PREVIEW: Porto vs Arsenal

Arsenal head to Portugal for the first leg of their round of 16 Champions League tie with Porto on Wednesday night. 

The Gunners have been flying in the league of late, and will be hoping to transfer their domestic form onto the European stage.

Injury News - Arsenal

Jurrien Timber remains a confirmed absentee. Thomas Partey and Fabio Vieira were both spotted in training at Sobha Realty Training Centre on Tuesday morning, although the reports are that the former did not travel.

Gabriel Jesus (knee), Takehiro Tomiyasu (calf) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf) are also believed to have not travelled.

Injury News - Porto

Zaidu Sanusi will miss the remaineder of the season having suffered an injury over the weekend. Porto have also announced that striker Mehdi Teremi has suffered an injury to his adductor which makes him a doubt for Wednesday's match. Ivan Marcano remains a long-term absentee.

Form

Arsenal are on a run of five straight wins domestically. On Saturday they beat Burnley 5-0 to climb to second place in the Premier League.

They topped their Champions League group having overcome PSV, Lens and Sevilla. They drew away to PSV on Match Day Six, but made a number of changes having clinched top spot in Match Day Five.

Porto sit third in the Primeira Liga and are seven points adrift of leaders Sporting Lisbon. They have won three of their last five league games, most recently a 2-0 win over CF Estrela Amadora SAD on Saturday. 

They finished second in their Champions League group, winning all of their games except against group winners, Barcelona, who they were beaten twice by.

Main Men

Arsenal's front players are scoring for fun at the minute, with 21 goals scored in their last five matches. Bukayo Saka has 15 goals and 12 assists across all competitions and will yet again be the sides main threat. However, Leandro Trossard has four in five matches and will likely get the nod once more. 

Evanilson is Porto's leading marksman, with nine goals this season. Galeno is also considered to be one of the main threats from the wide areas due to his trickery and pace on the counter attack.

Recent History

The two sides have met six times in the UEFA Champions League, with Arsenal winning three times, drawing once and losing twice. 

The most recent tie between the two saw Arsenal win 6-2 on aggregate, thanks in large to a Nicklas Bendtner hat-trick.

Played For Both

Fabio Vieira signed for Arsenal from Porto in the summer of 2022 and has gone onto score three goals for the club. His seven goals and 16 assists in the 21/22 season promoted Arsenal to pay €40million for his services. 

Prediction

A win for Arsenal would put them in a commanding position in the tie, but they will not have it all their own way. However, they know they are favourites for this and will want to assert their superiority and continue their fine run of form.

Porto are the underdogs and will have to be at their best to get a result. Arsenal are yet to win a game at Estadio do Dragao but will hope that fourth time is a charm.

Porto 1-3 Arsenal

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