Arsene Wenger surprised with Uefa's security 'gamble' by allowing Arsenal vs Koln to go ahead

Arsene Wenger admitted he was surprised Uefa “gambled” and allowed Arsenal’s game with Koln to go ahead but expects a full investigation into the crowd disturbances which delayed the match by an hour on Thursday night.

The Gunners ran out 3-1 winners in the Group H opener, which saw as many as 20,000 Koln fans making the journey from western Germany despite only 3,000 tickets being made available.

That meant many attempted to enter without tickets or with tickets for the Arsenal sections, where it soon became clear ahead of kick-off that plenty had succeeded.

Five arrests were made as the Metropolitan Police said that additional officers had been deployed to the area following the unrest.

Koln fans clashed with stewards, brought in flares and sat in home sections but it is likely to be Arsenal - as organisers of the match - who face potential sanctions.

“We live in a society of 100 per cent security and I thought they would never take a gamble to play this game when I saw the images around the stadium,” Wenger said. “But I must say our supporters as well dealt well with the situation as well and there was no aggravation.”

Asked if Uefa should take action, Wenger replied: “They are the only master to analyse the facts of what happened. They will certainly make an inquiry to see what happened, for sure.

“They (Koln fans) were very clever.

“I don't know how they managed to infiltrate our fans and get everywhere but they did that very well. I don't know if they went through Arsenal membership, on the internet... they did very well.

“We waited patiently in our dressing room but what was difficult was for me was I had all kind of plans to think about at some stage.

“It was all kind of speculations you know that we had to analyse and see how we can deal with the situation. But in the end at some stage I thought they would not play the game, because I can't see the police taking any risk.”

Additional reporting by PA