So, after almost a month we can finally try and right the wrongs of the Porto game three weeks ago, and having not overturned a first leg deficit in Europe for over 30 years, there is a hell of a lot of work to do.

Lets put this in perspective: When this tie was drawn it was a good draw, Porto are not that much of a threat so anything but us going through tonight would be a failure in my mind. Are Arsenal better than Porto? Yes – so Arsenal should progress.

The task is made all the more tricky with Cesc Fabregas ruled out with his hamstring strain but Alex Song returns to the team after serving a league suspension at the weekend so he is a welcome return. It will be interesting to see if the boss decides to start with Andrey Arshavin after freely admitting he can’t last the 90 minutes. Will he go for it from the start to try and take advantage of the best team at our disposal and put Porto on the back foot? It will be interesting tactically.

In the Porto press conference yesterday their manager promised goals, is it a bluff or are they going to come out and attack? I think they might go for the away goal, if they get one, we need three to get through, so its vital we score the first goal to level out the tie, if we get in the ascendancy early on we can get into their heads, and when they start remembering they have never won on English soil thats when the heads could drop and we can capitalise.

In my book, Porto are not a great team so we should go through, after all we only need to win one nil, but as I said earlier, if we concede our lives are going to be made ten times more difficult.

With the absence of our top goalscorer someone is going to have to step up, be it Andrey Arshavin, Samir Nasri, Thomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott or Nicklas Bendtner – one of those players is going to have to perform better than they have all season and hopefully there won’t be too many nerves jangling come the 89 minute mark.

We need a commanding display from Almunia, Thomas Vermaelen and Sol Campbell, despite us needing goals the chances are they are going to have to mop up all the mess if moves break down and that brings me onto something else, over-comitting.

Its happened in every game against our rivals this season and we have been picked off, if Porto had an ounce of intelligence they will look to do the same. We must be careful.

We beat this lot 4-0 at home last season, they can’t have improved that much since then, call me ignorant but its my opinion.

Lets go and win this.

Til tomorrow. COME ON YOU REDSSS