4 takeaways from Arsenal's humbling Champions League loss at Porto

Arsenal's nine-year wait to win a Champions League knockout stage match will go on for at least another three weeks after they were beaten 1-0 by Porto in the first leg of their last 16 tie.

The Gunners lost to a 94th-minute screamer from Wenderson Galeno to ensure they go into the return fixture at the Emirates Stadium one goal down on aggregate.

Wednesday's affair at the Estadio do Dragao was not a particularly pulsating one until Galeno popped up with the last-gasp winner, capping off a rather miserable night for Mikel Arteta's men.

Here's what we learned from Arsenal's disappointing first leg showing.

The bright spotlight cast on David Raya's glaring deficiencies

Alright, Galeno's strike is a beauty, but we cannot overlook the fact it lands in the bottom corner, looping over the helpless David Raya.

The Spain international may have proven to be better and more useful to Arsenal than Aaron Ramsdale this season, but goalkeeper remains a problem position. Any stopper worth his salt should not be getting beaten by this strike.

Raya is barely 6ft tall and did not make any adjustment to his positioning to compensate in this instance. Maybe that's a bit of bad luck, but he has a habit of conceding these kinds of goals from range - he just doesn't have the height to keep out these sorts of finishes. That's a problem if you're trying to win the Premier League and Champions League.

Arsenal lag way behind their rivals with their attacking depth

The story of Liverpool's season on the pitch so far has been their ability to rotate in a cast of highly-skilled and dangerous attackers amid their injury crisis. Manchester City are famous for 'Pep roulette' in FPL.

But you know exactly who is going to fill three of Arsenal's four attacking slots - Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and then one of Leandro Trossard or Gabriel Jesus.

There's now a predictability about the Gunners' attack and they don't have the flexibility or depth to change how they play when in need of a goal. There's been a lot of talk about Arsenal needing to add a new number nine this summer, but a wide forward to provide extra competition should also be high on their list of priorities.

Mikel Arteta's European record is becoming a serious concern

Mikel Arteta deserves credit for managing to tame what used to be a basket-case of Arsenal into one of the world's most competent teams. Their European record with him at the helm requires further scrutiny, however.

Arsenal were knocked out of the Europa League at the last 32 stage by Olympiacos in 2020, before falling to Arteta's predecessor Unai Emery and Villarreal in a limp semi-final showing a year later. When the Gunners returned to the Europa League last season, they were eliminated by Sporting CP in the round of 16 despite playing close to full-strength sides in both legs.

It's not great viewing. Arsenal have not faced a single team who have undoubtedly been better than them in Europe under Arteta but still their record has been awful.

F*** around, find out

During the group stage, Arsenal learned they were getting shown too much respect at home, but they had to fight for every inch away, breezing through games at the Emirates Stadium but winning only once on their travels.

This led to Arteta's conservative approach at Porto, which was not in-keeping with recent performances on the road at West Ham United and Burnley. Arsenal slowed the game down and played for set pieces but failed to register a single shot on target, and they were ultimately punished for not strutting their usual stuff.

Post-match, Arteta strangely claimed that Arsenal were the only side who had any intention of playing football.

"They wanted to play, we wanted to win," was Porto boss Sergio Conceicao's rightful retort.

If that was seriously Arsenal trying to play football, they'll be in for a rude awakening trying to break down Conceicao's esteemed deep block back at the Emirates.

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