Mental block in the former Soviet bloc? Arsenal have not won in the Champions League in Russia and Ukraine in seven attempts, but this was more a case for the training ground than the psychiatrist’s couch. Simply put, Arsenal paid for their profligacy in the first half. They might have been two goals to the good by the break, but they unravelled in the second period when comfort turned to carelessness and the referee awarded a soft penalty against them.

It was probably the only way that Dynamo Kiev were going to score. They hit a post in the second half through Roman Eremenko, but most of their efforts were the long-range miscues you see in half-time competitions, where members of the public are spun on the spot until they lose balance and invited to have a shot at goal.

No wonder Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, revised his opinion after the match, from his pre-game assessment that a draw would be a good result to an admission that this was two points dropped. This stressful start to group G marked a contrast with the early stages of Arsenal’s Champions League campaign last term, when three wins in their first three group matches ensured a mellow passage into the knockout phase.

Before the match we wondered which Kiev would turn up: the team who obliterated the highly rated Spartak Moscow 8-2 over two legs in the third qualifying round, or the one who shuffled past Drogheda United 4-3 on aggregate in the previous round. The answer? A team somewhere in the middle of those extremes. Dynamo are in mid-renaissance under Yuri Semin, the former Russia coach, who is assisted by Oleg Luzhny, the former Arsenal defender.

They may be a far cry from last season’s bunch, the worst team in the Champions League, defeated in all six of their matches, twice by Manchester United, but Dynamo have not won a Champions League match for four years and the first half did little to suggest that that would change.

Delays at the turnstiles meant that the sold-out stadium was half-empty as the match kicked off, and with the atmosphere more lukewarm tureen than seething cauldron, Arsenal began brightly. After less than three minutes, Theo Walcott’s through-ball bisected a static back four, slipping in Robin van Persie for a shot on the right-hand side of the area that was saved by Stanislav Bogush.

Fifteen minutes later Eremenko’s shoddy pass was intercepted by Emmanuel Adebayor, but while the Togo striker’s run to the area was menacing, his shot was high and wide. Five minutes before the break, Van Persie shot low and wide from 12 yards. Another excellent opportunity came three minutes later after cute interplay between Adebayor and Van Persie, but Cesc Fàbregas’s attempt was too close to the goalkeeper.

There was more excitement at the start of the second half, this time with everyone in position. Everyone except Gaël Clichy, that is. The Arsenal left back was stranded up the pitch as Dynamo broke, giving Eremenko room to essay a few stepovers and hit a fierce shot off the base of Manuel Almunia’s near post.

It was not that Dynamo were men transformed; Arsenal were, and not for the better. As a cross from the right arrived, Bacary Sagna tangled with Ognjen Vukojevic, they tumbled, with the Dynamo player appearing to drag his marker down, and a debatable penalty was awarded. The hitherto inept Ismaël Bangoura sent Almunia the wrong way from the spot. “The penalty was harsh,” Wenger said. “Sagna was convinced that \ pulled him with two hands on his shirt and they went down, but we can’t complain about that, we have to deal with it.”

Arsenal finally found their focus and fluency near the end and in the 88th minute, almost on the line, Gallas bundled in Walcott’s cross from the right. The centre back scored in both legs of the Champions League qualifier against Twente last month. His defensive merits are open to question, but there is reason for Arsenal to be grateful for their captain’s thrust at the other end of the pitch.

Dynamo Kiev (4-2-3-1): S Bogush — Betão, P Diakhate, T Mikhalik, A Nesmachny — O Vukojevic, A Yussuf (sub: M Asatiani, 90min) — R Eremenko, O Aliyev, M Ninkovic — I Bangoura (sub: A Kravets, 90). Substitutes not used: O Shovkovsky, T Ghioane, M Morozyuk, M Shatskikh, O Romanchuk. Booked: Nesmachniy, Bangoura, Vukojevic, Betão, Diakhate.

Arsenal (4-5-1): M Almunia — B Sagna (sub: E Eboué, 78), W Gallas, K Touré, G Clichy — T Walcott, F Fàbregas, A Song (sub: N Bendtner, 70), Denilson, R van Persie (sub: C Vela, 83) — E Adebayor. Substitutes not used: L Fabianski, A Ramsey, J Wilshere, J Djourou. Booked: Sagna.

Referee: L Medina Cantalejo (Spain).