But in round two, which starts in just three weeks, they will face two winners of other groups in their pool which could include Real Madrid and Bayern Munich last season’s finalists or Juventus should the Italians win at Celtic tonight.

They cannot meet English opposition under the Champions League rules and so that rules out Manchester United and Liverpool for the moment. But they will be bracketed with only one other club, who like themselves, finished second in the opening groups. They could include Portuguese aces Boavista or a traditionally fraught trip to Turkey against Galatasaray.

At least there was the consolation of finally scoring their first away goal in Europe in five games since a 1-0 win in Lyon in February, when Sylvain Wiltord struck 19 minutes from time last night against Schalke.

But earlier strikes by Schalke’s Youri Mulder - after only 90 seconds - Sven Vermant and Andy Moller had already confirmed Arsenal’s third away defeat in three ties.

Ukrainian right-back Oleg Luzhny was sent off after just 16 minutes - the 37th dismissal for an Arsenal player during manager Arsene Wenger’s five-year Highbury reign. He elbowed and punched German international Jorg Bohme off the ball in retaliation to being kicked and will be suspended for the next three European games.

It is not Wenger’s biggest concern but the Frenchman may consider further internal disciplinary action against the reserve defender, whose actions were drawn to the referee’s notice by a flag-waving linesman who ran onto the pitch.

"I suspect Luzhny had a bad reaction, and after he went off it was nearly impossible for us to win,’’ said Wenger.

England left-back Ashley Cole was sent off in the opening Champions League defeat in Mallorca last month and Wenger said: ‘‘Now that we’ve finally scored an away goal in Europe my next ambition is to play 90 minutes with a full team.’’

Wenger was able to make light of defeat after Arsenal clinched second round qualification with a last-gasp Thierry Henry goal against Mallorca at Highbury a week ago but Henry, Patrick Vieira, Lauren and Giovanni van Bronckhorst were excused duty in Gelsenkirchen along with injured Tony Adams, David Seaman and Francis Jeffers.

Although it was a lightweight side that suffered this defeat the same could be said of the 3-0 loss in Donetsk this time last year after Arsenal raced unbeaten through their first five qualifiers. Confidence never seemed as high after that and had waned significantly by the time they went out on away goals to Valencia in the quarter-finals.

The evidence suggests Arsenal will be lucky to get so far this time. Sol Campbell, who damaged a hamstring but hopes to be fit for Sunday’s Highbury clash with Charlton fellow centre-half Matthew Upson was not so lucky with a similar injury which will keep him out for three weeks - admitted: ‘‘It looks like we’ve still got some lessons to learn.

‘‘We’re strong at home, obviously, but we need to dig in for some away results in Europe. Even a few draws would be handy.

‘‘I’m not feeling too bad apart from the injury. I missed an England game a few weeks ago with a hamstring but I came off with this one more as a precaution.’’