FC Porto vs Arsenal: Instant Reaction

Thoughts at full time

Headline: Sloppy

If there was one word for this match it has to be sloppy.

I think this describes the technical level of this match.

I think this describes the way that the team failed to adapt to the way the game was being called.

And it certainly describes Porto’s best chance and then finally the goal that they scored at the end.

Arsenal have not been great in these big away knockout matches and today they looked like they were a nearly unrecognizable team from what we have seen for the last two months.

This match started at a very slow pace, and it never really changed much from there. Arsenal had just 1.7 progressive yards per second in possession which is one of their slower averages this year.

Arsenal seemed to have trouble advancing the ball and with the middle clogged and the pockets of space that Arsenal have exploited so well. I don’t know if it would have made a difference but my thought at the time was that it was calling out for Jorginho as the team struggled to progress the ball. Especially with the big switch from the right out to the left open but left on the table.

Porto could have and should have gone ahead with a pair of big chances from a pair of defensive lapses by Jakub Kiwior and William Saliba (who looked off all day), with Wenderson Galeno going off the post and then inches wide in quick sucession.

That didn’t really even wake Arsenal up as the continued to struggle to create much of anything, nor did they seem to have any idea how to get the ball into dangerous locations at all.

This was one of the worst overall performances from Arsenal in general for ball progression and getting into dangerous locations.

Arsenal ended up with just 14 touches in the box here, that is the lowest they have had in a match this season. The players that they wanted getting those touches were also shut down Saka - 2, Martinelli - 3, Odegaard - 2, Havertz - 2, Trossard - 2.

Arsenal pressed okay here, holding Porto under their expected pass completion and mostly keeping them from advancing the ball but it didn’t turn into anything either.

Some of this was that this game was called by the referee very tight. The lightest touch was a foul and Arsenal seemed like they couldn’t adapt to it at all.

22 - Fouls committed by Arsenal, this is the most in a match by Arsenal (the previous high was 14) and the most committed by a team in the Champions League.

People are frustrated by this and I get it, most of these are not called in the Premier League and many were questionable and probably phantom but the majority were still fouls even if the contact was light, especially with the way that the tone was set early in the match.

This also seemed to throw off Arsenal on set plays, Arsenal had 10 corners in this match and 5 of them ended up with Arsenal committing a foul. They did generate 3 shots and 0.4 xG off the set plays but the usual bag of tricks that has been so effective in the Premier League was nullifed by Porto falling down at the slightest touch and a refree that set the bar low for the level of what is a foul.

This was the game that Porto played and it seems naive that Arsenal were not prepared for it, and they should have with no team in the top flight of Europe drawing more fouls than them and that they failed to adapt looking like they grew even more frustrated by this tactic as the game went along. We can complain about the level of foul, but the referee was consistent at calling it nearly every time and I think did so pretty evenly for both teams.

52.3 - Minutes of ball in play time. The shortest Arsenal have had this season and the stop-start nature of the game, plus the minimal time added on really shortened the game playing into Porto’s hands.

Stock Rising: No away goals rule