Match Preview: Arsenal v Olympiakos (UCL)

Beware of greeks bearing gifts

“I admire and I like the way his teams play, the offensive way he makes his teams play, the offensive mentality,” Zico said.

“I follow his career here at Arsenal and I like the way he always makes the most of the players he has.

“This is how he achieved the great success of his life.”

But Zico realizes that in order to have some success at the Emirates his players must,

“pay them the utmost attention, that we leave no space for them,” he said. “They are a very fast team, especially when they attack, especially in the follow-up and we have to concentrate.”

 The Greek side is not without players who know Arsenal. Former Villa player Olof Mellberg is the first player to score a competitive goal against Arsenal in the Emirates inagural season of 2006.  Not playing but also part of the team are former Blackburn striker, Matt Derbyshire.  Each player has stressed the need to stay focused ahead of the match.

Arsenal should not overlook this opponent.  Olympiakos have only lost their league once since 1996 – 2003/04- coincidentally, the last time Arsenal won the league trophy. The Greeks are an attack hungry team and won’t be content to just sit back and play route 1 ball with Arsenal. While the score to their opening match in the Group stages was a 1-0 victory over AZ Alkaemar, the controlled the game throughout. They will try and attack a midfield that has been described by some as soft.  And of course they will know that Vito Mannone was stunned into 2 quick goals within the first 2 minutes against Standard de Liege.

Arsenal come in to this match riding the success of a gritty win against Fulham, a side notorious for playing Arsenal hard. But on the right foot of Robin van Persie and the hands (and face) of “Don” Vito Mannone, Arsenal came away with 3 well deserved points.

But not all the news out of the Emirates is encouraging. On Mondayy it was disclosed that Nicholas Bendtner was in an auto accident that will leave him off the team for the match.  Worse still Brazilian mid-fielder Denilson will be out for the next two months with what has been described as a fracture in his back. All is not loss however, as Theo Walcott is back and has claimed his desire to play in this match and while the gaffer may not start him, he could figure in as a substitute.

Arsene Wenger has placed a lot of faith in his young side. He will be looking for further payoff this week as the club looks to continue its successive play in the elemination rounds. The come from behind win at Standard de Liege may have shown that the side is maturing and gaining a resolve that hasn’t been there. The players are certainly talking as a team that is trying to apply lessons learned from last season. It still remains to be seen if they can translate those lessons to silvware next May.

How it should go down?

Olympiakos has only recently improved their away form in Europe. However they have not played in an evnironment like the Emirates or any of the larger clubs. Arsenal on the other hand have only lost once in the last 24 outtings at home in the Champion’s League, last year’s embarrasing loss to Manchester United. While youth will be in abundance on the Arsenal side, they still feature more talent than their competition. Additionally, they will be sensitive enough to not let the match start in a manner similarly to the action in Belgium.

Key Players:

Arsenal:  Vitto Mannone. 2 weeks ago, Vito faced 2 shots in four minutes and each of them went in . Since then he has held on for two cleansheets. One was at the hands of an overwhelmed challenger who put up little in the way testing while another was a well fought battle to keep his side in the match. As in hockey, sometimes matches hinge on the play of the ‘keeper.  The young Don will be called on once again to back stop Arsenal as the their number one still recovers from a chest infection/cold/flu thingy.

Olympiakos: Physical fullback, Vasillis Torrasidis, is the target of a few big clubs because of his hard-tackling ability and while it looks like he could be sold as early as this January, he could try and prove his worth by being a thorn in the side of Arsenal.

Injury report:

Arsenal: Bendtner, Djourou, Denilson, Nasri

Olympiakos: Galleti, Derbyshire

Possible Starting XI:

Arsenal: Mannone, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Rosicky, Fabregas, Arshavin, van Persie, Eboue/Eduardo

Olympiakos: Nikopolidis, Zewlakow, Mellberg, Avraam Papadopoulos, Raul Bravo, Zairi, Dudu, Ledesma, Leonardo, Diogo, Torosidis

Final Score:

Arsenal : 2

Olympiakos:  1