Not one member of the current Arsenal team started the last time they won a Champions League knockout match
Only one member of the current Arsenal squad played that day
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Your support makes all the difference.The last time Arsenal won a Champions League knockout tie over two legs, Spain were yet to be crowned world champions, Leicester City were playing their first season back in the Championship after a stint in League One and Gordon Brown was still Prime Minister.
Another fact that applies to the 5-0 victory over Porto on 9 March 2010 is that not a single member of the current Arsenal squad started that match, with just one current player in the matchday squad.
The win at the Emirates ensured Arsenal progressed to the quarter-finals via a 6-2 aggregate victory, but since then they have suffered last-16 eliminations at the hands of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Monaco.
The team that started against Porto that day features a number of memorable Arsenal stars, some for the right reasons and some not so much. Yet it was an experienced side that Arsene Wenger deployed, none more experienced than central defender Sol Campbell who had returned to the club at the ripe age of 35.
However, other names that featured that evening included regular first-team members in Manuel Almunia, Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen, Gael Clichy, Samir Nasri, Andrey Arshavin and Alex Song, while rotation options such as Tomas Rosicky, Abou Diaby and Nicklas Bendtner plugged the gaps.
The only current Arsenal player to feature that day was substitute Theo Walcott, with the England international coming off the bench to replace Arshavin in the 77th minute. The other two replacements that day were Emmanuel Eboue and Denilson, with Eduardo, Mikael Silvestre, Armand Traore and Lukasz Fabianski failing to make it onto the pitch.
While the stat is an astounding one, it is also a sad indictment of Arsenal’s fall from grace in the Champions League since the 2006 final appearance. Only once have Arsenal reached the last four of the competition since that final appearance, and this season they are attempting to break a run of six straight last-16 exits when they face Bayern Munich in the first knockout round.
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