A poor performance from a weak Arsenal team. Having lost 3 away matches we're a bit lucky to get through with 3 less-than-certain home wins. Still, we are through. Away performances will have to improve markedly, but our away form in the league suggests that that's not impossible.

We were behind after about a minute and a half, as poor defending all round let a couple of not particularly scary crosses lead to a soft tap-in.

Oleg Luzhny didn't distinguish himself at right back, and Arsenal improved markedly after his sending off on 15 minutes. That could be because Schalke weren't playing with much oomph, strangely seeming happy with 1-0.

Luzhny's red card was for a bit of stupid off-the-ball retaliation. If he'd just gone down like Pires does he might have got a free-kick out of it. But the moose wsquared up to the other guy then hit him.

He wasn't the only moose in a red shirt though. Ashley Cole had an appalling game, regularly caught out of position. Pires was ok, and Parlour did fine as an emergency right-back. None of the fringe players distinguished themselves, although Edu showed some nice touches.

Their second and third goals came thanks to more bad defending, with Ashley Cole caught out of position both times and the rest unable to cope with the advancing German midfield.

Wiltord got the consolation goal, a fine solo effort with 20 minutes to go.

Arsenal started:
Wright; Luzhny, Campbell, Upson, Cole;
Parlour, Grimandi, Edu, Pires;
Wiltord, Kanu.

Keown, Pennant, and Stepanovs came off the bench in the second half.

more to follow. see reports page for list of links to reports on other sites.

Schalke's efforts were in vain, sadly, as Mallorca got the point they needed, and a couple more, beating Panathinaikos 1-0.