Who’s gonna take the weight? – Porto preview.

If Arsenal are to overturn their first leg deficit and progress to the Champions League quarter finals they will need to cope with the considerable loss of Cesc Fabregas. In his 25 league starts this season the Spaniard has been directly involved in 29 goals (15 assists and 14 goals of his own). That accounts for almost half of all Arsenal’s goals, and that’s ignoring the moves that he was pivotal in without applying the final ball or finish.

The Arsenal captain was equally important for the Gunners in the Champions League group stages, laying on two assists and netting three times himself. You can still expect tonight’s starting line up to be laden with match winners, but the task is made unequivocally more difficult by the absence of Fabregas.

Samir Nasri is expected to move into the midfield with Andrey Arshavin making up the forward three alongside Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott. The former will be buoyed by a fine performance against Burnley on Saturday, but must now prove that he can replicate it on a regular basis, and against the very best. Sol Campbell will regain his place at the heart of the defence at the expense of Mikael Silvestre whilst Alex Song, serving a suspension in domestic football, will also return.

Of further encouragement (or despair depending on which way you look at it) for Arsenal fans will be the manner in which Porto took control of the tie in Portugal. Without the atrocious defensive errors it was difficult to see how Porto might score at the Estadio do Dragao. If they can avoid similar mistakes tonight, you would back the forward line to get the goals to send the London side through.

Arsenal fans are right to disparage Bendtner’s horror show on Saturday, although you wouldn’t know they were displeased given the encouraging reception he was given when replaced by Eduardo, but they must not forget the Dane was on a run of three goals in three games before Burnley. The 22 year old  was one of Arsenal’s best players in Porto and will be eager to repay the fans’ faith with a goal tonight.

Whilst Arsenal’s title challenge has been revitalised in the past few weeks, Porto’s has been damaged beyond repair. Since the first leg they followed a 5-1 home win with a 3-0 humbling at the hands of Sporting Lisbon and a 2-2 draw with strugglers Olhanense.

Coach Jesualdo Ferreira believes this is to Porto’s advantage however, as they can now concentrate on the Champions League. The former Benfica and Braga coach has also played down the importance of Fabregas to the Gunners, “Success always depends on the collective team, every player is part of that.”

Arsene Wenger meanwhile used his press conference to reaffirm his belief that all three English sides would successfully progress to the quarter finals, “Yes [they will all reach the Quarter-finals], but it will be hard. Man Utd will not have a big problem to go through. Chelsea and Arsenal will be tight games but I think we can both make it.”{jcomments on}