The Gunners won 1-0 in Tuesday night's Champions League play-off first-leg at the Emirates Stadium. Wenger received a one-match touchline ban for abusing Swiss referee Massimo Busacca in the last-16 defeat to Barcelona last season. The Frenchman's post-match criticism saw him banished to the stands for Tuesday's match, although he could find himself in further trouble for communicating with the bench. On Monday, Arsenal checked with UEFA that Wenger could send messages to the coaching staff via a third party. As a result, first-team coach Boro Primorac passed instructions from Wenger to assistant manager Pat Rice on the touchline throughout the first period. However, UEFA warned Wenger at the break he was contravening the rules and as a result he withdrew from communication. After the match, the Gunners boss felt that as he had not been involved in the match in the usual way, he would not attend the post-match press conference. Wenger will have been frustrated by the way his team were unable to go on to dominate the tie after taking an early lead through Theo Walcott. And while Arsenal will be happy with the clean sheet, the victory came at a cost as Kieran Gibbs and Johan Djourou picked up injuries. Gibbs picked up a minor hamstring injury and was forced off at half-time, but replacement Djourou was forced off after just 10 minutes with a similar complaint. Both players are now doubts for this weekend's Premier League match against Liverpool.
