FC Porto 1 - Arsenal 0: not great, Bob

With basically the last kick of the match, Galeno curled the ball beyond David Raya and into the far corner to steal a win for Porto over Arsenal in the Champions League. It should have been a 0-0. Arsenal easily could have had a 0-0. But, and stop me if you’ve heard this before (although not recently), a series of mistakes from Arsenal were their undoing.

Gabriel Magalhaes took a loose touch to start things off. David Raya scuffed a clearance. The Gunners looked to have recovered when the ball came to Gabriel Martinelli. But for some reason, he tried to ping a ball across the field, aimed in the general direction of a few teammates but not really near any of them, and gave the ball away. A few seconds later, nobody stepped close enough to Galeno and the entire tie changed.

It was a shocking end to a frustrating, disappointing night. Porto set up well and stubbornly kept their shape, keeping Arsenal from moving the ball as fluidly as they normally do. The home side were also massively helped by their over-watered pitch that had players slipping when they tried to change direction and longer passes skipping away from targets. They also got a significant assist from a home-biased referee who decided to call the game exceedingly close. The constant stopping and starting for cheap and phantom fouls prevented either side from establishing much rhythm and flow to their play.

The refereeing was particularly noticeable, and not in a good way, on Arsenal attacking corners. Porto adopted “fall over” as a tactic and the referee was repeatedly conned into giving fouls. It happened elsewhere on the pitch, too. Porto players would lean into Arsenal ones and then fall over, consistently winning fouls to break up the play. Or they would run into Arsenal players, throw themselves over, and get the foul.

Arsenal’s 22 fouls committed were the most in the Champions League since 2021. Arsenal did not commit anywhere close to 22 fouls. The referee was conned into calling 22 fouls against Arsenal. As a result, the ball was in play for a paltry 50 minutes. There weren’t any really big decisions to get up in arms about, but the referee was consistently bad all night.

And it was one of those nights where Arsenal could have done with a bit of help from the refereeing decisions, a fortuitous bounce, something. They needed that little bit from outside because their play wasn’t getting it done. Porto’s resolute defending was a contributing factor, to be sure, but the Gunners weren’t sharp. The passing was just a little bit off, players weren’t spotting good runs, etc.

Leandro Trossard was particularly poor on the evening and should have been subbed off earlier in the match. Unfortunately Jorginho, who came on in his place for 15 minutes, was dreadful. Gabriel Martinelli had a night to forget, as well. Martin Ødegaard wasn’t sharp.

Arsenal are a bit short on options, but they had quality players on the bench. Mikel Arteta just didn’t use them. Does a fresh Reiss Nelson make the same mistake that Gabriel Martinelli did for the goal? Probably not. He’s got the legs to carry the ball himself and doesn’t have the tired mind that makes an awful decision to play an ill-advised ball. Maybe Emile Smith Rowe’s fresh legs can make something happen. Heck, put Eddie Nketiah out there to muck things up, put himself about, and create some chaos.

Declan Rice wasn’t his usual, swashbuckling self because he picked up a soft yellow card about a minute into the match. Was it a foul? Absolutely. Was it a yellow? Absolutely not. The contact was minimal and the Porto player threw himself to the ground theatrically. It absolutely affected the way Rice was able to play for the entire match. He didn’t cover nearly as much ground to make himself available for his teammates in possession and he wasn’t able to be as aggressive breaking up the play out of possession because he was clearly afraid of being caught out while on a card.

If you’re going to give that card, you have to be consistent. There were at least three fouls Porto committed in the first half that under that standard should have also garnered yellow cards — Wendall ran over Ødegaard from behind and then did the same to Bukayo Saka less than a minute later and Kai Havertz was grabbed from behind to stop a counter. None of those fouls resulted in a booking.

Those cards not being produced weren’t the reason Arsenal lost the game. But it sure didn’t help! Porto were allowed to shorten and disrupt the match with a set of tactics I’d rather see legislated out of the game. Heck, even the Porto manager was allowed to grab the ball and keep it away from Jakub Kiwior to prevent Arsenal from restarting the match quickly.

Said Mikel Arteta after the match: “We couldn’t touch anybody because everything was a free-kick, we will learn from that, prepare better and go and do it.” He clearly wasn’t happy with the way the match played out.

That goes for his team’s performance, as well. He was critical of the mistakes at the end of the game leading to the goal. He also correctly called out the sloppy play and lack of attacking threat — Arsenal didn’t muster a shot on target. They generated two or three decent chances from corners / set pieces but weren’t able to get them on frame.

The good news is that Porto showed absolutely nothing that should make Arsenal concerned about the return leg. They aren’t a very good team. With a home crowd to buoy them (and influence referee decisions) and a properly watered pitch, the Gunners should sweep Porto aside. The same thing happened the last time Arsenal faced Porto in the knockouts of the Champions League. They lost by one goal away. They blew the doors off them (5-0) at the Emirates.