This is unfair. Ever since the Kroenkes bought Usmanov in 2018 out, they’ve backed the club.
Here’s our net spent since 2018.
As you can see only 2 clubs are above us and unlike them, this is our first year back in the CL, and we had a year out of Europe altogether too in there.
I hate the way porto play but I do have to give them a lot of credit, the way they managed to take away so many things we are good at over the 210 mins was pretty impressive.
Ultimately they managed to turn it into a tie if very few chances which meant it was a coin flip.
Credit to us in the sense we didn’t implode and concede a silly goal and our penalties were absolutely fantastic.
I thought Porto despite being so well organised another key was they didn’t just hoof the ball, the pressed at times and also looked to retain possession which made it harder for us to lock them in and build relentless pressure.
All in all well done Gooners, I’m so delighted it wasn’t another story to add to our list of european failures.
Was thinking about this game, especially our performance, and why we struggled to create enough chances. I think we have to give Porto credit. They did everything they had to knock us off our rhythm. And it wasn’t like they parked 2 buses in front of their goal. They pressed us when they sensed we were under pressure, they let us have the ball at other times, they intercepted most of our little build up passes and flicks that have been the hallmark of our recent domination of teams and they handled all of our set pieces with relative ease.
But we weren’t at our best either. We rely heavily on our wingers to create overloads, get those triangles going with one and two touch football, and keep the defense pinned in their half. We couldn’t do that cause we didn’t have Martinelli and Saka was not on his game. To be fair to Saka, he was double teamed now and then, and didn’t get anything from the Ref for Wendell’s persistent fouls. But this will be a learning experience for him.
The fact that we still found a goal is all down to Odegaard. The man is simply magical. The finish from Trossard is what we have come to expect from him, and proves yet again that he is his best in the box, not on the wings.
In the end, this was an extremely tough test of our mettle. We were challenged to find a way to win when our usual way didn’t work, we were pushed physically and mentally but stayed solid for the most part (though Zinny tried to change that), and then we were extremely professional in the penalty shoot out. This is going to give this team huge belief.
Odegaard was the stand-out performer for me during the 120 minutes and obviously Raya during the shootout. Special mention to Kai Havertz. That was a tireless performance by him.
I’d probably say Porto is the best side we’ve played this season so far.
We just spent 100m on a single player. What was your expectation?
The haters doing their usual ‘Arsenal celebrating like they won the trophy’ routine shows they’re rattled.
Porto were good but they played like cynical shitehawks and we looked pretty leggy. Plus their manager is a bellend so fuck them.
It’s funny that very few pundits mention Liverpool “celebrating like they won the trophy” after scoring with virtually the last kick of the game against a relegation fodder team that let in goals for fun.
We will have hopefully learned so much experience last night which should help us in the future as we have little to nothing CL knockout knowledge apart from Jorginho and Havertz?
It’s total 91m up til now not just for that round.
Probs about 120 if we go all the way.
Aside from the evident shithousery, they play better against us than Liverpool or City this season.
Goes to show from these stages there will be no easy games no matter the name of the club we face.
Haven’t heard anything from the celebration police this morning. All I’ve seen is people mocking us for not being able to beat Porto in 90min.
United would lose those games 7-0
Liverpool and City would struggle
We did great COYG
I wonder if any other team left in the competition will set up like Porto did. They were so fucking annoying to play against.
Atletico Madrid. Italian teams tend to be a lot more conservative in Europe too. Inter will be a really difficult tie.
Thankfully only one of these teams will progress tonight.
Athletico play exactly the same x 2. They’re even worse with their time-wasting, low-block, counter antics.
If we get them, I’d be worried cause they also have quality in their squad too.
https://twitter.com/idoxvi/status/1767854596553158872
PEDs or cocaine. Had to be on one or the other.
Or perhaps he was just running on pure hater energy. 
Said to the guy next to me he must be on drugs, the guy was insane over the two legs.
My voice is completely fucked today, pushed back all my morning calls thinking I’d be fine by now but gonna be a long ass day.
He’s just a guy who keeps himself supremely fit.
He’s older than our coach man.
He looks extremely fit for a 30 year old, let alone 41.
