Conductor Henry in desperate need of a finished symphony

Arsenal continue to dazzle with their skill but touch of pragmatism still eludes them

The ghost of Arsenal's recent past swept out of the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night in the sleekest of black 4x4s. Dennis Bergkamp paused his vehicle, wound down the window and he and his front-seat passenger, Patrick Vieira, offered their hellos to Thierry Henry as he stood by the players' entrance.

It would be easy to say that with the calm guile of Bergkamp, now retired, and the physical power of Vieira, now at Internazionale, Arsenal would have turned their maddeningly goalless Champions' League draw against CSKA Moscow into a victory. But there were many frustrating, and even less fruitful, European nights with those two in Arsène Wenger's side.

It was certainly a theory that Henry was not going to countenance. Instead, the captain chose to blame the absence of a less quantifiable quality, good fortune, for Arsenal's disappointment. "I never mention luck usually because I don't believe in it," he sighed. "But tonight it would have helped if we had just a bit of luck."

The statisticians clocked nine clear-cut chances created against the Russian champions from 24 attempts on goal. Not to take one beggars belief - even for a team traditionally so profligate, and so apparently in pursuit of the perfect execution, as Arsenal. Their approach play was irreproachable. Their finishing was incomprehensible.

"We have a style of play," said Henry as he constructed a defence of tactics and psychology, before adding: "But we need to win, no matter how we play. I'm not saying this in a bad way, but we don't have the type of people who will kick people and barge people out of the way. Other teams play that way, but on the other side the thing is to win. We're going to have to do that and do it our way."

That way is simply Wenger's way. And, with the assimilation of Alexander Hleb and Tomas Rosicky and the burgeoning of Cesc Fabregas, his team have become even more intricate, with even more dimensions - and even more interchangeable in terms of position, formation and approach. Nevertheless, the CSKA result was the fourth draw in eight matches (the other four resulted in home wins) at Arsenal's wonderful new stadium, and although it hardly constitutes a crisis, it falls short of the high expectations.

It also suddenly makes qualification for the knockout stages of the European Cup more precarious for last season's finalists than it should be; which is all the more galling after the goal that Arsenal did score, and that was wrongly disallowed, in Moscow.

But the real fear is that Hamburg, the next visitors, will prove even more obdurate and less ambitious than CSKA while Porto away, the final tie, is not a fixture Wenger would want to carry any significance.

"Against CSKA it's weird," Henry said, "because I do think we did everything. We started well, commitment was there, desire was there. The goal wasn't."

Inevitably, comparisons are drawn with some of those other draws, most recently against Everton in the Premiership. It is an exercise that Henry himself reasons through. "The frustration was bigger against Everton," he said, "because we know we didn't really do everything. Before arriving in, not the final third, the final six yards, we knew we didn't do everything to break them down."

That admission amounted to a mea culpa on Arsenal's commitment in certain matches. Maybe it is the price to pay for a team so technically gifted, so accomplished, who play a game that clearly comes so easy to them.

"I've said so many times that I'm not going out there to score myself," Henry said when asked about his own recent record, but also offering an insight into his own beliefs. "I'm not that person to arrive one on one with the keeper and try and have a go. Against Everton I was passive. It's funny, because when I do pull wide I get some stick, when I stay in the box waiting for the ball I get some stick. If I was greedy and waiting to score only for me, I would just try to play myself, but that is not the game I try to play."

Henry admitted he and his team-mates have been here before. "We played Fulham once at home and drew 0-0, we had 15 clear chances and [Edwin] van der Sar was out of this world," he says when asked to recall other careless matches. "If I stay with you all night I can find you so many games, because we do have so many chances in games."

A comparison can be drawn with the efficiency and mental toughness of Chelsea. With Arsenal facing West Ham today, they know they cannot continue to be wasteful if they are to be title contenders. "We still have a long time to go," Henry said, before adding, "but it seems like with Chelsea when they are points ahead they don't drop any."

Arsenal have taken 16 points from their past six Premiership games. They also have a game in hand, which could put them just four behind Chelsea and the leaders Manchester United. But it is a fine line.

"I know we can't afford to lose too many points," Henry said. "We always try and win. But West Ham is never an easy place to go. Maybe it's not the right time to go; they won their last match and they're going to be on a high. And playing against Arsenal is always a top game for them and us. But it's never the right time to go to Upton Park. We're going to have to do it."