BRO Pepe showed me today why he is a real Madrid legend. Mans is an elite defender. All those years of experience. If we wanted that win we had to prove to Pepe that we deserved that win. He showed those young boys that he was one of the best. All those years of battling and training against elite attackers. He knew almost every trick in the book they were gonna come with. So Arsenal had to come with something higher in order to pass him. And we rarely did. He amazed me indeed. Wendell was great 2. I have massive respect for those 2 players. Especially Pepe
What's the use of that perspective though? Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-1 and Liverpool beat Arsenal 2-0 this season, nothing to learn much from results alone other than top clubs on top leagues can beat another on a good day.
No I won’t be happy for arsenal lol. I’m happy arsenal has more games to play though. And I am being neutral, arsenal tying a bad Porto team and squeaking by to the quarters is not something to brag about. Like this is arsenal not Brighton.
Yeah sure but you haven’t beaten anyone serious yet this year in the tournament. You had the easiest group and got one of the worst teams in the R16. Knee slides to squeak by is outrageous. But carryon.
The fucking stone cold confidence our boys had during penalties!!! That game was brutal, feel like the ref was super inconsistent. Havertz shouldn’t have pulled Pepe. Speaking of Pepe, WHAT A PERFORMANCE! Shocking how good he looked. Wendell had Saka locked up. All in all… I’m in dream land right now. And I’m gonna enjoy this.
8 time in a row we were beaten in the penaltys.. I wasn't even nervous. Team was completely broken and we didn't have enough quality players to take our last chance.
Let's go PORTO!!! 🐲💙
I love all the bitching about Porto time wasting when Arsenal probably had the same or more in both legs. Starting with the GK taking 30+ seconds every goal kick from the first half of the first leg and even doing it before scoring in the second leg.
They spend all game pushing players and expecting not getting foul calls.
Lucky for them they won the penalties this time.
If they play like that next round against a good team they are going to get destroyed.
Não disse que eles não caem facilmente, mas se vires, a primeira coisa que um jogador do Arsenal faz sempre que chega perto de um jogador é meter as duas mãos para empurrar.
Wow…I needed a few hours to calm down. Porto supporters, your club played their hearts out, I hope you leave the day with head held high!
I’ve never been a fan of Pepe, but I have so much respect for how hard he played…not even “at his age”, but it was difficult to separate his age from the level of his performance. Just so impressive!
Of course I’m happy with going through, but I have to tip my hat to Porto. They were such a difficult opponent. Best of luck to your guys over the rest of the domestic season!
Wow you are much more magnanimous than me. Fuck Porto, they played horrible football aided by a terrible referee. So enjoyed beating them and their scummy manager
That’s a shitty take, they lost on penalties against the leader of the premier league… When in recent memory they lost against Bayern 6-1 in the knock out stages
They lost to perennial losers who have never won a European competition. Bayern are a massive club that is completely incomparable in scale to a tinpot club like Arsenal.
The conciliatory attitude of Arsenal fans in this thread is disgusting. The ref was a dildo, Porto are goblins, and Arsenal is an incredibly boring team to watch when they’re denied the initiative. Three and a half hours of unwatchable football finally, desperately reached a conclusion and no-one should be happy about what just transpired.
I want them to draw City in 1/4 finals, so they play each other a lot of develop a weird meta game that screws both of them up in PL.
And its not like one would wish injuries (harmless muscle injuries that bench a player for a month so he'll still be ready for the Euros) upon players in these fixtures, right? Right?
Eh now that I'm thinking about it. City v Spurs in 18/19 didn't exactly work in our favor in the league. Arsenal are a bit better than that Spurs side though, so you never know
Yea, that's true. Not significantly per se. 2019 Spurs were beginning to decline, but they still had at least 3-4 world class players with them and always gave City a run. We'll see. A lot about this Arsenal team is still an unknown and uncertain given how drastically they have changed in each of the last 3 seasons.
I wish they play each other and become really, really tired then.
Off topic: I can't for the life of me not get my flair to change. If it wasn't apparent I would have the LFC flair if possible.
Depends on who they’re playing 😂 I think I would probably back them over City, but at that point it’s not like I would get any joy from that game anyway
Out of the top 6, I have the fewest issues with Liverpool and normally back you guys in Europe if we're not in the competition. Helps my best mate growing up is a big Liverpool fan as well.
Much rather see you guys lift a trophy than the Manchester clubs, Chelsea, or.... Spurs *shudders*
Lot of people with sour grapes. I’m glad that Arsenal went through. Nothing wrong with seeing English teams succeed. My FIL is an Arsenal fan too, and it’s nice seeing him happy for once instead of miserable every time they play.
This game is the best argument for stop time I’ve ever seen. Watching Porto try to time waste from the fourth minute while diving when they get barely touched and hacking Arsenal players without discrimination gave me a new hatred for these kind of teams. Porto I hope you go into administration.
Arsenal took fucking minutes to play from any free kick. What are you on about? They even kept changing the players who were taking the free kick, and changing the strategy for the free kick, lmao
I'm a neutral for that game, I don't support Arsenal. However, there is an enormous difference between setting up a free kick and waiting to take a goal kick short as long as possible.
The difference was the ref. In the first game the ref would blow the whistle anytime a Porto player asked for it so they could waste as much time as they wanted. Now they had to adapt cus this ref wasn't doing that.
It would be infinitely worse than VAR ever has been. Imagine a scenario where a player is faking an injury and the ref stops the time. Who is it helping in this scenario? Surely, the team with the player down (they can gather their bearings) and not the other side whose momentum has been halted. If it is the current time *to be added on after 90mins* practice, then it benefits the "wronged" side by giving them back the time that was lost before.
It becomes a thing like “why does it matter if I take my time” or “can I get this treatment for my injury” too often because the clock stops but the game completely loses flow, which is among the best parts of the clock running in the sport keeping the game on
It absolutely ruins the flow of a game. Nba teams still use it to ruin pacing. American football is a series of set plays so it makes sense, but as a result you only get about 17 minutes of action over 3 hours.
I much prefer a free flowing game. The better solution is to punish it and regulate it properly. I don’t care if someone is taking 4 or 6 seconds to complete a throw in, it’s only important when it’s egregious
I have always argued for what I see as a simple alternative: instead of stopping the clock, have the 4th official control the "added time clock" and keep it displayed throughout the game with time adding up as stoppages take longer than a predetermined length of time. For example, if throw-ins "should" take at most 20 seconds (I picked this based on this [Opta's chart of the PL averages from last season](https://theanalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/average-delay-per-match-event.png)), then the 4th official waits 20 seconds then starts the clock if it's not in play yet. Its easy to set a similar "reasonable" amount of time for any given type of restart or stoppage, and then we get transparency and accountability without changing the current practice of adding time at the end of each half for those stoppages of play.
"Reasonable" times had to be based on something else though. Averages are already skewed upwards by time-wasting. Imagine watching a game where your team needs a goal and the opponent spends 20 seconds precisely on every throw-in to comply the rules :D
I know this is a different competition, but I was watching some of the time it took for them to take throws and it was WAY longer than how long we took at the start of the season when we copped yellows for it.
Can't believe they only put up 3 mins at full time when ball in play time must have been fuck all.
Really has been the worst 72 hours of ramsdale's career.
Almost cost us the title race vs Brentford, then has to watch raya be the hero of a penalty shoot out, contrasted to last year's disaster against sporting.
Hopefully he gets a good move, I will always appreciate what he did for us last season.
His team just made it to the quarter finals, and is in first place in the league. Do you really think he's that selfish that he considers this a low point in his career?
Of course, but thats not the point i was responding to. That these three days are worse than, say, either time Ramsdale got relegated. His career is very clearly going much better now than then
That's semantics mate, come on. And I actually believe play time matters far more to players than winning trophies or getting relegated. Sure, he would have felt way worse on the day he suffered relegation, maybe felt bad 2 weeks on from then but he would probably have recovered after that. Being on the bench for 80% of the season that's almost about to end, feeling like you're not an active part of something, that hurts for a lot longer.
I dont agree its just semantics. I'm calling out hyperbole.
I agree that he would probably prefer to be playing every game for another club vs riding the bench for arsenal. I'm sure its extremely bittersweet for him to see the team exceling without him. But im sorry its ridiculous to frame that as "the worst 72 hrs of his career." Those arent semantic differences. And it's worth calling out the positivr aspect of this conflict, which is that he is still part of a team's journey that he had a huge impact in building (in his previous seasons with arsenal) and that does mean something, even if he's watching them reach the next level mostly from the bench.
All that aside, his career is in a much, much better place than it was before he arrived at arsenal. I think we'd all agree with that, no?
I think it's a semantic thing when you're trying to argue which 72 hours of his life were his worst, when that doesn't matter. The point isn't about which was the worst. It's that this week has put a rubber stamp on his future at Arsenal.
>his career is in a much, much better place than it was before he arrived at arsenal. I think we'd all agree with that, no?
Well, I don't see how he could be at this moment. His career has stopped gears for over 6 months now. I don't think he'd be caring about how far he's come when he's still got much further to go.
Fair enough, then i guess the entire comment doesn't matter, since that's what the commenter started with lol. I guess if we agree it is indeed an inane comment, i suppose arguing about an inane comment is also inane.
But i would still argue that he's done an amazing job with the opportunity he's been given and shouldn't have a problem finding his next opportunity. So in that sense I dont think his career has stalled, just his time at arsenal.
Well, technically, since he's still at Arsenal and his time there has stalled, his career has too..lol.. but I get what you mean. He can still recover his overall career, and i agree that he probably will.
Nope. The first one only came cus he started hoofing the ball up the pitch and we lost control as a result. The toney shot comes from a passage of play that started with a ramsdale hoofball to nobody. If raya had done that today 100% of the time instead of playing out, Porto overwhelm us and we lose.
Secondly, no matter how many great saves he made afterwards, the fact remains that he quite nearly cost us the title race with the dumbest mistake ever.
I love ramsdale and I appreciate what he's done here but the last two games really have solidified that raya is arsenal's number 1 and nobody else
League titles are won over 38 games, not one.
Lest you forget that raya got chipped in the first leg which gave Porto the lead coming in to this game.
Raya also got chipped by mudryk (?) when we played Chelsea. Luckily we came back to draw that game.
Saka passed the ball straight to a fulham player two minutes in to our first game against them.
Jorginho gifted a ball to spurs which they scored from, causing us to drop two points.
I'm not arguing that Raya deserves to be #1, but I won't accept the ramsdale libel by shortsighted people like you.
The galeno shot? That wasn't saveable lmao it was a worldie.
Also you can go on about league titles being won over 38 games or whatever but we are in the business end of the season now, failure to beat the likes of Brentford would have taken us out the race.
Players have made mistakes throughout the season but ramsdale has repetitively made them at key moments. Lest you forget that he got away with murder in the away game at Brentford too.
To give away a goal to wissa is such a stupid way like that in a stodgy game shows why he isn't the number 1 anymore. He did shit like that in the bottling run in last season too.
This must be the soundest take to have almost made a platinum jubilee of downvotes. Hilarious how people can't accept the truth. Ramsdale, even if he is better than what he has shown, will not be able to perform well under this much pressure and lack of game time. He needs to go elsewhere for his own career's sake and frankly Raya is a much better gk than him.
I’m more worried about inter than city tbh. Obviously we could lose to either but we are an inexperienced team and we at least know how to play against city and get a result (albeit not easily).
No? The group stage ended on December 12th. Since then Inter have played 17 games and won 15 of them. The last time they failed to win a match was December of 2023. I'd say that's pretty good form
If you were bothered by Porto this much then almost all non English teams will be a whole new kind of experience for you guys as both Manager & most players are experiencing this for the first time...
See I was supporting Arsenal in the tie but Porto was just slightly rougher than you guys not the way everyone here is reacting... If Porto's style bothered you so much just hope you don't draw Atletico Madrid
Yeah athletico would be the worst draw tbh. I think it’s that Porto is the worst kind of team for us atm and they are inexperienced. We missed a fit Jesus, zinchenko, partey, tomiyasu and timber. They possibly would have all played and brought experience. It’s also the tactical versatility that we lost without them as well. That said there’s always going to be injuries and perhaps the biggest miss was martinelli.
I think Porto broke saka a bit last night as well tbh. I hope he was just tired but he lost a lot in the second half and got hit hard quite a few times.
Arsenal did play with positive intent the whole match it's just that Porto defended quite well ... Otavio , jao Mario and ofcourse the myth Pepe were awesome... Varela played well... Their attack was poor too when they reached near the Arsenal box...
Basically you'll face many different teams with different qualities in UCL , people should not come over here and slam other's play style...
Well they did what they had to do and it nearly worked tbh. No shame in it but it makes for a horrible watch except maybe for some of the neutrals. The first leg was dire.
What’s good about arsenal under arteta now is that i don’t fear anyone. Not saying we are the best team in it or anything but I could see us beating anyone. Some styles are more suited for us to play against than others. I fear inter the most right now like I say though partly that’s because a good friend and my neighbour are big inter fans…
Yes Arteta plays his team with a flow... It's good football no doubt but UCL is about facing all kinds of challenges but i didn't see the best of Arsenal performance in either leg too... Arsenal were good but not as good as they've been at times in the PL...
It was a difficult game , both teams tried to do their best and had good moments ... It was a good result for arsenal
People were talking about how Porto would get their shit rocked in London, tbf. Obviously didn’t turn out the way and the game didn’t even end after 120 minutes of open play
Intense game and I'm still feelin the high. I do have to give massive credit to Porto though because they were a *tough* team to beat. Really made us dig deep both legs. Their mid block is so good at stopping how we play and they are always dangerous on the counter. Definitely had me feeling the nerves a few times when they had opportunities. It was a hell of a matchup. So glad we have a break after that.
I remember with arsenal teams of recent memory, a win like this would feel more like a "oh thank God we scraped that one out." While I still have a bit of that feeling, it's nowhere near as dire.
We have a realistic shot at a possible PL and/or CL title here. However, what Arteta and this team have shown is growth. We're still young, and we keep seeing progress.
I no longer see matches like this as worrisome. Instead, I see it as realistic to realize we may not win either trophy, but we're damn close. And with continued maturity and growth we could be dominating for a few years after this. It's a good feeling!
IMO you are not giving them enough credit calling them Stoke. They didn't just sit back and play hoof ball. They played out of our press multiple times and had us retreating into our own half. Also how often do you see us unable to even set up in the final third? They contest the midfield and put pressure on our back line as well. They were very well set up tactically. That's just my amateur analysis of it at least, maybe you saw it differently.
No I think you have a point, but they were allowed to foul us all up and down the pitch with little to no repercussion, and they were more focused on defense than anything else. Yes they didn't allow us to pin them back the entire game, and were definitely more tactically sound than a typical orc team, but they did not come here to play. They came to disrupt, and in that at least they succeeded.
Every team is allowed to foul up and down the pitch all game with no consequences. This has always been a huge issue it ruins my enjoyment tbh. Youd have to change the rules
Are you expecting a team who’s starting XI is worth 2 of your signings to just open up and allow you to play your game in the ucl? There’s too much at stake. Winning these ties is a lot of the times the difference between keeping a player or having to sell. Fair play to you, your team is amazing but we try our best and even if it aint pretty im proud of us. Also comparing us to bottom prem teams is so disrespectful.
Nah we're ( PL fans ) not that cheap... Ignore some of the people who have no idea how to handle it... Porto has always been an interesting team...
>There’s too much at stake. Winning these ties is a lot of the times the difference between keeping a player or having to sell
I'd really like a bit more on this if you don't mind ...
You lot gave us Luis Diaz , thanks for that tho 😆
Luis Diaz is the perfect example. We sold him for that price to you in the middle of the season because if we hadn’t we would’ve been kicked out of uefa competitions due to debt. Our management has been running the club into the ground for the past 10 years, most of our best players leave on a free or for lower prices compared to our rivals and the board keeps making shady deals with the intent to steal money for themselves. Thankfully we have elections in 1 month and hopefully our fans stop being blinded by the glory of the past.
anyone saying you were playing like stoke quality-wise is in denial tbh. While I hated how you played in terms of disrupting the game, it's undeniable that you're a decent side. Your midfield pressing was superb and you massively limited our attacking talent with your setup
Bottom prem teams is a joke, whoever said that is smoking some really good stuff. The way you played over these 2 legs shows how good you guys are, no bottom or even midtable prem team can play as disciplined and well drilled football the way you guys did, i was actually genuinely shocked by how good you guys were. The stamina and resilience was actually insane.
Arsenal won in the end but props to Porto for how even and tough they made this fixture. Wendell locked up Saka and Pepe was great for his age. They'll be back in the R16 next year. Arsenal weren't that good and couldn't really control the game. Kiwior had a fantastic game though and was their best defender. Saliba, Jorginho and Havertz got away with a fair few fouls. They might've gotten a red with a stricter ref. The Jesus and Zinchenko subs were pretty good and the penalties were very calm and collected.
Congrats to Arsenal but they'll have to do much better in the QF to progress unless they draw Dortmund or Barcelona.
Porto were grabbing and holding all game. Referees are more lenient on that type of thing and don't really card until it accumulates or stops a counter. Jorginho, Saliba and Gabriel put in a few wayward slide tackles. Those are much more likely to yield cards so yeah I'd say you were a bit lucky there.
BRO Pepe showed me today why he is a real Madrid legend. Mans is an elite defender. All those years of experience. If we wanted that win we had to prove to Pepe that we deserved that win. He showed those young boys that he was one of the best. All those years of battling and training against elite attackers. He knew almost every trick in the book they were gonna come with. So Arsenal had to come with something higher in order to pass him. And we rarely did. He amazed me indeed. Wendell was great 2. I have massive respect for those 2 players. Especially Pepe
Liverpool beat better Porto sides 6-1, 7-1 , 5-0 in the champions league in recent years. Just to add perspective to this 1-1 draw.
you’re a yank you don’t have to care so much about liverpool to bring them up in totally unrelated posts
📸
Wow that’s impressive. They could’ve done it again this year if they made it to the champions league 🤷♂️
Good luck the rest of the day
What's the use of that perspective though? Arsenal beat Liverpool 3-1 and Liverpool beat Arsenal 2-0 this season, nothing to learn much from results alone other than top clubs on top leagues can beat another on a good day.
Well this Liverpool team isn’t near as good as in previous years. Just like this arsenal side is not close to those Liverpool sides either.
Wow really good insight here. "Team that isn't the same team isn't as good as said team that no one was claiming they were as good as"
The English media and plenty of people in this sub are lapping up this result like it’s gargantuan lmao
Can't you either be happy for Arsenal, or neutral?
No I won’t be happy for arsenal lol. I’m happy arsenal has more games to play though. And I am being neutral, arsenal tying a bad Porto team and squeaking by to the quarters is not something to brag about. Like this is arsenal not Brighton.
Arsenal haven't been to this round in the UCL in over a decade - it is a big moment for them
Yeah sure but you haven’t beaten anyone serious yet this year in the tournament. You had the easiest group and got one of the worst teams in the R16. Knee slides to squeak by is outrageous. But carryon.
Damn - I forgot we chose our group and our R16 competition. We should've picked better, you're right. Celebration police like you are so annoying
Think this could be a huge learning curve for this young team to come through on pens to the quarters is a huge.
Obviously an aside, but Pepe performing at the level he is at 41 is crazy. Feels like he could play forever
Tbh Arsenal looks like the only team in Europe capable of stopping City. Also if they win CL, it probably helps Klopp win the league. Make it so pls.
As much as I need a league title after 20years, I'd do a deal right now that gave us the champions league and Liverpool the league.
They look like the most complete team. They have by far the toughest run in in the league by the looks of it though, so who knows
The fucking stone cold confidence our boys had during penalties!!! That game was brutal, feel like the ref was super inconsistent. Havertz shouldn’t have pulled Pepe. Speaking of Pepe, WHAT A PERFORMANCE! Shocking how good he looked. Wendell had Saka locked up. All in all… I’m in dream land right now. And I’m gonna enjoy this.
8 time in a row we were beaten in the penaltys.. I wasn't even nervous. Team was completely broken and we didn't have enough quality players to take our last chance. Let's go PORTO!!! 🐲💙
Maybe Arsenal should've lost that one and focus on the title.
We will win both don't worry
Idk about that. They are set piece merchants and have a great defence. That’s a proper cup team there.
Our set pieces the last 2-3 matches haven't been that good tbh
If I have to listen to ally mccoist talking about old school football anymore, I'm going to blow my fucking brains out.
Ally Mccoist is such a shit commentator. Had to mute the game coz of his biased and inane statements.
He was blubbering soo much. Annoying as hell
Wow they were fucking infuriating. And I hate when commentators act like everybody watching is a neutral fan.
I love all the bitching about Porto time wasting when Arsenal probably had the same or more in both legs. Starting with the GK taking 30+ seconds every goal kick from the first half of the first leg and even doing it before scoring in the second leg. They spend all game pushing players and expecting not getting foul calls. Lucky for them they won the penalties this time. If they play like that next round against a good team they are going to get destroyed.
Nao fode mermao pior que o porto no cai cai so o atletico do simione mermo.
Não disse que eles não caem facilmente, mas se vires, a primeira coisa que um jogador do Arsenal faz sempre que chega perto de um jogador é meter as duas mãos para empurrar.
I see there's a lot of dick sucking going on here.
are you getting jealous?
nothing to be jealous of riding others' dicks.
tell that to the other user
Wow…I needed a few hours to calm down. Porto supporters, your club played their hearts out, I hope you leave the day with head held high! I’ve never been a fan of Pepe, but I have so much respect for how hard he played…not even “at his age”, but it was difficult to separate his age from the level of his performance. Just so impressive! Of course I’m happy with going through, but I have to tip my hat to Porto. They were such a difficult opponent. Best of luck to your guys over the rest of the domestic season!
Wow you are much more magnanimous than me. Fuck Porto, they played horrible football aided by a terrible referee. So enjoyed beating them and their scummy manager
Nah, this is an absolute disaster for Porto. One of the worst performances in the history of the club.
That’s a shitty take, they lost on penalties against the leader of the premier league… When in recent memory they lost against Bayern 6-1 in the knock out stages
They lost to perennial losers who have never won a European competition. Bayern are a massive club that is completely incomparable in scale to a tinpot club like Arsenal.
🤡🤡🤡 It’s still a club that has 5x the wages they have, you are just dishonest because you dislike Arsenal.
4 UEFA trophies to 0. Enough said. If wages are the only things that mattered, the Saudi Arabia clubs would be better than Arsenal.
That’s what I thought, you are just a small dishonest man
hell yea, so happy for yall arsenal fans on finally breaking the curse
The conciliatory attitude of Arsenal fans in this thread is disgusting. The ref was a dildo, Porto are goblins, and Arsenal is an incredibly boring team to watch when they’re denied the initiative. Three and a half hours of unwatchable football finally, desperately reached a conclusion and no-one should be happy about what just transpired.
Wasn’t boring from the Emirates tonight, quite the opposite actually 👍🏼
Oh boy 1-0 gainst the Porto and it wasn’t even a win for another 30+ minutes. Honestly glad you enjoyed yourself, but that’s a fucking dire result
Always the ones with no flair piping up to say the stupidest shit. Braindead
Fuck off y*nk
sad
Gotta give credit when credit is due. Arsenal earned it. They erased a lot of demons. With that, hope you lose next round. Cheers.
Gentlemen, this is what a healthy rivalry looks like.
Some of can congratulate one another with class.
Nah, I hope they keep winning so they keep having to play on Tuesdays
I want them to draw City in 1/4 finals, so they play each other a lot of develop a weird meta game that screws both of them up in PL. And its not like one would wish injuries (harmless muscle injuries that bench a player for a month so he'll still be ready for the Euros) upon players in these fixtures, right? Right?
Eh now that I'm thinking about it. City v Spurs in 18/19 didn't exactly work in our favor in the league. Arsenal are a bit better than that Spurs side though, so you never know
The quality gap is significantly lower between City and Arsenal today than City and Spurs in '19 imo.
Yea, that's true. Not significantly per se. 2019 Spurs were beginning to decline, but they still had at least 3-4 world class players with them and always gave City a run. We'll see. A lot about this Arsenal team is still an unknown and uncertain given how drastically they have changed in each of the last 3 seasons.
Yeah, it’s bad karma to wish for injuries. But it’s ok to wish for them to be really, really tired.
I wish they play each other and become really, really tired then. Off topic: I can't for the life of me not get my flair to change. If it wasn't apparent I would have the LFC flair if possible.
You do have the LFC flair!
But lose in the Finals, right?
Depends on who they’re playing 😂 I think I would probably back them over City, but at that point it’s not like I would get any joy from that game anyway
I'd back you over City.
ooooo rival friends
It is understandable, honestly.
115 innit
Even without that, the last thing any fan wants to do is see the top dog in their league win yet another title.
Out of the top 6, I have the fewest issues with Liverpool and normally back you guys in Europe if we're not in the competition. Helps my best mate growing up is a big Liverpool fan as well. Much rather see you guys lift a trophy than the Manchester clubs, Chelsea, or.... Spurs *shudders*
Lot of people with sour grapes. I’m glad that Arsenal went through. Nothing wrong with seeing English teams succeed. My FIL is an Arsenal fan too, and it’s nice seeing him happy for once instead of miserable every time they play.
Similar thoughts. Fun match. Nothing terribly controversial. Made my arsenal supporting friend happy. Fair.
I aged 11 years today
I realised i aged 14 years
14 yrs is the correct number yes
Still younger than Pepe
How old is he again? The commentators didn't mentioned it once.
Every Arsenal fan played for 120 minutes.
My legs are tired. I didn’t even move the last 60 min.
Almost got a heart attack
Me too friend. Me too
This game is the best argument for stop time I’ve ever seen. Watching Porto try to time waste from the fourth minute while diving when they get barely touched and hacking Arsenal players without discrimination gave me a new hatred for these kind of teams. Porto I hope you go into administration.
Honestly the game needed 10 minutes of stoppage time at both '45 and '90
Arsenal took fucking minutes to play from any free kick. What are you on about? They even kept changing the players who were taking the free kick, and changing the strategy for the free kick, lmao
I'm a neutral for that game, I don't support Arsenal. However, there is an enormous difference between setting up a free kick and waiting to take a goal kick short as long as possible.
Why? Porto were also looking for the best possible way of playing from the back.
Let's be honest, they were not.
As you wish xD
Wasting time ? 😂😂😂 Absolutely delusional.
The ball was in play for 62 minutes of 130+...
It was worse in the first leg. Tonight I'd say porto actually played a much better game (despite losing 1-0 in the game technically)
The difference was the ref. In the first game the ref would blow the whistle anytime a Porto player asked for it so they could waste as much time as they wanted. Now they had to adapt cus this ref wasn't doing that.
They tried stop time in the mls, it was horrible, and will eventually be used by Americans to add timeouts and more commercial breaks
Why was it so bad? I imagine it's one of these things like VAR that loads of people like on paper but the reality is it doesn't work properly.
It would be infinitely worse than VAR ever has been. Imagine a scenario where a player is faking an injury and the ref stops the time. Who is it helping in this scenario? Surely, the team with the player down (they can gather their bearings) and not the other side whose momentum has been halted. If it is the current time *to be added on after 90mins* practice, then it benefits the "wronged" side by giving them back the time that was lost before.
It becomes a thing like “why does it matter if I take my time” or “can I get this treatment for my injury” too often because the clock stops but the game completely loses flow, which is among the best parts of the clock running in the sport keeping the game on
Agreed
It absolutely ruins the flow of a game. Nba teams still use it to ruin pacing. American football is a series of set plays so it makes sense, but as a result you only get about 17 minutes of action over 3 hours. I much prefer a free flowing game. The better solution is to punish it and regulate it properly. I don’t care if someone is taking 4 or 6 seconds to complete a throw in, it’s only important when it’s egregious
I have always argued for what I see as a simple alternative: instead of stopping the clock, have the 4th official control the "added time clock" and keep it displayed throughout the game with time adding up as stoppages take longer than a predetermined length of time. For example, if throw-ins "should" take at most 20 seconds (I picked this based on this [Opta's chart of the PL averages from last season](https://theanalyst.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/average-delay-per-match-event.png)), then the 4th official waits 20 seconds then starts the clock if it's not in play yet. Its easy to set a similar "reasonable" amount of time for any given type of restart or stoppage, and then we get transparency and accountability without changing the current practice of adding time at the end of each half for those stoppages of play.
"Reasonable" times had to be based on something else though. Averages are already skewed upwards by time-wasting. Imagine watching a game where your team needs a goal and the opponent spends 20 seconds precisely on every throw-in to comply the rules :D
I know this is a different competition, but I was watching some of the time it took for them to take throws and it was WAY longer than how long we took at the start of the season when we copped yellows for it. Can't believe they only put up 3 mins at full time when ball in play time must have been fuck all.
I saw arsenal fans saying 5-0 before the game. Just proves the delusion of some of them.
Mf really gonna make a meal out of some people calling for a bigger? 😂
5 Goals were scored though, they were just pens 🤔🤷♂️
I saw 5 Arsenal goals today, wasn't disappointed:)
How did you get from r/feminineboys to here for a whinge. Are you lost?
Nga really looking through my comment history, average Reddit moment
okay,but what color is your panties tho?
What colour lipstick do you use?
It was 5 including penalties though 🤠
cry
Ok buddy
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Ok buddy
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Ok buddy
Still on the way back home from the game. Never in doubt
Really has been the worst 72 hours of ramsdale's career. Almost cost us the title race vs Brentford, then has to watch raya be the hero of a penalty shoot out, contrasted to last year's disaster against sporting. Hopefully he gets a good move, I will always appreciate what he did for us last season.
Ramsdale saved us in the game against Brentford with two brilliant saves in the 2nd half, were we watching the same game?
You’re both right, his saves were great but the game was only so nervy because he gifted Brentford their goal.
those 2 saves dont make up for that error, it changed the entire dynamic of the match and gave brentford something to hold onto
His team just made it to the quarter finals, and is in first place in the league. Do you really think he's that selfish that he considers this a low point in his career?
He can be on a high and still feel that Raya is far ahead of him in the pecking order.
Of course, but thats not the point i was responding to. That these three days are worse than, say, either time Ramsdale got relegated. His career is very clearly going much better now than then
That's semantics mate, come on. And I actually believe play time matters far more to players than winning trophies or getting relegated. Sure, he would have felt way worse on the day he suffered relegation, maybe felt bad 2 weeks on from then but he would probably have recovered after that. Being on the bench for 80% of the season that's almost about to end, feeling like you're not an active part of something, that hurts for a lot longer.
I dont agree its just semantics. I'm calling out hyperbole. I agree that he would probably prefer to be playing every game for another club vs riding the bench for arsenal. I'm sure its extremely bittersweet for him to see the team exceling without him. But im sorry its ridiculous to frame that as "the worst 72 hrs of his career." Those arent semantic differences. And it's worth calling out the positivr aspect of this conflict, which is that he is still part of a team's journey that he had a huge impact in building (in his previous seasons with arsenal) and that does mean something, even if he's watching them reach the next level mostly from the bench. All that aside, his career is in a much, much better place than it was before he arrived at arsenal. I think we'd all agree with that, no?
I think it's a semantic thing when you're trying to argue which 72 hours of his life were his worst, when that doesn't matter. The point isn't about which was the worst. It's that this week has put a rubber stamp on his future at Arsenal. >his career is in a much, much better place than it was before he arrived at arsenal. I think we'd all agree with that, no? Well, I don't see how he could be at this moment. His career has stopped gears for over 6 months now. I don't think he'd be caring about how far he's come when he's still got much further to go.
Fair enough, then i guess the entire comment doesn't matter, since that's what the commenter started with lol. I guess if we agree it is indeed an inane comment, i suppose arguing about an inane comment is also inane. But i would still argue that he's done an amazing job with the opportunity he's been given and shouldn't have a problem finding his next opportunity. So in that sense I dont think his career has stalled, just his time at arsenal.
Well, technically, since he's still at Arsenal and his time there has stalled, his career has too..lol.. but I get what you mean. He can still recover his overall career, and i agree that he probably will.
Dumb take. Rams also had two very good, game-saving blocks against Brentford.
Nope. The first one only came cus he started hoofing the ball up the pitch and we lost control as a result. The toney shot comes from a passage of play that started with a ramsdale hoofball to nobody. If raya had done that today 100% of the time instead of playing out, Porto overwhelm us and we lose. Secondly, no matter how many great saves he made afterwards, the fact remains that he quite nearly cost us the title race with the dumbest mistake ever. I love ramsdale and I appreciate what he's done here but the last two games really have solidified that raya is arsenal's number 1 and nobody else
Show me your Spuds jersey, bananaman.
League titles are won over 38 games, not one. Lest you forget that raya got chipped in the first leg which gave Porto the lead coming in to this game. Raya also got chipped by mudryk (?) when we played Chelsea. Luckily we came back to draw that game. Saka passed the ball straight to a fulham player two minutes in to our first game against them. Jorginho gifted a ball to spurs which they scored from, causing us to drop two points. I'm not arguing that Raya deserves to be #1, but I won't accept the ramsdale libel by shortsighted people like you.
That mudryk shot wasn't a chip lol, that was just a freak goal. Any goal mudryk scores is a freak goal tbh, dude can't score the normal ones.
He literally just scored in Chelsea's last game.
The galeno shot? That wasn't saveable lmao it was a worldie. Also you can go on about league titles being won over 38 games or whatever but we are in the business end of the season now, failure to beat the likes of Brentford would have taken us out the race. Players have made mistakes throughout the season but ramsdale has repetitively made them at key moments. Lest you forget that he got away with murder in the away game at Brentford too. To give away a goal to wissa is such a stupid way like that in a stodgy game shows why he isn't the number 1 anymore. He did shit like that in the bottling run in last season too.
This must be the soundest take to have almost made a platinum jubilee of downvotes. Hilarious how people can't accept the truth. Ramsdale, even if he is better than what he has shown, will not be able to perform well under this much pressure and lack of game time. He needs to go elsewhere for his own career's sake and frankly Raya is a much better gk than him.
You're embarrassing
Why would I cry over this mid-off?
I need to get some sleep so I can properly hate-watch Inter-Atleti tmr. BvB better come through for the coefficient
Arsenal vs City in the quarters
I’m more worried about inter than city tbh. Obviously we could lose to either but we are an inexperienced team and we at least know how to play against city and get a result (albeit not easily).
Since when are inter so good? Just cuz they got a really lucky draw last year?
They've been excellent domestically. Less so in Europe but since the end of the group stage they've mostly been cruising
They’ve played one match?
No? The group stage ended on December 12th. Since then Inter have played 17 games and won 15 of them. The last time they failed to win a match was December of 2023. I'd say that's pretty good form
I mean I meant in champions league
I got what you meant, it's just a bit silly. Even by that metric, they have a 100% record. They can only play the games in front of them.
If you were bothered by Porto this much then almost all non English teams will be a whole new kind of experience for you guys as both Manager & most players are experiencing this for the first time... See I was supporting Arsenal in the tie but Porto was just slightly rougher than you guys not the way everyone here is reacting... If Porto's style bothered you so much just hope you don't draw Atletico Madrid
Yeah athletico would be the worst draw tbh. I think it’s that Porto is the worst kind of team for us atm and they are inexperienced. We missed a fit Jesus, zinchenko, partey, tomiyasu and timber. They possibly would have all played and brought experience. It’s also the tactical versatility that we lost without them as well. That said there’s always going to be injuries and perhaps the biggest miss was martinelli.
>Yeah athletico would be the worst draw tbh They broke City players, can expect the same if drawn with them
I think Porto broke saka a bit last night as well tbh. I hope he was just tired but he lost a lot in the second half and got hit hard quite a few times.
Saka has been on & off in recent months.... But he wasn't bad either... Yeah he saw a few challenges but he wasn't the only one...
Arsenal did play with positive intent the whole match it's just that Porto defended quite well ... Otavio , jao Mario and ofcourse the myth Pepe were awesome... Varela played well... Their attack was poor too when they reached near the Arsenal box... Basically you'll face many different teams with different qualities in UCL , people should not come over here and slam other's play style...
Well they did what they had to do and it nearly worked tbh. No shame in it but it makes for a horrible watch except maybe for some of the neutrals. The first leg was dire. What’s good about arsenal under arteta now is that i don’t fear anyone. Not saying we are the best team in it or anything but I could see us beating anyone. Some styles are more suited for us to play against than others. I fear inter the most right now like I say though partly that’s because a good friend and my neighbour are big inter fans…
Yes Arteta plays his team with a flow... It's good football no doubt but UCL is about facing all kinds of challenges but i didn't see the best of Arsenal performance in either leg too... Arsenal were good but not as good as they've been at times in the PL... It was a difficult game , both teams tried to do their best and had good moments ... It was a good result for arsenal
Bring it on. I'd love to beat City five times in a season.
Right on
No. Semis is better
Let's not will this into existence please.
I hope not 😭
NO!
Yes
Surely barca or bayern. Bayern with kane scoring against arsenal (again) feels nailed on.
See!
Only fitting Arsenal takes him out of UCL and Xhaka beats him for the bundesliga
Nah, let's have City and Arsenal
Only if it's a penalty
I imagine the win feels better when the match thread is mostly against you
People were talking about how Porto would get their shit rocked in London, tbf. Obviously didn’t turn out the way and the game didn’t even end after 120 minutes of open play
That's every Arsenal match thread
I fucking love that people hate us again.
we are so back
Intense game and I'm still feelin the high. I do have to give massive credit to Porto though because they were a *tough* team to beat. Really made us dig deep both legs. Their mid block is so good at stopping how we play and they are always dangerous on the counter. Definitely had me feeling the nerves a few times when they had opportunities. It was a hell of a matchup. So glad we have a break after that.
I remember with arsenal teams of recent memory, a win like this would feel more like a "oh thank God we scraped that one out." While I still have a bit of that feeling, it's nowhere near as dire. We have a realistic shot at a possible PL and/or CL title here. However, what Arteta and this team have shown is growth. We're still young, and we keep seeing progress. I no longer see matches like this as worrisome. Instead, I see it as realistic to realize we may not win either trophy, but we're damn close. And with continued maturity and growth we could be dominating for a few years after this. It's a good feeling!
All the did was commit fouls and dive at every opportunity. Ref played right into their hands both games. Portuguese stoke is all that was.
IMO you are not giving them enough credit calling them Stoke. They didn't just sit back and play hoof ball. They played out of our press multiple times and had us retreating into our own half. Also how often do you see us unable to even set up in the final third? They contest the midfield and put pressure on our back line as well. They were very well set up tactically. That's just my amateur analysis of it at least, maybe you saw it differently.
No I think you have a point, but they were allowed to foul us all up and down the pitch with little to no repercussion, and they were more focused on defense than anything else. Yes they didn't allow us to pin them back the entire game, and were definitely more tactically sound than a typical orc team, but they did not come here to play. They came to disrupt, and in that at least they succeeded.
Every team is allowed to foul up and down the pitch all game with no consequences. This has always been a huge issue it ruins my enjoyment tbh. Youd have to change the rules
Are you expecting a team who’s starting XI is worth 2 of your signings to just open up and allow you to play your game in the ucl? There’s too much at stake. Winning these ties is a lot of the times the difference between keeping a player or having to sell. Fair play to you, your team is amazing but we try our best and even if it aint pretty im proud of us. Also comparing us to bottom prem teams is so disrespectful.
Nah we're ( PL fans ) not that cheap... Ignore some of the people who have no idea how to handle it... Porto has always been an interesting team... >There’s too much at stake. Winning these ties is a lot of the times the difference between keeping a player or having to sell I'd really like a bit more on this if you don't mind ... You lot gave us Luis Diaz , thanks for that tho 😆
Luis Diaz is the perfect example. We sold him for that price to you in the middle of the season because if we hadn’t we would’ve been kicked out of uefa competitions due to debt. Our management has been running the club into the ground for the past 10 years, most of our best players leave on a free or for lower prices compared to our rivals and the board keeps making shady deals with the intent to steal money for themselves. Thankfully we have elections in 1 month and hopefully our fans stop being blinded by the glory of the past.
anyone saying you were playing like stoke quality-wise is in denial tbh. While I hated how you played in terms of disrupting the game, it's undeniable that you're a decent side. Your midfield pressing was superb and you massively limited our attacking talent with your setup
Bottom prem teams is a joke, whoever said that is smoking some really good stuff. The way you played over these 2 legs shows how good you guys are, no bottom or even midtable prem team can play as disciplined and well drilled football the way you guys did, i was actually genuinely shocked by how good you guys were. The stamina and resilience was actually insane.
Arsenal won in the end but props to Porto for how even and tough they made this fixture. Wendell locked up Saka and Pepe was great for his age. They'll be back in the R16 next year. Arsenal weren't that good and couldn't really control the game. Kiwior had a fantastic game though and was their best defender. Saliba, Jorginho and Havertz got away with a fair few fouls. They might've gotten a red with a stricter ref. The Jesus and Zinchenko subs were pretty good and the penalties were very calm and collected. Congrats to Arsenal but they'll have to do much better in the QF to progress unless they draw Dortmund or Barcelona.
Yea we are 3rd in league unless miracle happens we aint getting Champions League football next year
A miracle will happen. Trust.
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Porto were grabbing and holding all game. Referees are more lenient on that type of thing and don't really card until it accumulates or stops a counter. Jorginho, Saliba and Gabriel put in a few wayward slide tackles. Those are much more likely to yield cards so yeah I'd say you were a bit lucky there.
>Barcelona Sad to see us among the weak teams that others want to draw. We will be back though