David Raya’s brilliance in the penalty shootout ultimately earned Mikel Arteta’s men a place in the quarter-finals.
Despite a moment of real quality from Martin Odegaard and Trossard, Arsenal struggled to break down a well-drilled Porto backline.
And Ian Wright thinks Bukayo Saka, Ben White and Trossard were nowhere near their best on the night.
Speaking on Wrighty’s House, the Arsenal legend explained why he believes Arsenal’s key players struggled to make an impact on Tuesday evening.
“I don’t like saying things like the referee wasn’t good enough today because he had such a cool, calm demeanour about him. But he let so many things go, like the gamesmanship of Porto,” Wright said.
“He kind of just let things run where the game couldn’t get into a flow and I was worried that because of that we wouldn’t be able to get into a flow where we can get the ball to Odegaard, get it into Saka, take them on.
“It wasn’t Saka’s greatest game but I thought that the main thing was for everybody to stay calm, stay cool and don’t lose our heads.”
“We couldn’t get going,” he added. “Trossard didn’t get going, Saka didn’t really get going. Even Ben White, coming through and doing the stuff he’s been doing in the games recently.
“Everyone seemed to be, I wouldn’t say under par, we couldn’t get going with the way the game was being played.”
