It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. In the opening 15 minutes, it didn’t look as though it was going to be this hard. In the end, it could have been a lot worse for Arsenal and a draw still gives them a reasonable chance of progression to the semi-final. They did have the wherewithal to find an equaliser. They got away with it. But the bigger issue is how they allowed a game they were dominating to slip from their grasp.
A penalty shootout win against Porto was evidently not enough to banish Arsenal’s European demons. But those demons are perhaps not confined to the Champions League. This has been a highly impressive season for them, a clear improvement on last year. But one doubt remains: when the going is good, Arsenal are very, very good, but what happens when things go awry?
