The show goes on.

Arsenal’s understudies, in particular goalkeeper Lukusz Fabianski, suffered from stage fright in Porto tonight but the starring cast should return for the second act to upstage their Portuguese counterparts in three weeks time.

Making a scene about Porto’s second goal, Arsene Wenger believed Swedish referee Martin Hansson— the man at the centre of Henrygate in the not-to-distant past— was the villain of the piece, but in truth it was Fabianski.

The Pole suffered from first night jitters as he allowed Silvestre Varela’s soft cross to slip through his fingers.

The script however was veering towards something like Return of the Legend, with Sol Campbell showing a few Hollywood has-been’s how to make a real comeback with the equalising goal.

Then Fabianski took centre stage again as the game descended into a Carry On.
He initially hesitated when Campbell beckoned him to clear a ball rolling favourably towards the Arsenal goal; the pair were basically on each other's toes when Campbell accidently touched the ball back and a panicked Fabianski picked it up.

If that wasn’t farcical enough, Fabianski gave the referee the ball, who in turn gave it Ruben Micael. Micael squared and an unmanned Falcao rolled the ball into an unguarded net.

It was controversial for the referee to hand the ball over like that but Arsenal would have done the same thing, and were guilty, to a man, of not reacting to the whistle.

Campbell turned his back when he should have stood on the ball and screaming at Arsenal’s unresponsive players to get back. It smacks of a parent needing to tell their lazy kids to do their chores, but that’s what it needed.

Campbell had not put a foot wrong otherwise, despite Denilson’s best efforts to put the big defender under pressure with a sloppy pass in the second minute, from which Campbell recovered brilliantly with Hulk — the cinematic puns could go on all night — bearing down on goal.

Arsenal’s supporting cast, replacing the likes of Manual Almunia, William Gallas, Alex Song and Andrey Arshavin, showed character and a reassuring level-headedness to comeback from the 10th minute own goal, and by half-time the visitors had taken control of proceedings.

And Arsenal should be talking about a victory. The two goals were seriously, almost uniquely poor and the Gunners should have been awarded a penalty a minute before the winner, when Tomas Rosicky was clearly upended in the penalty area.

The referee Hansson had actually had a reasonable game, ignoring Porto’s willingness to play to the gallery with elaborate falls from the merest of touches. The referee was rarely fooled, though he never thought about stamping such lamentable acting out with yellow cards.

Arsenal barely regathered their composure after the second goal but they can take the slightest of bows for maintaining the 2-1 scoreline. Wenger’s team had the away goal and a full strength cast, injuries, luck etc. permitting, should bring the curtain down on this tie with an Arsenal victory.

Ratings: Fabianski 4, Sagna 7, Campbell 7, Vermaelen 6, Clichy 5, Diaby 6, Denilson 5, Fabregas 6, Nasri 5, Rosicky 6, Bendtner 6.