The fear that Theo Walcott, England’s new star, has become a target for opposition hatchet men was underlined last night by Arsène Wenger, who accused a Dynamo Kiev defender of attempting to “destroy” the winger after Arsenal scored a late equaliser to salvage a point from a 1-1 draw in their opening Champions League group fixture in Ukraine.

Wenger accused Luis Medina Cantalejo, the Spanish official, of failing to protect Walcott from the overphysical approach of Andriy Nesmachny. “The referee should have sent the left back off three times during the game because he destroyed Walcott,” Wenger said.

The 19-year-old may face Nesmachny again not only in the return group G fixture in London in November. The 29-year-old defender is an experienced Ukraine international and England play his country twice next year in World Cup qualifying matches, the first at home on April 1.

Arsenal’s poor record in Eastern Europe, which had brought them three defeats in the former Soviet Union, continued with yesterday’s draw, but it could have been worse. After dominating the first half but failing to convert any of their chances, Dynamo were awarded a dubious penalty, converted by Ismaël Bangoura. But William Gallas, the Arsenal captain, bundled the ball in from close range to secure a point and make amends for a disappointing second-half performance.

Wenger remonstrated with Cantalejo at the final whistle. “I wanted just to understand how we play only three minutes’ injury time and then why during this three minutes we play only one minute,” he said. “I don’t really understand how it works — every referee seems to have a different computer to work it out. You could feel the game was there for the taking but we had no more opportunity to play. We feel we lost two points.”

Gallas has endured criticism for his defensive displays in recent months but Wenger praised him yesterday. “He’s highly committed and he always responds well,” he said. “It was not an easy game for us once you’re 1-0 down with a team defending so much and so well. We needed special character and he is one of the players who has shown that.”

Like Wenger, Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager, bemoaned refereeing decisions after Wolfgang Stark denied the European champions what looked a clear penalty in the first half of their 0-0 draw at home to Villarreal in group E when Park Ji Sung fell under Joan Capdevila’s challenge.

“I think it was a penalty,” Ferguson said. “Park was in a fantastic position if he had got past the defender. That was a clear penalty as far as I’m concerned.”

Earlier in the day Ferguson learnt that the FA was “examining” his controversial comments about Keith Hackett, the head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board (PGMOB), whom he accused of influencing the decision to rescind the red card shown to John Terry in Chelsea’s 3-1 victory over Manchester City on Saturday.

The FA’s compliance unit is likely to ask him to explain his comments before deciding whether to charge him with misconduct. Hackett has declined to comment, but the PGMOB claims that Ferguson “is pointing his finger in the wrong direction”.