Arsenal were far from their best at Sporting CP on Thursday night, but Mikel Arteta's side will go into the return fixture in London next week in good shape after a hard earned 2-2 draw in the first leg of their Europa League last 16 clash.
There will be parts of this performance that will have worried Arteta, who saw his side once again concede from a set piece, but the Gunners boss will have been pleased with the character shown by his side to fight back from a 2-1 deficit to snatch a share of the spoils in the second half.
Arsenal's manager made six changes from the team that started against Bournemouth on Saturday and things seemed to be going relatively smoothly when the impressive William Saliba powered a header home from Fabio Vieira's first half corner.
But a combination of poor goalkeeping from Matt Turner and slack defending from debutant Jakub Kiwior allowed Goncalo Inacio to equalise before the break. Paulinho then pounced from close range to give the hosts the lead soon after the interval.
At that point Arsenal looked up against it, but they responded well and got themselves what could prove to be a crucial equaliser, when Granit Xhaka's attempted pass to Vieira deflected off the unfortunate Hidemasa Morita and snuck into the bottom corner to earn the visitors a 2-2 first leg draw.
GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from the Jose Alvalade Stadium.
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