know Arsenal are very strong with great individual players. Maybe Dynamo do not have those individuals, but collectively they are very good. They play for each other and they also play good football, not long ball.

"How will it go? It is hard to say. At Highbury, Arsenal can win. When I played for Dynamo against Arsenal, it was at Wembley and we drew 1-1. Highbury is better for Arsenal, but in Kiev it will be very hard. They will do well if they do not lose and that could be important because I think it will be between those two teams to go through behind Inter Milan. And Inter have to come to Kiev in the last match in December. If they are through by then, they could send a weak team. That will not help Arsenal.

"I know Arsenal have found it hard in Eastern Europe and I cannot think of one reason apart from the concentration and maybe a little bad luck. I played against Spartak when we lost 4-1 and it could have been so different. We were winning 1-0 through a goal from Silvinho and then Kanu went through one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but his shot was saved.

At 2-0, we would have won but it went wrong for us. Donetsk was different because Arsenal were already through and it was almost a reserve side that played there. We know Arsenal had injuries when we won 3-1 five years ago so maybe they need some luck."

Asked about the dangermen, he added: "Dynamo do not have great individuals like when Andrei Shevchenko and Sergei Rebrov were playing. But Serhii Fedorov is an excellent defender and the two Belorussian midfielders, Aleksandr Khatskevich and Valentin Belkevich, are excellent players. Collectively, Dynamo will make it hard."