Arsenal see off Auxerre

Toure impressed with his running from midfield

Auxerre 0-1 Arsenal

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Gilberto Silva scored as Arsenal beat Auxerre in France to prove once more that they are capable of winning away in the Champions League.

The performance was not quite as mesmerising as last week's 4-0 win at PSV Eindhoven.

  Key moments

48 mins: Gilberto slides home Henry's pass

58 mins: Henry limps off with a suspected hamstring injury

82 mins: Benjani hits the crossbar

But the Gunners were nevertheless comfortable winners against a team with a good home record in European competition.

Arsenal have now won all three of their Group A games and are virtually assured of qualification to the second round of the competition.

The major concern for Arsene Wenger was an injury to Thierry Henry, who was substituted after 58 minutes clutching his hamstring.

Photo gallery: All the action from Auxerre

Arsenal quickly found their rhythm and were soon asking questions of the Auxerre defence.

Sylvain Wiltord forced a good save from Fabien Cool after just six minutes and the impressive Kolo Toure had two long range efforts after bursting through from midfield.

Cygan (left) was a solid presence for Arsenal

Kanu exploited a forward run from Patrick Vieira to dummy the Auxerre defence after 14 minutes but his shot from the edge of the area was fractionally too high.

Wenger's team played with the confidence of a side in form and Auxerre struggled to make inroads in front of a passionate crowd that took particular delight in booing former Lille defender Pascal Cygan.

I didn't expect Gilberto Silva to score so many goals

Arsene Wenger

A crisp one-touch move did create a shooting chance from an acute angle for Benjani but David Seaman comfortably saved.

Arsenal had shown glimpses of their awesome attacking play throughout the first half but it was not until three minutes after the restart that they broke the deadlock.

Gilberto - who scored the fastest goal in Champions League history against PSV last week - latched on to an intelligent lay-off from Wiltord before slipping the ball past Cool from a tight angle.

Henry limped off with a hamstring injury

Henry was withdrawn injured shortly afterwards but Arsenal continued to threaten with Cool saving from a Wiltord header.

Auxerre's veteran coach Guy Roux made attacking substitutions but his team still found it difficult to create clear openings against Arsenal's well-marshalled defensive unit.

But the lively Benjani was a constant menace.

He forced a save out of Seaman with a long-range effort after 76 minutes and almost equalised with a rasping drive that crashed against the crossbar shortly afterwards.

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Auxerre: Cool, Jaures, Mexes, Boumsong, Radet, Fadiga, Faye, Tainio (Sirieix 90), Lachuer (Gonzales 73), Mwaruwari, Kapo Obou.
Subs Not Used: Hamel, Agboh, Grichting, Vandenbosshe, Doumbe.

Booked: Jaures.

Arsenal: Seaman, Cole, Cygan, Campbell, Lauren, Toure (Edu 60), Silva, Vieira, Wiltord (Luzhny 83), Kanu, Henry (Pennant 58).
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Ljungberg, Jeffers, Stepanovs.

Attendance: 23,000

Referee: Frank De Bleckere (Belgium).