Mikel Arteta has revealed the ‘many areas’ he feels Arsenal ‘certainly’ must improve after losing 1-0 against FC Porto in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie.
The Dragoes stunned the Gunners in the final seconds as Galeno stole the result in the 94th minute on Wednesday. It brought a shuddering halt to Arsenal’s magnificent stretch of form since their winter break in January. They had won five fixtures with 21 goals to two shipped.
Losing at the Liga Portugal side also continued Arsenal’s record of failing to win in every visit to Porto. The Gunners settled for a 0-0 draw in their first trip for a Champions League group stage tie in December 2006. Yet Porto won 2-0 in December 2008 and 2-1 in February 2010.
Arsenal have never won at Porto after four Champions League trips
Arsenal have to now rely on their brilliant record against Porto at Emirates Stadium when the Dragoes visit north London on March 12. The Gunners have won every tie at home to Porto to date and have never conceded, winning 2-0 in 2006, 4-0 in 2008 and also 5-0 in 2010.
Their 5-0 win at the Emirates in March 2010 further put Arsenal into the Champions League quarter-finals under Arsene Wenger. A hat-trick from Nicklas Bendtner ensured the Gunners did not rue their last 16 first-leg defeat. Arteta will now hope his Arsenal have a similar hero.
Porto showed Mikel Arteta the Gunners must improve ‘many areas’
But losing at Porto on Wednesday night reminded Arteta that Arsenal still have ‘many areas’ to improve. He is desperate to see the Gunners work on various aspects of their game, such as their build-up work. Arsenal had 65% of the ball but they did not have one shot on target.
“We certainly can develop a lot of things and those experiences are really relevant to judge whether we were or we weren’t,” Arteta said during his press conference on Friday.
“Just because of a goal, I don’t think it’s that fair. And I was very clear with them about it because I believe that they did a lot of things right.
“Managing games and things like that we can still improve. But in a year’s time, for sure we can improve and we can improve in our build-up phase, and we can improve in our restarts and we can improve in many areas.”
Captain Martin Odegaard took Arsenal’s most shots at the Estadio do Dragao with two. The midfielder further ranked second to Porto hero Galeno’s three for the most shots for either team. Centre-halves Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba also took two of Arsenal’s seven.
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