Same old Arsenal…dodgy keeping!

Arsenal have often paid the price for goalkeeping and defensive errors in past Champions League campaigns, none of which has taken the club past the quarter-final stage.

So the sight of keeper Manuel Almunia’s flailing arms, after being caught off his line by Nelson Ferreira’s well-concealed lob, will have been all too familiar for the Highbury faithful. Thun’s equaliser, just two minutes after Gilberto had given Arsenal a 51st minute lead, seemed to sum up years of under-achievement in Europe by Arsene Wenger’s side.

It also highlighted Arsenal’s faltering start to this season and the defensive lapses which have cost them two defeats in their first four league games, notably at Middlesbrough last weekend. Bergkamp’s arrival with 20 minutes Left gave Arsenal fresh bite and they deserve some credit for chasing down their victory.

Thun barely register on the game’s international radar but the side were well-organised and had earned their night at Highbury after knocking out Dynamo Kiev and Malmo in the qualifiers. Typically, manager Arsene Wenger sought to accentuate the positive. Playing down the impact of a possible draw in a group including Ajax Amsterdam and Sparta Prague, Wenger said: ‘‘At 1-1, I wasn’t at all thinking we had seriously diminished our chances of qualifying.

‘‘We could improve the passing and create more chances, but one positive thing of tonight was that the spirit was good until the last second. The team could have had the feeling that everything was going against them, but they didn’t cave in…and to win after that was important.’’