Arsenal vs FC Porto Preview: None Bigger

Here we are, folks. On Tuesday, Arsenal will take the pitch at the Emirates against FC Porto in the Champions League knockout stage as the Gunners look to overturn a 1-0 result in the first leg and continue their quest to finally raise Europe’s most prestigious trophy.

To say that this match is important is to criminally undersell it. The scope and scale of this match is massive for the club, the fans, the players, and the manager. Arsenal’s return to the CL after a 7 year absence has been long overdue, and it would be shameful to see it end before it’s barely begun.

Arsenal are the Premier League’s most in-form side, but are 90 minutes away from seeing all of their momentum dashed on the rocks ahead of an international break that precedes a potentially title-deciding clash at Manchester City. There is so much more at stake than just a shot at a spot in the CL quarterfinals on Tuesday.

The season could very well come down to this.

Here are five talking points ahead of Tuesday’s match:

Know the Enemy

Since their last-gasp win over Arsenal at home, FC Porto remain 3rd in the Liga Portugal table but have been unbeaten in league play, including a commanding 5-0 win over 2nd placed Benfica.

Much like Arsenal, they are a team in solid form. Unfortunately, that means they likely enter the contest with not only a 1-0 aggregate lead, but also an abundance of confidence and belief. They stifled Arsenal’s attack with relative ease once before, and you’d imagine the game plan will not change.

Porto also look to be entering the contest in nearly-full health after missing striker Mehdi Taremi in the first leg, who is back to full training.

Know the (other) Enemy

I hate that refereeing appointments are a major talking point these days, but here we are. Ahead of Tuesday, it was announced that French referee Clement Turpin would be the head official at the Emirates. Turpin is, by all accounts, a highly-respected official who is considered among the best in Europe, having reffed the 2022 CL final, the 2021 Europa League final, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Does any of that assuage fears over Porto’s penchant for throwing themselves to the ground at a feather’s touch? No, not really. But after the ref bought everything Porto sold last match at their ground, hopefully Arsenal will get a few benefits of the doubt at the Emirates from one of the game’s better refs.

Dress Rehearsal

The last few Premier League matches at the Emirates saw Arsenal stage a dress rehearsal of sorts for Tuesday night. Against Newcastle and Brentford, the prematch festivities were on a grand scale - pyrotechnics and tifos, scarves and chants, the whole kit and kaboodle. The pomp felt unnecessary considering the circumstances, but it was an important bit of match-day prep for the type of atmosphere Arsenal are hoping to cultivate for these matches.

As Aaron mentioned in the post-match write-up, the match against Brentford presented another helpful bit of prep. The Bees were, for all intents and purposes, Porto Lite. They exhibited zero interest in playing the match, instead looking to gum up the works and upset Arsenal’s rhythm. In many ways, they succeeded - of the 105 minutes of match time, the ball was in play for a meager 49 minutes, one minute LESS than when Arsenal played at Porto two weeks ago.

Brentford copied the Porto playbook to a T, as they sat in a mid block, pressed like hell, and looked to catch Arsenal on the counter. They nearly succeeded if it weren’t for a few scintillating acrobatic Aaron Ramsdale saves in the second half, who made amends for his early howler that let Brentford equalize before the half. The main difference this time was that it was Arsenal scoring at the death to win the match, perhaps a positive omen ahead of Tuesday.

Super Mik Arteta

It may sound a tad hyperbolic, but Tuesday is potentially the most important match of Mikel Arteta’s managerial career to date. Arteta has recused himself of early criticisms with Arsenal’s ascendant performance in the PL the last two seasons, but it’s his track record in cup competitions that shine a glaring light on his shortcomings as a newcomer to managing a club at the highest level.

Arsenal have struggled mightily in cup competitions under Arteta, a fact that is often glossed over by the 2020 FA Cup victory. Since that early success, though, it has been a string of repeated failures with Arsenal failing to make it past the round of 16 in any competition. Tuesday will be 4 days shy of a year since last season’s ignominious exit against Sporting CP at the Emirates in the Europa League, a match that saw William Saliba and Tahekiro Tomiyasu’s season’s end with injury, two major daggers to Arsenal’s PL chances as well.

Arteta has grown leaps and bounds as a manager. Rescuing the tie and seeing Arsenal to the next round could be the next major evolution of one of the game’s most promising young managers.

Clean Bill of Health

For the first time in what feels like forever, Arsenal are at full strength with Gabriel Martinelli, whose minor foot injury sidelined him against Brentford, the only player who was not spotted in full training on Monday. The short-term nature of that injury means that Arteta has his full player complement at his disposal, a huge boost as the final third of the Premier League is set to begin at the end of the month.

But therein lies the double-edged sword. The recent lineup has unequivocally been the most successful iteration this season with the Gunners having won their last 8 in the PL. When something works, you don’t often deviate from it, even if some of the selections were due to a lack of options. But against Porto last month, the lineup was left largely unchanged and failed to deal with the hosts’ anti-football tactics.

Arteta now has major decisions to make, ones that could have season-defining ramifications. Does Gabriel Jesus return to the front to disrupt the Porto defense, or does he stay with a red-hot Kai Havertz? Does Kiwior remain at the left back, or does Olexander Zinchenko return to give the side more teeth in the buildup? In midfield, does he lean on Jorginho’s experience, or does he drop a more athletic Declan Rice into a deeper role to fortify the defense?

Few lineup selections have mattered as much as this one. Can Arteta get it right with so much on the line?

If history has anything to say about this tie, it’s that Arsenal should overturn it and see themselves to the next round. But Arteta’s history is less convincing, and Tuesday will be a major marker in his legacy as Arsenal manager.

The first leg of this tie was the quintessence of the fine margins of the beautiful game. Another few seconds, an inch closer to the post, another fingertip, and it ends in a draw, giving Tuesday’s match a far different complexion. But that’s how it breaks sometimes. All you can do is learn, grow, and move on.

It’s time for Arsenal - and Mikel Arteta - to prove that they have.

WHAT: Arsenal vs FC Porto, Champions League Round of 16
WHEN: Tuesday, March 12th, 4:00pm EST/1:00pm PST/8:00pm GMT
WHERE: The Emirates Stadium, London
HOW TO WATCH: Streaming on the Paramount+ app

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