Arsenal:
                   Lehmann
          Eboue Toure Senderos Clichy
Hleb (Baptista 81) Cesc Flamini Ljungberg (Walcott 75)
        van Persie (adebayor 70) Henry

It all started so badly. This season we've got used to Arsenal dominating at home then throwing the away team a goal. This time they got the goal before we had a chance to dominate.

There was a warning shot in the first minute when we gave the ball away in midfield, leading to a woefully wide shot from Trochowski. Two minutes later they attacked again, we blocked, the ball fell to Rafael van der Vaart in the D and after a touch to set up the shot he hit an unstoppable drive past Jens Lehmann and into the top left corner.

Arsenal responded well, and did indeed go on to dominate amd frustrate. A minute after the goal, Henry got his head to a ball forward and nodded it into the box for Freddie Ljungberg's run, but a defender got there first. Then Emmanuel Eboue hit a decent cross across the 6 yard line, which was cut out before it could reach Henry who'd made a run to the far post.

Generally we seemed to be trying to get the ball into the box much quicker. Cesc Fabregas tried a couple of shots from outside the box both of which were blocked before you could tell if they were on target. Then on 13 minutes Alexander Hleb did well to get the ball out from under his feet after he'd bundled his way into the box, and hit a shot which looked like it had gone in from our (far) end of the ground, but actually hit the underside of the crossbar and came out. Hleb's dribbling was a real threat for most of the game, even if he did overdo it a few times.

On 16, Robin van Persie did well to get to the ball with a diving header under challenge, but it was a very difficult chance and went wide. Soon after, Phillipe_Senderos got himself rightly booked for a really obvious and slightly stupid trip as a Hamburg man ran past him, the ball long gone.

Hamburg didn't sit back on their lead to the same extent that the likes of Newcastle have done. On the half hour, Mahdavikia burst into the box and hit a dangerous shot which was deflected over the bar. Then Cesc took a corner which was cleared, and driven back into the box where goalbound shots were blocked in the 6 yard box twice in quick succession. Van Persie tried a long-range free kick which missed by a yard or two, and after losing the ball on one of his overdone dribbles Hleb got booked trying too hard to make amends by winning it back.

The second half started with a nice move, virtually from the kick-off, the ball working its way to Gael Clichy on the overlap down the left. But his cross was just a bit behind van Persie, and the Dutchman couldn't divert it goalwards.

Matthieu Flamini (in for Gilberto again, and having a pretty good game) won a free kick in midfield, and a Hamburg player tried to delay its taking by not giving Matty the ball. It backfired though when Cesc eventually got hold of the ball and hit the free kick straight at Sanogo, who was booked for the interference. From that free kick we went forward and won another, just to the left of the box, and Henry fired it into the side-netting (this time the Arsenal fans on the East side of the stadium thought it had gone in).

Van Persie did well to get the ball to the goalline on the right, but he didn't cut it back enough to find Cesc's run into space on the near side of the box, instead giving the keeper an easy near post stop.

Then on 52 minutes we finally got the breakthrough we deserved, thanks to a lovely pass from Cesc, playing the ball forward and to the right from a central position and finding van Persie's unmarked run. He picked the ball up just outside the box, took it forward, and slipped it under the keeper.

Almost straight after the restart, Henry picked up that yellow card, apparently for running into an opponent off the ball. He didn't seem to do the man any harm whatsoever, but perhaps should have been being a bit more careful since the ref had had words with him a couple of times already (it looked to me like the ref was saying "I'm in charge" in response to a bit too much moaning from the Arsenal captain).

Soon after, Henry ran into another opponent, this time when trying to chase down a back-pass. But to be fair the man might not have seen him so obstruction in the box would have been a harsh call from the ref.

With 35 minutes left, Atouba was allowed to be all alone on our right wing, and finally they saw him and fed him. The cross was cleared but came back to a Hamburg man who blasted a shot wide. A scary moment which served to remind us that there was still a lot of work to do and it wasn't just a matter of getting a winner.

With 20 minutes left, Emmanuel Adebayor came on for van Persie. Moments later a brilliant touch by Eboue, controlling a difficult crossfield ball on the touchline and taking it past his marker, failed to get the result it deserved when his cross was deflected for a corner but the ref gave a goal kick.

Adebayor put himself about well all around the box. He kept possession well with 18 minutes to go, inside the box on the right, then played it wide to Hleb. His cross found Henry just forward of the penalty spot and he tried a first-time shot through a couple of defenders which may have had the keeper unsighted... unfortunately he didn't need to see it early as the ball came straight at him.

Then with 15 minutes left on came Theo Walcott, replacing Freddie Ljungberg who I thought had had his best game for a while, all the more remarkable given that he'd been out a while and his fitness was in question. I have to admit I was sorry to see the change at the time, Theo having looked like the kid that he is when he came on as a late sub against CSKA. This time, however, he made all the difference.

First though came a shot from Cesc which was deflected onto the bar. It came out to Henry who was given offside (from the original shot), but it probably wasn't crucial as it was a hard ball to gather anyway.

Eboue, I thought, looked knackered. So it was a bit of a surprise to see the skilful Hleb taken off for Julio Baptista, instead of say Justin Hoyte coming on for the right back. Good thing I'm not making the substitutions.

Walcott started on the left but switched more to the right once Baptista was on. He broke past his marker on the left and played it into the near side of the box where Henry was bundled off the ball, legally. I have to say that I agreed with those that were saying Henry didn't really look up for the fight today. Mind you, he often doesn't, but often comes up with a match-winning (or drawing) contribution anyway.

Then with 7 minutes left Theo got free down the right again, and played the ball forward to Eboue on the edge of the box. He burst past his marker towards the goal-line, then hit a thunderous drive from a narrow angle which went in off the keeper's body at the near post. Not easy to control for the keeper, given the speed of the ball, but he really should have saved it given that he had his body behind the ball. Never mind, eh? 2-1 up and there was a great feeling in the stadium. It wasn't over yet, but everyone seemed to believe.

Hamburg came back at us, Lehmann being forced into a great punch clear and a decent save. But then we broke forward again, again with Theo down the right wing. We were screaming at him to shoot but he knew better, and instead picked out Baptista's run into the far side of the box. The cross was perfect, looping over Henry's near post run, which had attracted defenders and keeper alike, and finding Baptista in loads of space. He stooped and headed firmly into the empty left side of the goal, an expertly created and taken goal.

We nearly grabbed another when Theo's threaded a cute pass between 2 defenders and into the box for Henry and Adebayor's runs. but they converged on the path of the ball just after it had gone.

Let's not pretend that the job is done, we still need a point at Porto (best to assume that CSKA will beat this lot). But if we do go through, we'll probably win the group. And let's not make the mistake of calling this a turning point. We've been there before. This Arsenal team is good but consistency is hard to identify before the event.