Wenger won't blame Jens

Arsenal have not won in the Champions League since beating Roma a year ago but Wenger says he has no doubts about his team's European credentials. "It is not fair to generalise over the last nine games. In some of them, there was nothing to play for, in some we had already qualified. What is unfortunate is that in two of the last three games we have given away goals. Against Kiev we did it and also against Inter. We must be realistic. We need to win our next game and at the moment, that is all that matters. There is no point thinking about the game in

Milan against Inter because if we do not win our two home games, then it won't matter. I think we will go through but I don't know with who that will be."

Wenger's optimism was not mirrored in the faces of disconsolate Arsenal players trudging off - especially Lehmann and central defender Kolo Toure, who hit the bar from close range in injury-time.

Lehmann handed his gloves to a waiting fan while Toure laid flat out on the wet turf as if he still could not believe what had happened. But one glance at the table shows only too clearly that, once again, Arsenal have been found wanting against Europe's elite. One point, one goal, two defeats and the need for a gargantuan effort if they are to reach the last 16.

The first stage is all about getting through and although a new disciplined approach was evident in the 0-0 draw against Lokomotiv in Moscow, they seemed unwilling to play for the draw last night.

True, it would all have been different if Robert Pires's header had gone in rather than hit the bar early on but, leaving aside Lehmann's blunder, the first goal was bizarre to say the least. First Toure and Sol Campbell made a hash of heading clear before a mixup between Brazilian Edu and Gilberto Silva allowed Jerko Leko to shoot. The deflection fell to Maksim Shatskikh, who volleyed home.

To be fair, Arsenal came close to rescuing an unlikely point and with 10 minutes left Thierry Henry finally lost his man-marker Sergiy Federov to convert a Pires cross. In a storming finale, Sylvain Wiltord brought an excellent save from Oleksander Shovkovskyi, Ashley Cole shot into the side netting and Toure had his moment of anguish.

But for all the drama, the damage was done with those two gifted goals - and Patrick Vieira, for one, knows such lapses must be eliminated. The Frenchman, who came on after an hour, said: "We make mistakes in the Premiership but in the Champions League, the quality is different from the Premiership. We need to be more careful."

Looking at the three games remaining, Pires said: "We will have to win two of them and maybe all three to go through. But with Lokomotiv beating Inter, it is now a fourteam group again."

With Arsenal looking up from the bottom of the table.