Steven Howard warns Arsene Wenger over has-Beans

FUNNY OLD GAME ... Wenger does his Mr Bean impression

Now a club with a 100 per cent record in Champions League qualifying play-offs - eight wins and 21 goals in the process - has only a slender one-goal lead to defend in Udine next Wednesday.

I am surely not the only one who believes this will be beyond a side outplayed for long spells last night by a Udinese team who returned home unable to believe how they had failed to score.

If that is the case - and Udinese had 15 shots on target to Arsenal's 11, an unheard-of ratio at the Emirates - then the Gunners could well have played their last home Champions League game for some time.

At £25million a season, it will prove extremely costly.

After the events of the past few months, most Arsenal punters probably thought it couldn't get any worse. They should have known better.

Already without Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby, they will now go to Italy without Kieran Gibbs and Johan Djourou - stand-in full-back Djourou being replaced himself just eight minutes after coming on for Gibbs at half-time.

There they will have to improve on an away record in the Champions League that has seen them beaten SIX times in their last seven away games.

The Italians had been variously described as Italy's worst-ever Champions League entrants and a side that had no other tactic other than counter-attack.

They had also taken a leaf out of Arsenal's book by selling three of their best players - £30m Alexis Sanchez to Barcelona, £10m Gokhan Inler to Napoli and £5m Cristian Zapata to Villarreal.

And they still looked a handful. In fact, they were all over the Gunners after Theo Walcott's early goal.

To settle pre-match nerves someone had said: "It's OK, the Italians haven't played a game yet."

Which prompted the thought that neither had Arsenal... since the Carling Cup final.

In fact, they had recorded just three wins since in competitive matches and two of those were over Leyton Orient and Blackpool.

They were so stretched last night with one thing or another - player sales, bans and injuries - they even had to play Marouane Chamakh.

Some Arsenal punters still believe he'll come good.

Seven goals in 29 games last term suggests he'll have to go some.

Yes, he was a Bosman free but, on last night's display, Arsenal have still been done.

And then there's Tomas Rosicky. You wonder who's the most surprised at his continuing presence at the club - him or the supporters.

As we had seen at the Emirates Cup and in Lisbon, where Benfica could have won 6-1 not 2-1, Arsenal still have huge gaps to fill.

Almost as huge as the gaps Udinese exposed in the Arsenal midfield and back four.

Wenger said before the game: "We are not frightened to spend but we have to be convinced the player is better than we have here."

Which shouldn't really be all that difficult.

No goalkeeper better than Szczesny, Almunia or Fabianski?

No centre-half better than Koscielny, Djourou or Squillaci?

No winger better than Arshavin, or no striker better than Chamakh?

You could have probably found better in last night's crowd.

And for a little less than the £170m Arsenal will have in the bank once Samir Nasri moves his backside up to Manchester.

Yet Arsenal could not have made a better start to the post-Fabregas era when Walcott converted Aaron Ramsey's cross at the near post.

That was about as good as it got, though, with Udinese causing them all sorts of problems.

But for the bar denying Antonio Di Natale and Pablo Armero shooting straight at Wojciech Szczesny, Udinese could well have been ahead at the break.

Di Natale, Serie A's top scorer for the last two seasons, was then denied by a superb Alex Song block just after the break. And so it went on, with Arsenal fans growing increasingly frustrated.

No more than in the final minute, when Walcott was denied by a top Samir Handanovic save.

Yet it would have been far more than they deserved.