Arsenal:
                   Lehmann
           Hoyte Toure Gallas Clichy
Hleb (Walcott 71) Gilberto Cesc (Flamini 88)  Rosicky                         
        Henry van Persie (Aliadiere 82)

In the second minute, Thierry Henry got booked for what looked like an innocuous (though passionate) challenge on the touchline. Second later we broke upfield and into the CSKA box, the ball was cleared to Tomas Rosicky who hit a speculative shot which looped softly through to the keeper.

A minute later, Henry hit a looping cross from right to left which was just to high for Robin van Persie at the far post. He got his head to the ball but couldn't get above it to direct the ball on goal.

Alexander Hleb terrific run up the right led to a ball into the box for van Persie who tried a first-time shot but sliced it high and wide.

The visitors had a dangerous attack on 9 minutes when Vagner Love went on a great run from the centre circle and put Carvalho in just outside the D. We defended it well, pushing him to the side, but still he found space as he got to the left of the box and we were relieved to see him clip his shot short of the near post.

Hleb played a nice ball forward for Henry who was tackled, the ball coming free to van Persie who again hit is first time, more controlled this time, the ball rocketing a foot past the far post.

Henry dropped deep to get the ball and let van Persie run beyond him, then found the Dutchman with a good pass forward, but Samberas tracked him well and made a good tackle and clearance.

Then on about 15 minutes came the first of the really good chances. The ball was sprayed wide right for Gilberto, who came forward and hit a great cross towards the 6 yard line. The keeper came out but Henry managed to get there first, only to turn the ball past the near post. Hardly an open goal, and hardly worth mentioning as a miss compared to those that were to follow.

A couple of great touches from van Persie on the left, then he put Rosicky down that wing. The Czech passed into the box for van Persie's continued run and he did well to chase it to the goal-line, only to see his cross cleared from the goalmouth. It came back to Rosicky who chipped forward over the defence for Henry to run onto, but it just bounced away from him too much allowing the keeper to gather.

Halfway through the half CSKA had another rare attack (for the first half at least, which we dominated totally), earning a free kick which Carvalho sent into the arms of Jens Lehmann - not the easiest of takes though as the ball bounced just in front of him.

Van Persie did really well to get a head onto a greta cross from Justin Hoyte, but could only head the ball through to the keeper. Then Hleb worked some space for himself for a shot from the right of the box and forced the keeper into a decent near post save.

Van Persie hit a great cross-field ball for Hleb on the right, and he played it infield for Henry near the spot. It was awkward for him but he managed a turn and shot, only to see it blocked. Moments later the ball was played back into the CSKA box, with their defensive line on the edge of the box. Cesc Fabregas nipped in to get onto it, rounded the keeper to the right, but snatched at his shot from outside the post and hit the side netting. The first open goal of the night, missed.

Henry wasted a half chance soon after, after another terrific break, Cesc played wide right for Hleb who again found Henry in the box. The skipper took it to the goalline then turned quickly and tried to chip it over the keeper. But the keeper, who'd initially come towards Henry, had retreated by then and took it easily, and a lay-back to one of 2 or 3 red shirts would have created a really good chance.

Cesc put Henry through but he was given marginally offside. Then Henry did well to slide and keep the ball in on the right touchline (after a loose pass to him slowed down a promising break). He got the ball into the box for van Persie who shot just wide of the far post - another decent chance.

Great battling by Rosicky, Gilberto, and Cesc created a chance for Henry from the D but he shot well wide.

Up the other end CSKA nearly created a chance after the ref got in Cesc's way, but we defended it well. Cesc was maybe lucky not to get a talking to for his angry reaction in the ref's face.

With a couple of minutes to go before half time, another great break saw Henry lay the ball wide left for Cesc who played it into the box for Henry. He let it bounce and tried to place the ball past the outrushing keeper, but placed it wide of the right hand post. Another very good chance.

Not half as good as the one that came moments later though, when Henry got the ball to the goalline on the left and squared it a yard out for Rosicky who, in the middle of goal with the net gaping in front of him, somehow managed to let the ball bounce off him and into the arms of the grateful keeper by the left hand post.

Nil-nil at half time and it probably should have been 4 or 5 nil. You can't criticise the style of play when it creates this many clear chances.

At the start of the second half Henry did well to win a corner and then to get his head on van Persie's delivery to the near post, but couldn't direct it goalwards. Rosicky and Hleb combined well outside the box on the left, Rosicky's backheel finding Hleb who delayed his shot allowing it to be blocked.

We had a worrying moment when Gilberto went up in the air after an opponent made a back for him, and landed on the small of his back, but he came back on after treatment and didn't seem to suffer too many after-effects. Meanwhile Van Persie had swung the free kick into the box and William Gallas nipped in to get on the end of it, in loads of space, only to touch it through to the keeper.

Another nice move ended with van Persie's square ball going through the box just too far ahead of Henry for the skipper to get to it.

Arsenal's continuing failure to capitalise seemed to be making them nervous, and giving the visitors the confidence to attack a bit more, and we had a spell of end-to-end stuff. We tried a quick free kick but the move broke down instantly (always a danger - too quick for our own players to keep up) and CSKA broke back only for Rosicky to get back and make a crucial tackle. Then Love was put through, it looked like Gallas had him beat but the Brazilian did well to race past the defender. Perhaps Gallas had been put off by Lehmann's initially running out then changing his mind. The keeper did brilliantly in the one-on-one though, just managing to get a hand onto the ball as Love played it past him, which slowed the ball enough for Jens to turn and grab it at the second opportunity as Love followed on.

Henry made a great run into the box on the left, got to the goal-line, and chipped the keeper at his near post. He was probably going for goal, but it bounced inches past the far post with van Persie sliding in just too late to get a touch.

With 20 minutes to go, Theo Walcott came on for Hleb, and went to the right wing with Rosicky going to the left and van Persie pushing forward more centrally. It didn't really work, with Walcott looking for once like the kid that he is, and we missed Hleb's more mature skills.

Kolo Toure (immense in defence as usual) hit a powerful drive of a free kick, but it was from about 35 yards out and probably would have been saved even if it hadn't been hit straight at the keeper.

With 17 minutes to go Hoyte hit another superb cross which van Persie jumped for at the far post and headed down nicely, but it went a foot past the post. CSKA got a free kick 10 yards outside our box but hit it straight at the wall. Then with 10 minutes to go Jeremie Aliadiere came on for van Persie and didn't really do much. Again, I thought van Persie had been playing well (maybe not quite as well since the break) and the substitution didn't seem to help, but I guess in this situation something had to be tried. As it was, the last 20 minutes we kind of ran out of ideas, lobbing the ball tamely into the box with little thought. Maybe if we'd had an Adebayor up there to put himself about and get on the end of them.... But we didn't. It almost looked like they'd taken too much notice of the calls for a plan B - no good changing tack if you don't have the personnel for it, or if plan A had basically been working. There was no reason to think we wouldn't have missed those sitters if they'd been created in a different way.

Another great cross from Hoyte found Gilberto's head, and a similar downward header to van Persie's was going to sneak inside the near post if the keeper hadn't scrambled across to make a great save.

With 5 minutes to go Henry got a near post touch on a corner and the ball brushed the outside of the near post as it went out. This time we were glad he'd missed - it was a CSKA corner.

Matthieu Flamini came on for Cesc with a couple of minutes to go, too late to make a difference.

Meanwhile Porto were getting a 2-1 win against Hamburg, a result which brings them level with us on points in the table. Arsenal take on Hamburg next in what's virtually a must-win game. But the fate of the group will depend mainly on our last match away to Porto.