MATCH DAY BLOG: PORTO VS ARSENAL
Mikel Arteta delivered a pretty sober press conference before our first Champions League last 16 in 7 years. He paid respect to Porto as a team, as a historic club, and as a competitor. It was pretty clear that he is very much aware this young team could take the game lightly and find themselves in a tough return home leg.
The most important strategem for an away leg first game: Don’t lose.
Pep G always talks up the banana skin of a first-leg Champions League game in the last 16. It’s there to sucker the complacent. We simply cannot take them lightly. We don’t have the best record against Portuguese sides, and we have to be real: If we go out, it will be a disaster from a PR perspective. No one wants to be talking about less games if that happens because we’re out of the Champions League. The preparation couldn’t be better. We’re the hottest team in Europe by some margin. We’re scoring goals, we’re defending like demons, and all the work from earlier in the season is finally bearing fruit on the pitch.
Our football is good enough to get us to the semi-finals this season. But hey, so were the Wenger teams of the early 2000s. But we never got to grips with the competition. I don’t want there to be a learning curve in the knock-out stages. I’d love to see us embrace our youthful fearlessness and just decide that we can own this from day one. That doesn’t mean we need to win, but if we can get to a semi-finals, ...
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