Arsenal captain Thierry Henry would love to be able to have a friendly chat with referees - just like in rugby.

Henry was furious when what appeared to be a perfectly good goal against CSKA Moscow was disallowed by Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez for what the Spanish official saw as handball, booking the striker into the bargain.

Had the late effort stood, it could well have earned the Gunners a point to keep them top of Champions League Group G ahead of the impressive Russians.

In rugby union, the team captain or appointed representative is permitted to approach the referee for an explanation on decisions during the game, with a tradition of always addressing the man with the whistle as "sir".

Henry feels it is about time football adopted a similar approach, having been unable to put his point across to the match officials, even after the final whistle, at the Lokomotiv Stadium last night.

"People talk about footballers behaving like rugby players and accepting decisions - but rugby players can talk with the referee. We cannot," the Arsenal captain observed.

"When you come at them, try to speak to them then they do not give an answer and will not even speak to you. That is difficult to take.

"You do not want to have a go at them, but just to ask them what they saw at crucial times and yet you are not allowed to do that in football.

"I would like the game to be a bit like rugby at times because in football you just cannot speak to referees.

"When you score to equalise in the final minutes and ask why he has disallowed it, the guy does not answer you, it is like you are not there. That can be difficult to take.

"A football game often comes down to a couple of key moments. If they do not go your way then you are in trouble."

Henry recalled: "At first I thought he had given an offside and disallowed it - but to say that I handled it and to give me a yellow card for handball when I did not is wrong.

"If anyone sees me handle the ball on the TV replay then they should come and tell me."

Arsenal's efforts to extend their winning run to seven matches with a third straight European victory in Group G were not helped by the state of the pitch in sub-zero temperatures.

However, the Russian league leaders were good value for their advantage mid-way through the first half when Brazilian Daniel Carvalho blasted in a fierce drive clocked at some 62 miles per hour following a well-worked free-kick on the edge of the penalty area.

Both sides correctly had efforts ruled out for offside before the Gunners slowly started to mount some pressure of their own during the final 20 minutes.

Henry believes a draw would not have been an injustice, and has every confidence his team can rally to regain the advantage in the qualifying group when the two sides meet again at the Emirates Stadium on November 1.

Victory for the Gunners is now even more important given Porto's 4-1 thrashing of Hamburg, which moved them to within two points of the Barclays Premiership club.

The Arsenal captain said: "We played against a team once again who were all at the back and playing on the counter-attack. At times, though, they did play some great stuff.

"That is the way it is sometimes.

"You do not always have to play well to do well.

"I do not think we played well, but we deserved a point. A draw away would have been a good result."

Henry added: "Sometimes decisions do not really matter in a game, this one has - but we still have two games at home and if we win them then we will go through.

"We play CSKA again very soon and hopefully we can put things right.

"We just need to keep our heads up now.

"We are not in a bad situation like we have been in the past, and we have to make sure that we do something about it."

(re-opens) It was not the best night for the Spanish referee, whose award of a disputed free-kick after 24 minutes led to the opening goal.

Arsenal centre-half Johan Djourou was adjudged to have fouled Dudu - a decision which the Swiss international disputed.

He declared: "We could have finished with a draw because there were two bad decisions by the referee.

"On the free-kick, I do not think it was a foul. One on one in the challenge, I did not touch him.

"Later, the referee has said it was handball - which it never was.

"If it had been a foul [handball], then the keeper and defenders would have claimed for it. Nobody did.

"They were two bad decisions."

Djourou, 19, told Arsenal TV Online: "But we have to get on with it and get ready for the next match on Saturday.

"We lost the game, but we did not lose the war and we are going to be better again, that is for sure."