We've been warned!

We went into this game expecting a win against the side ranked 32nd out of the 32 teams in the champion's league - and we weren't disappointed. With all guns blazing from the outset Shakhtar Donetsk looked as if they were going to be on the receiving end of a real pasting. Henry had a goal disallowed, unfairly, after 3 minutes and was denied later by the crossbar - Virt, Shakhtar's goalkeeper, was in for a busy evening.
One journalist commented that since they came from a mining town (Shakhtar means something like miners or mining) Virt should have brought his hard hat to cope with the bombardment and he wasn't far off. We provided 80+ minutes of fast, fluid, aggressive attacking movement making Shakhtar Donetsk look almost statuesque at times. After 90 minutes we had had 31 shots at goal and Virt was equal to all but 28 of them.
But of course we are Arsenal and nothing is that straight forward. After our tenth or eleventh shot at goal Shakhtar attacked us for only the second time in 25 minutes. Luzhny, who looked out of sorts at centre back all game (again), conceded a free kick in a central position just outside the Arsenal penalty box and Bakharev put them 1-0 ahead through a wicked deflection off of Robert piers. Still reeling from the shock of conceding this goal we took too long to regain our shape which, unbelievably allowed Shakhtar a second within 3 minutes. This time a well-worked interchange that demonstrated that Luzhny and Keown are not (yet?) a good centre back pairing. In their attempt to close down the same player they left time and space on the left of our area for Vorobei to slot home from a difficult angle, his ninth goal of the season.

What has happened to Stepanov you might well ask? Apart from the occasional attempt at a counter attack from the Ukranians we regained our composure and began to exert pressure once again. Clearly a determined and physically strong side, Shakhtar defended in numbers and tried to stifle Viera's dominance of the midfield - which was to their detriment. Popov, who had already been booked for a foul on the brilliant Kanu, made another cautionable offence on Vieira and whilst it wasn't the worst of tackles it was about time he went, for the volume he had committed throughout. I always think playing against ten men is difficult especially when you are two goals down and if anything Shakhtar Donetsk's resilience and defending improved. Certainly Virt's shot stopping went into another gear as demonstrated by his penalty save at 45 minutes from Henry. Fortunately Wiltord was on hand to follow up making it 2-1 at the interval.

With 45 minutes to go you sensed that the win was on the cards especially if we could keep up the momentum. And we did, our football was outstanding - first time passing at speed kept the Ukrainians on their toes. But Virt was equal to everything we threw at him. Henry had 4 or 5 chances saved and put as many again wide. Dixon had 2 tremendous strikes saved as did Wiltord whose battling spirit will make him hugely popular with the fans. Virt's further saves against Kanu, Ljungberg and Viera forced Wenger into bringing on a fourth forward Bergkamp who did seem to take the game by the scruff of the neck only to have his own attempts blocked by determined Ukrainian bodies being flung across the face of goal. Reminiscent of George Graham's Arsenal of old! Ironically it was our defence that created the equaliser.
A cross from Silvinho brushed the head of one of the visiting defenders and hit Keown's chest before he had a chance to control, it went in anyway, 2-2 and a huge sigh of relief throughout the ground. With five minutes to go we played 8 men in our opponents half leaving ourselves seriously exposed to a counter attack. However Shakhtar Donetsk had some tired legs out there and with only 10 men on the field their focus was on getting the draw. But a draw wasn't deserved and wasn't to be. In injury time Kanu dribbled past 3 defenders on the right of the penalty area and at the by-line turned and picked out Keown from just 8 yards. All Keown had to do was keep his red boot straight which he did, actually finishing as if he scores every game, rather than once a season! This was a remarkable game and on another day we would have won this game 10-0.
At Wembley on another day we might have lost! We should consider ourselves warned for the forthcoming games against Lazio and Manchester United: Our defence seems to be better at coming forward than keeping the goals out with just 2 clean sheets in 9 outings; and worse still we have gone behind first in 6 out 9 of our first games this season.

Wake up Mr Wenger the big boys are coming!