Having returned to the title race with the narrow win over Liverpool, the Gunners were expected to build on that result and earn at least a draw in the first leg against Porto and they would have probably managed to do so if it hadn’t been for Lukasz Fabianski, who made a couple of shocking mistakes to hand Porto the 2:1 win. As usually, Wenger blamed the referee for the defeat when instead his players were the only ones to blame.
The Gunners entered the match without Andrei Arshavin, Alex Song and William Gallas among other but Porto were also missing a couple of very important players on the day. However, unlike Arsenal, the Portuguese had a keeper present in the match. It is a usually a bit harsh blaming one man for the defeat but not after what Lukasz Fabianski has done in Portugal. He first spilled an easy cross from Varela to gift the hosts the lead before handing Porto the opportunity to score one of the most bizarre goals you will ever see. Not only did the Pole catch the ball with his hands after the back-pass by Cambpell, but he also handed the ball to Porto player Ruben Micael, who showed his intelligence by setting up Falcao to score into an unguarded net.
The two mistakes against Porto are likely to cost Fabianski dearly in the remainder of his career as he will always be remembered by the Porto game, especially if Arsenal do not go through, but the Gunners have to recover as quickly as possible as they still have something to play for this season.
Arsene Wenger’s side are more than capable of overturning a one-goal deficit from the first leg but they will have to be wary of very good Porto side, who caused Manchester United and Chelsea all sorts of problems. It’s definitely a good thing that Nicklas Bedntner is back as we really lacked physical presence up front, while Arshavin, Song and Gallas should also be back for the return leg. Having said that, I really believe the Gunners will make it through to the next round despite all the problems and will, therefore, recommend betting odds of 1.85 offered by Bwin on Arsenal to qualify.
