Arsenal have opened their Champions League Group F campaign with a 2-1 victory over Marseille at the Stade Velodrome.

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Both sides cancelled out each other in the opening exchanges, with the first chance of the contest coming only after 21 minutes.

The Gunners failed to clear a corner properly and a cross was drilled into their penalty box, but Andre Ayew could only head at Wojciech Szczesny.

Marseille had another chance to break the deadlock in the 40th minute, but Andre-Pierre Gignac's header went just wide.

The hosts began the second half strongly as well, with Rod Fanni placing his shot wide in the 47th minute.

However, Arsene Wenger's men soon stepped up their game as Mesut Ozil picked out Kieran Gibbs, but the full-back's shot was straight at Steve Mandanda.

Mandanda was forced into making another save soon after, this time by Jack Wilshere, before Gibbs cleared a loose ball off the line much to the Gunners' respite.

Arsenal then broke the deadlock in the 64th minute through Theo Walcott, who fired home after collecting a bad defensive ball from Jeremy Morel.

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Marseille, though, did not back down and came roaring back as Dimitri Payet and Mathieu Valbuena tested Szczesny.

However, it was the Premier League club who scored the game's second goal, Aaron Ramsey finding the net with a low shot after collecting Nacho Monreal's pass.

Jordan Ayew scored an injury-time penalty for Marseille, but it was too little too late for the hosts.