Post-mortem – Porto gave Arsenal a much-needed lesson in humility

I’m sending this in regarding my thoughts on our game against Porto by Baron

👉On the balance of play, a draw would have been a fair result, but it wasn’t to be, so we learn from this & move on to the next one.

👉 In a regular league season you have to be the best (read most consistent) over a gruelling season to win the league, & that’s why i agree with the school of thought that believes you can win competitions like the UCL without necessarily being the best that year. A bit of luck here and there, an unexpected fillip & you could be hoisting the big jug.

However, not putting in the needed graft, but relying on luck to win (because it is a knockout competition where you might not necessarily be the best but can still win), would ultimately lead you nowhere. Make no mistakes, it is still a very difficult competition to win.

There’s a reason we haven’t won it yet, despite our standing in global football.

👉 Possession in harmless areas, without any sort of penetration will not win u a football match. Porto occupied the spaces we usually thrive in, closed us down repeatedly & limited us to sideways passing.

We ended up with ZERO shots on target, & for a team that has been scoring goals for fun in recent times, ZERO shots on target should be a very instructive stat.

They obviously studied this Arsenal team, did their homework on us, & when it was crunch time yesterday, they passed in flying colours.

👉 When the draws were originally made several months ago, i mentioned that we had to be careful so as not to get sucker punched. I’m a believer in the concept of never winning matches on paper. Once the requisite graft is not applied on matchday, an apple could suddenly begin to taste like neem.

Many discountenanced Porto, as if they were just there waiting to be trashed home & away, while we march on to the final.

Coming from fans of a team that has been away from the big time for seven years & one that hasn’t tasted the quarters for 14 years, that is quite simply stratospheric braggadocio.

Funny logic indeed!

👉 Now that the unfortunate has happened i’m sure everyone will calm down a bit & understand that this is a team that is still growing & not act like we’re the Harlem globetrotters every single week.

Odegaard has always spoken this season about taking it one game at a time & not getting too far ahead of ourselves, while Arteta has kept on harping on humility and the essence of remaining grounded every week.

I hope some of us take these lessons from those directly involved.

👉 We have an awful UCL record & sometimes in competitions like this, the shadow of history tends to loom large & we need to be careful, if we desire to correct that narrative this time around. It takes one solid season to change the course of history, afterall!

👉This is still a very young & largely inexperienced team (players & coaches) like i always say & i’ll cut them some slack. Arteta took over Arsenal as his first coaching gig & the youngest manager in the league. Carlos Cuesta his assistant is just 28 years old, while the other one is just 31. They’ll keep learning from their experiences & keep making incremental progress till they eventually get it right. It is at this point in time that the veterans in the team like Jorginho are needed to guide the younger players through.

👉 My major concern from last night was the timing of the goal.

A loss to 94th minute goal (basically the last kick of the match) can be quite difficult to get over.

I hope it doesn’t affect us in our game against Newcastle.

👉 I’m glad it was just the first leg & while the defeat was hard to take, it wasn’t a fatal blow. We have always risen from adversity this season & i believe we can do it again in a few weeks.

If we make the necessary improvements upon last night we should have enough to give Porto an uncomfortable night in the return leg at the Emirates & progress to the last eight for the first time in over a decade. That in itself should be enough motivation.

👉 Lastly, despite the result, it was a beautiful experience being able to watch the team i love so passionately being back in the big time. Just listening to the UCL anthem gave me goosebumps. We’ve worked so hard to get here, & i’ll enjoy every moment of it.

COYG!