ARSENAL's freescoring goal machine heads to Portugal on Wednesday to face Porto in the first leg of the Round of 16 in the Champions League.
After that miserable Festive period where they lost two games in a row in the Premier League and were bundled out of the FA Cup at home from Liverpool, Mikel Arteta's side have embarked on a remarkable run of form.
They've won five league games in a row and scored 21 goals in the process. Most impressively of all, 11 of them have come in their last two matches – both away from home – when they walloped West Ham 6-0 before battering Burnley 5-0 in Lancashire.
They are flying at the moment and a trip into the dragon's den at Porto's Estadio do Dragao will hold no fears.
Sergio Conceicao's team are predictably involved in a three-way battle for the Portuguese title with Sporting Lisbon and Benfica and sit in third after a weekend win over Estrela, which made up partly for a shock defeat at Arouca the previous week.
In Europe, they qualified reasonably comfortably from their group after four wins from six over Shakhtar Donetsk and Royal Antwerp and lost twice to Barcelona.
How the bookies view it
Arsenal are just about backable at 7/10 with Betfred although you wouldn't to take any shorter for a game they don't have to win.
Porto are 22/5 with UniBet and the draw is 11/4 with Paddy Power.
Recent head to heads
The clubs last met in the knock-out stages of the Champions League 14 years with Arsenal winning 5-0 in London after a 2-1 loss in Oporto.
Players to watch
Brazilian striker Evanilson has scored five goals in his last six games for Porto and takes the penalties too. He is 10/3 to score anytime with bet365.
Bukayo Saka is on fire for the Gunners at the moment after hitting doubles in his last two matches to take his tally to six goals in his last four matches. He has 15 for the season and is 12/5 with bet365 to add to that in Portugal.
Anything else catch the eye?
The way Arsenal are playing at the moment, there are few teams who could stop them from scoring and with confidence flowing through their ranks, they can continue it against a Porto side who allowed Shakhtar Donetsk to score three times at home earlier in this competition.
With the goals flowing, Paddy Power's 9/2 on an Arsenal win and over 3.5 goals looks a spot of value.
Old war horse Pepe was recently sent off for the 16th time in his career against Sporting Lisbon and the 40-year-old is likely to resort to his tried and trusted book of dirty tricks to stop Arsenal's young guns from giving him the runaround, He is 2/1 to be booked with bet365.
This UEFA Champions League match between Porto and Arsenal will be played on Feb 21, 2024 and kick off at 20:00. Check below for our tipsters best Porto vs Arsenal prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
