Old-boy Eduardo inflicts defeat on sloppy Arsenal

Shakhtar Donetsk  2 Arsenal 1. Arsene Wenger laid into his side after they failed to beat Shakhtar and secure their passage into the knockout phase of the Champions League. Arsenal started brightly on a cold night in the Ukraine, and were ahead after 10 minutes through Theo Walcott, but sloppy defending allowed Shakhtar the chance to avenge last month's 5-1 drubbing at the Emirates. "We were 1-0 up and comfortable and slowly we dropped our urgency," said an angry Wenger afterwards. "And we were punished because they have good players, and you see that especially on the crosses, nobody attacks the ball and they created chances from that."

Arsenal and Shakhtar are now joint leaders of Group H (the Gunners top on goal difference) with nine points but Wenger knows Walcott's early goal should have been the springboard for their fourth victory in the pool stage. "It is a missed opportunity," he said. "Especially if we get away with a draw we are there nearly. So the most difficult thing in a game is to score the first goal, which we did, and then I believe it's a lack of maturity not to focus 100 percent to make sure [of the win]."

Even with Cesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin and Alex Song missing, Arsenal seemed set to rack up another crushing victory over Shakhtar when Walcott, reminding the world that Gareth Bale isn't the only gifted winger in North London, raced the length of the field and fired the ball past Andriy Pyatov into the bottom corner of the hosts' goal.

Perhaps Arsenal expected Shakhtar to crumble as they did a fortnight ago, but faced with hometown humiliation the Ukraine side regrouped and came close to equalising a few minutes later when Lukas Fabianski did well to save Dmytro Chygrynskiy's sweet strike. But just before the half-hour mark Shakhtar did find the Arsenal net, albeit off the head of Craig Eastmond, Arsenal's 19-year-old defender appearing in his first Champions League tie. Chygrynskiy nodded a Jadson free-kick towards the Arsenal goal and the ball deflected off Eastmond's head past the stranded Fabianski.

Then on the stroke of half-time Shakhtar took the lead when Gael Clichy allowed himself to be dispossessed by Darijo Srna out wide on the right, and his inviting ball into the box was neatly steered into the bottom right-hand corner of Arsenal's goal by Eduardo. The former Arsenal player may have chosen not to celebrate his goal, but the Shakhtar fans did as they revelled in revenge.

"It's a good lesson for us tonight because we thought we'd get through without putting 100 percent focus on every defensive situation," said Wenger, whose side will make it through to the last 16 if they beat Braga away in three weeks. "We had the chances but we couldn't take them. Overall, I believe we have learned that even if you give a lot, if you are not focused for 90 minutes  you don't win at that level." ·