Mikel Arteta: 'Arsenal lacked purpose in Porto defeat'

The Gunners made the trek to the Estadio do Dragao on the back of scoring 11 goals in their last two Premier League away games against Burnley and West Ham United, but their attacking excellence eluded them in Portugal.

Arteta's troops dominated the ball throughout Wednesday's first leg, but Porto's defensive wall — marshalled by 40-year-old Pepe — stifled the Gunners' threat and prevented the visitors from having a single shot on target.

Not since March 2011 against Barcelona had Arsenal not made the goalkeeper work in a Champions League match, and it had been two years since the Gunners — who also failed to assert their usual dominance from set-pieces — last failed to have a shot on target in any competitive match.

The Gunners would seemingly take an acceptable goalless draw to the Emirates for the second leg, but with four minutes of injury time on the board, Gabriel Martinelli cheaply gave the ball away, and Porto capitalised through Galeno, who found the far corner with a sensational long-range curler.

Arsenal still have 90 minutes to turn the tie on its head at the Emirates in three weeks' time, but speaking in his post-match press conference, Arteta lamented his side's passive nature and how they «gave the game away» with poor decision-making at the end.

«Obviously we're very disappointed by the way we gave the game away at the end, and not managing that situation well enough, and you get punished in the Champions League — if you cannot win it, you don't lose it,» Arteta said, as quoted by arsenal.com.

«We really dominated the game, but we lacked