Two goals from Thierry Henry led Arsenal to a 5-1 rout of Inter Milan, keeping the north London side's Champions League hopes alive and sending Group B qualification down to the wire for all four teams.

Arsenal, badly weakened through injury, struck three times in the last five minutes to humiliate the Italians and become only the second English team to beat Inter at home in European competition.

Inter's heaviest home defeat in 47 years of European football was all the more remarkable coming after they beat the English side 3-0 at Highbury in September.

It is the second convincing victory by an English side in Italy this season coming after Chelsea crushed Lazio 4-0 in Rome three weeks ago.

Those two defeats are the heaviest suffered at home in major European competition by Italian clubs.

Henry, outstanding throughout the game, opened the scoring in the 25th minute before Inter drew level eight minutes later through a deflected Christian Vieri shot.

Just four minutes after the interval Freddie Ljungberg restored Arsenal's advantage before Henry secured victory with a coolly taken goal on the break in the 85th minute.

Then came five minutes of madness as Inter's defence fell to pieces, with Brazilian Edu and Frenchman Robert Pires completing a scoreline that somewhat flattered Arsenal and left Inter facing an uncertain future in the competition.

With Lokomotiv Moscow beating Dynamo Kiev 3-2, all four teams know a victory will get them into the knockout stage.

But Arsenal, who would have been eliminated with a loss at the San Siro, will fancy their chances as they have a home game against Lokomotiv to come while Inter have the more testing task of travelling to Ukraine to face Dynamo.

BEAUTIFULLY WORKED

The London side, missing French internationals Patrick Vieira and Sylvain Wiltord, went ahead with a beautifully worked goal. Pires fed the ball to Henry who slipped it inside the area to Ashley Cole and met the return pass with a perfectly executed shot from the edge of the area.

Inter drew level eight minutes later when Cristiano Zanetti robbed Ray Parlour in midfield and threaded the ball outside to Vieri whose left foot shot deflected off Arsenal defender Sol Campbell and looped over goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

But Arsenal restored their advantage early in the second half when Henry burst down the left flank, cut inside and fed Ljungberg who coolly slotted past Toldo.

Inter lacked creativity in midfield and as they pushed forward looking for an equaliser they were caught out.

The Arsenal defence cleared a corner and Henry raced clear before leaving Javier Zanetti standing and finding the bottom corner of the net.

That was bad enough for Inter but it was to get worse as they fell apart.

Henry set up Ljungberg whose mis-kicked shot squirted to Edu who drove in the fourth and substitute Jeremie Aliadiere made their fifth goal when his cross was buried by Pires at the second attempt.

The only other English team to have beaten Inter at home in Europe were Birmingham City who won an Inter Cities Fairs Cup semi-final first leg match at the San Siro 2-1 in 1961.