LONDON: Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen admitted the first half of their 3-1 win over Olympiakos in the Champions League at Emirates Stadium this morning was a struggle, but heralded the importance of taking six points from their opening two games.

Goals from Gervinho, Lukas Podolski and a stoppage time effort from Aaron Ramsey sealed the win for the Gunners, but they went in all-square at the break following Konstantinos Mitroglou's equalizer in first half stoppage time.

"I think in the first half (it was a struggle)," Vermaelen told Sky Sports.

"The second half was better, but in the first half we were a little bit sloppy in the passing, we lost a lot of balls. We started well, but the first half was not great."

The centerback insisted the result had nothing to do with dented confidence after last weekend's Premier League defeat to Chelsea.

Vermaelen said assistant manager Steve Bould, standing in for suspended Arsene Wenger, was not angry, but just explained where the team were going wrong.

"We started well, a high tempo - that was great, but afterwards we dropped a little. I don't think it was because of the weekend but sometimes that can happen," said Vermaelen.

"Bould wasn't angry. It's not always good to be angry. He said things we did wrong, or that we could do better, and in the second half we were a lot better I think.

'Be more cautious on the ball, don't lose too many balls,' that's what Bould said."

Vermaelen also heralded the confidence that winning their first two Champions League games brings.

He was also happy for Gervinho, who has been in good form so far this season.

"It gives us a lot of confidence, getting six out of six points. That's really important," said Vermaelen.

"I think the most important thing is to win your home games in the Champions League, and we won an away game at Montpellier so we want to keep it going.

"Gervinho is doing great. He had a great pre-season as well. And now you can see in the matches, he's scoring a lot of goals, he's quick, he's quite busy, so I'm happy for him."

- mD

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