Part-is-done in tricky week for Gunners

Arsenal returned to winning ways with a vital away win at Partizan Belgrade and remain the top dogs of Group H.

The Gunners overcame a pulsating test against Partizan – who ended the match with 10 men – after Arshavin’s opener was canceled out by a Cleo penalty before half-time.

Wenger’s men were awarded a spot-kick of their own after the break but Arshavin squandered the chance to restore Arsenal’s lead. Marouane Chamakh did put Arsenal 2-1 ahead later on, before Squillaci’s first ever goal for the club handed some comfort which would have been undone had Fabianski not saved another penalty kick from the home side.

Victory gave Arsenal two wins out of two in Group H while Partizan were left searching for their first points having lost 1-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk in the first round.

Arsenal took the lead but they failed to make the most of their early dominance and saw several chances go to waste before Denilson inexplicably handled a Radoslav Petrovic cross inside his own box.

Cleo, recently granted Serbian citizenship, scored from the spot.

A pre-match power failure in the Serbian capital, which affected the floodlights, put a question mark against the game going ahead as scheduled.

But an Arsenal side featuring six changes from the team that suffered a shock Premier League loss to West Brom last weekend were able to kick-off on time against the Serbian league leaders.

They opened the scoring when England youngster Jack Wilshere saw his route to goal blocked but still had the awarness to back heel the ball into the path of the onrushing Arshavin who shot into the bottom of the corner.

Soon afterwards, Arshavin had a chance for a second goal but Stojkovic was quickly off his line to make a smart save before denying Tomas Rosicky.

And when Arshavin’s chip cleared the advancing Stojkovic, the quickly covering Jovanovic was able to hack the goalbound shot away.

Early in the second-half, Partizan found themslves a man down after Jovanovic, the last man, was sent-off for a foul just inside the area on Arsenal striker Chamakh.

But Arshavin, given the chance to put Arsenal in front from the resulting penalt, saw former Wigan keeper Stojkovic block a weakly struck spot-kick aimed at the centre of the goal with his legs.

However, Arsenal did restore their lead when Chamakh’s header from Rosicky’s cross was tipped onto the bar by Stojkovic only for the striker to pounce on the loose ball and score from close range.

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