Arsene Wenger's side dominated for large periods, created many chances and should have added a couple more to Van Persie's solitary effort. Nevertheless, it was a vast improvement on Arsenal displays of recent weeks.
The key to their success on the night came in the form of the trio in attack - Bendtner, Samir Nasri and Van Persie.
None of the three occupied the conventional positions up front which confused Roma's backline from the whistle.
Bendtner largely played on the left but that did not stop him from bulldozing into the area whenever he saw the defensive door left ajar.
His forays almost paid big dividends on a handful of occasions.The lanky Dane's first effort suffered as a result of mis-control from Nasri's fine ball into the area, a good block inside the six-yard area then denied him a second bite before he smashed wildly over the bar from eight yards after the break.
One man who was more proficient in front of goal, when it mattered, was Van Persie.
The Dutchman's penalty strike came just before the interval, won when he was tripped by Mexes after being played into the area.
Van Persie's low, driven spot-kick gave Doni no hope in the Roma goal.
The second half opened in farcical fashion as Arsenal only had nine players on the pitch when Roma kicked off.
William Gallas was receiving treatment as the players were called out for the restart, but a superstitious Kolo Toure waited for his team-mate as he is always the last man to leave the dressing room.
Luckily it did not cost Arsenal, who had numerous chances to extend their lead in the second half.
Apart from Bendtner's wasted effort, Abou Diaby had a wonderful low strike tipped around the post by the agile Doni before Eboue flashed wide after pouncing on a mistake by Simone Loria.
Roma, who have only won one of their previous 15 games away to English sides, were a better proposition in the second half but provided little threat in attack, with Francesco Totti and Julio Baptista disappointing.
Wenger brought on Mexican left-sided forward Carlos Vela and Welsh youngster Aaron Ramsey in the hope that they could give his side a little bit more to play with at the Stadio Olimpico, but it remained at 1-0 with the promise of a nail-biting second leg.
as hammered in by Maxi Rodriguez, before Lisandro had a goal wrongly disallowed by the referee. He fired in to level soon after, but Atletico went ahead again when Diego Forlan's speculative 25-yard shot somehow went straight through Helton.
But after blazing another chance over, Lisandro tapped in to earn a draw.
New Zealand drew first blood in their series with India with a seven-wicket win over India in the opening Twenty20 match in Christchurch.
Set a target of 163, the hosts reached it with eight balls to spare as Jacob Oram smacked a huge six to bring up the winning runs.
Brendon McCullum was the top scorer for the home side with 54 off 49 balls.
Having seen his opening partner Jesse Ryder trapped leg before by Ishant Sharma in just the second over he went about constructing an innings firstly with Martin Guptill, who was lucky not to be given out lbw first ball, Ross Taylor and finally Oram.
After his lucky escape it was Guptill who cut loose first as he regularly found the boundary then took to Irfan Pathan in the sixth over, smacking the left-armer for consecutive sixes.
But just nine runs shy of his half-century he was trapped leg before by Harbhajan Singh to leave New Zealand 56 for two.
But Taylor and McCullum took the match away from the Indians with a 50-run partnership as they worked the singles and punished the bad balls.
Taylor eventually went for a 20-ball 31 when he was bowled by Zaheer Khan leaving Oram, playing as a batsman only on his return from injury, and McCullum to complete a successful run chase.
McCullum brought up his half-century in the 19th over with a six off Yusuf Pathan, who like his brother Irfan was expensive, and Oram wrapped up the innings with his second six four balls later.
Earlier, Suresh Raina had held the Indians' innings together as wickets fell at regular intervals, particularly through the middle of the order.
Raina's unbeaten 61 in 43 balls and a vital partnership of 61 runs with Harbhajan at the end of the innings helped the visitors to post a reasonable total.
When Virender Sehwag unleashed consecutive sixes off the first three balls he faced it looked like it would be a tough night in the field for New Zealand as Tim Southee conceded 19 runs off the first over.
But Iain O'Brien struck back for the home side with the last ball of the second over to get the vital wicket of Gautam Gambhir for 6 runs then bowled Sehwag for 26 runs with the first ball of his next.
That had India 32 for 2 which quickly became 61 for 5 as Rohit Sharma out for 7, Yuvraj Singh out for only 1 run and captain MS Dhoni fell for 2 in quick succession.
A good piece of fielding by Oram ended Yusuf Pathan's innings after he had smacked three successive sixes off Nathan McCullum in his eight-ball 20.
Irfan Pathan was next to go, caught by Nathan McCullum off the bowling of Ryder and India were struggling at 101 for seven in the 14th over.
But Harbhajan and Raina showed plenty of composure and creativity as they held firm with Raina bringing up his half-century in the penultimate over, his 54 taking just 38 balls and including five sixes and a four.
Harbhajan then showed some nice touches to claim successive boundaries in the final over before being bowled by Southee for 21 with the last ball of the match.
Malaysian Grand Prix organisers have confirmed that the race will start at 5pm local time for the foreseeable future.
The organisers renegotiated their contract with Bernie Ecclestone and both parties have agreed to let the race start at 5pm.
Ecclestone has been pushing for some of F1's flyaway races to switch to night events in a bid to make them more European time-zone friendly.
However, with Thursday's announcement that the Australian GP has adopted a later start time, the Sepang organisers have confirmed that they too will be starting later than usual.
"We have amended the contract. The race will start at 5pm. It is another way of saying that there will be no night race until 2015," Sepang track chief Mokhzani Mahathir told AFP.
Mahathir added that the costs of installing a suitable lighting system was the reason why the Malaysian round of the championship would not become F1's second night race. Singapore, who hosted its inaugural event last season, is the sport's only night grand prix at present.
"Bernie said to me 'we will no longer raise the issue'. I told him that we are facing an economic crisis. The night race may or may not attract more people to the circuit," he added.
Mahathir, though, is confident that Sepang's current ticket offers will still bring in the spectators: "We are experiencing an economic slowdown. But we are offering attractive packages and activities to attract spectators."
Craig Bellamy scored to deny his old club the chance to cut the gap on leaders Manchester United to five points.
Liverpool could only manage a 1-1 draw against Mark Hughes' Manchester City side at Anfield.
Bellamy pounced to score after 49 minutes following good work by Robinho and Vincent Kompany.
Liverpool equalised through Dirk Kuyt when he scored after Fernando Torres had failed to convert Yossi Benayoun's cross.
But a point meant United's lead stands at seven points following their 2-1 win over Blackburn yesterday.
Bobby Zamora finally ended his long barren streak as Fulham condemned bottom side West Brom to a hopelessly one-sided 2-0 defeat.
Zamora had played more than 29 hours of Premier League football since his last goal but tapped home the opener from point-blank range before strike partner Andy Johnson added his ninth of the season in all competitions to seal a well-earned victory.
The home side struck the woodwork on four separate occasions as they ran riot with Clint Dempsey, Brede Hangeland and, on two occasions, Danny Murphy the men to miss out, while Roman Bednar missed an injury-time penalty for the visitors.
Ten-man Newcastle held out for a 0-0 draw at home to Everton after having Kevin Nolan sent off for a bad tackle on Victor Anichebe a minute before half-time.
