Having decided it was high time to watch my first Europa League match of the season, last Thursday I drove across the Mississippi River from St. Paul, Minnesota’s capital, to the city of Minneapolis, the state’s commercial hub and home of Brit’s Pub, the local mecca of televised football and ultimate resource for those whose cable packages do not include Europa League games. I thought the expedition might give me a bit better background for writing this preview but as the atmosphere was a bit noisy and distracting, in truth the only useful knowledge gained was confirmation of my conviction that Brit’s offers the tastiest pint of Guinness and the best cooked plate of fish and chips available hereabouts. The founder of this fine establishment, who sadly passed away last year, was a proud supporter of Burnley FC, but word has it he has been forgiven his trespass. Two pints of Guinness consumed, one for each half of the game, I drove back across the River pondering what tack to take in the preview, and opted for the classical approach.
In the first leg, Olympiacos started quickly, and went close twice in the opening minutes, but as the game developed Arsenal slowly seized control of the midfield, and with ten minutes remaining Alexandre Lacazette scored the only goal of the match, tapping in Bukayo Saka’s lovely cross. Arsenal’s task on Thursday evening is to maintain or improve that slim advantage.
Despite the relatively low prestige of Europa League encounters compared to the Champions League standard to which Arsenal were accustomed for 19 seasons ending in 2017, there is ample precedent to consider between these two sides. Arsenal faced Olympiakos over eight legs in the Champions League group stages in 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2015/16. The first six matches resulted in home wins, but in 2015/16 Arsenal lost 2-3 at home only to recover 3-0 in Greece. In three of those four years, Arsenal eliminated their Greek opponents so Olympiakos will be seeking revenge, perhaps drawing upon the divine aid of Nemesis, the ancient Greek goddess of retribution. Either way, Arsenal must be on their guard in this knock-out round not to commit an act of hubris, or to entertain any arrogant ideas that the match could be decided before a ball is kicked. Arsenal defeated Everton in a home league fixture on Sunday afternoon, their third consecutive victory in all competitions, and do not play again until Monday night when they face Portsmouth away in a fifth round FA Cup tie.
Arsenal won both of their previous Europa League round of 32 ties, in different circumstances. In 2017/18 they won the first leg 3-0 away against Östersunds before losing 1-2 at home. Last season they lost 1-0 in Belarus at BATE Borisov but recovered to win the home leg 3-0. Arsenal began this, their third straight Europa League group stage campaign, with three straight wins but then faltered, needing a late comeback at Standard Liège in the last match to qualify as group winners.
Olympiakos sit top of the Greek Super League, undefeated after 25 matches, last having played Sunday when they defeated second placed PAOK Thessaloniki, who trail Olympiakos by five points in the table. They entered this year’s Europa League knockout stage after being eliminated from their Champions League group where they finished third behind Bayern Munich and another club from north London. This is Olympiakos’ seventh appearance in the Europa League round of 32. They have won just two of their previous six ties at this juncture – against Rubin Kazan in 2011/12 and Osmanlispor in 2016/17 – and have yet to progress beyond the round of 16.
Pedro Martins, the coach of Olympiakos, became the club’s fifth Portuguese boss in six years in April 2018, following Leonardo Jardim, Vítor Pereira, Marco Silva and Paulo Bento. Martins had not previously worked outside his homeland before moving to Greece, but he has outlasted most of his recent predecessors at the club. If and when Jose Mourinho is sacked, the self-instigating rumour mill suggests Olympiakos could be interested in making him the next Portuguese boss in line, and Mourinho may need the job having fallen so far.
Olympiakos’ biggest attacking threats are 33 year old Moroccan centre-forward Youssef El-Arabi, who has scored 22 goals, and 35 year old French attacking midfielder Matthieu Valbuena, who looked dangerous in the away leg and has added eight goals and eighteen assists in all competitions. The age of those players makes me wonder if the Greek side will be able to maintain an effective attacking threat late in the game when legs are tiring, but they also feature the more youthful 26 year old Greek international left-winger Georgios Masouras, who has contributed six goals and four assists. Konstantinos Tsimikas, a 23 year old Greek international left-back, and Omar Abdellaoui, a 28 year old Norwegian right-back, have been constants in the Olympiakos defence, but after 25 minutes of the first half in the first leg, centre-back Ruben Semedo, another important player in their defensive setup, received a yellow card that will cause him to miss the second leg. The Olympiakos midfield workhorses include 22 year old Guinea international Mady Camara, 28 year old Brazilian defensive midfielder Guilherme, and 26 year old Greek international Andreas Bouchalakis.
Team selection
In the away leg at Piraeus, Sokratis Papastathopolous played in place of the injured Hector Bellerin at right back. Bellerin did not travel to Greece as a precaution over a groin issue, while Sokratis suffered a knee problem himself late in that game. Bellerin played against Everton on Sunday, and Sokratis was available on the bench, so Mikel Arteta is likely to call on Sokratis against Olympiakos if he is healthy. Otherwise, if he wants to rest Bellerin, Arteta could recall Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the first time since 18 January when Arsenal drew at home with Sheffield United. The rest of the back four should remain unchanged with Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz and Bukayo Saka all keeping their places.
In Greece the Gunners were without Mesut Özil who was attending the birth of his first child, and as a result the team lacked some coordination in attack but Özil should be available on Thursday. The midfield trio of Özil, Granit Xhaka, and Dani Ceballos, which was so effective in the last two league games against Newcastle and Everton, should be able to keep on clicking against Olympiakos, but in the away leg Arteta started Matteo Guendouzi and Joe Willock, who could both play important roles at some point, as could Lucas Torreira who has not played more than 45 minutes since the Chelsea game on 21 January. Up front, Alexandre Lacazette, who scored the key late goal in the away leg, should lead the line with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe stretching defenders on his flanks.
Mustafi and Xhaka are the only two Arsenal players who must avoid accumulating another yellow card in this game in order to avoid missing the next Europa League contest, so Arteta could alter his team selection or substitutions with that issue in mind.
The ‘holics pound
Arsenal playing at the Emirates is almost invariably a decent bet for a home win of any sort, and most of the week I have been tempted to back a Homer of a 4-1 win to straighten the arc of Arsenal’s Europa League odyssey as they march on to the round of 16 ties on the 12th and 19th of March. Indeed, Arsenal have made a habit of late goals in the Europa League this term, scoring in the final 15 minutes of all but two games, which suggests the shine of a 4-1 scoreline beckons like the lure of a distant lighthouse on a Mediterranean shore. But in the last couple of days I have feared I might have been guilty of hubris for predicting an overly optimistic result, so have an alternative result ready for you, complete with hints of classic Greek tragedy: Olympiakos to open the scoring and make nerves jangle until 10 minutes from time when a bit of déjà vu plays out as Lacazette connects with a Saka cross to put the Gunners through despite only managing a home draw in the second leg. In the full light of day, this result may be more realistic considering Arsenal have not won four matches on the bounce since October, and are playing their fourth match in two weeks’ time.
If Arsenal do manage to go through, no other Greek Super League clubs will remain in the competition but in the next round there is still a small chance of facing Greek opposition in the form of APOEL (Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia) if the Cypriots can overcome FC Basel on Thursday despite having lost the home leg 0-3. Odds on the likelihood of that eventuality are available at your local Greek take-away window, I am quite sure. Personally I wouldn’t mind that or any other draw but do hope UEFA will not throw us to Wolves.
Have a good one, ‘holics, wherever you may be to watch the game.
Wow, bt8, your preview is dripping in more detail than fat off a succulent Greek Souvlaki at Kostas. The journey between the twin Cities put me in min of WLT : A Radio Romance. Give my regards to to the Soderbjergs should you ever come across them 🙂
I’m going to the game so please, oh please, may the Greek Gods not let your scenario two unfold. My nerves won’t stand it.
I think we’ll see a very strong team selected to ensure the win is a ‘Homer’ 🙂 If Hector is fit, I like your back four, your middle three and, yes, I think the inclusion of Laca for Eddie is likely. If we can get an early cushion, perhaps we’ll see three substitutes been introduced.
COYG!
Excellent preview bt8. A very useful in-depth analysis of the opposition.
I’m guessing the fitness of Hector and Saka will determine whether they play, even though the option of resting them for the relatively less important (imho) FA Cup tie on Monday will allow Mikel to take the risk of yet another game in quick succession. Saka looked very out of sorts in the second half against Everton and could probably do with a rest. I wonder if we might see AMN re-emerge as a LB. Otherwise I agree with your selection. I don’t think he will want to break up the CB partnership of Mustafi and Luis or the midfield engine of Xhaka, Ceballos and Özil. Lacazette should get the chance to maintain his scoring run.
I’m less optimistic than your early prediction but more optimistic than your late instinct. I hope the Greeks remain poor travellers and we can achieve a comfortable 2-0 win albeit with latish goals and not, I expect, without some first half scares.
COYG
Excellent, detailed preview from the twin cities bt8. I am slightly concerned by how dead we looked late in the second half on Sunday. Hopefully we’ve got the travel out of our legs from a week ago and clocked up some quality rest in our own beds. Hopefully Tierney can make a come back on Monday, but I think Saka has to play tomorrow night. Start strong and if we go 2-0 up hook those who need it most. Ozil came to a dead stop after 80 minutes and he didn’t travel to Greece. To be honest I’m a little worried.
I think Saka is the major concern, C100 (we’ve hopefully learned from the experience of over-playing Wilshere at a young age) and as Bath suggests, we may see AMN at LB. As professional athletes, reasonably fresh from a week in the middle-eastern sun like yourself, the rest should be able to cope, albeit perhaps with some refreshments from the bench. Speed on the recovery to full fitness of Tierney. I can’t see him back quickly enough.
Nice one, bt8b. The Guv’nor tended to go with double=digit odds, and never a draw, so I will latch onto the 3-1 available at elevens. It is very possible that their one will arrive before our three.
Greek football, it seems, is a political vipers’ nest with Olympiacos and Notts Forrest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, at the heart of it:
https://www.politico.eu/article/greece-tackles-political-football/
Arteta says Kolasinac seeing a specialist this afternoon, but is pretty downbeat about the severity of the injury.
Laca joined Arteta for the Olympiacos pre-game press conference, so I assume that means he will start.
Nice one bt8. A good and thorough read.
I hope we get a first half goal and then control the tie, scoring more if possible. It would just be great to have a night where we show some class and composure. Hold them at arm’s length and not give them a way to pressure us.
In short, to show everything that Emery’s Arsenal could not do but that we want to get back to in home games against the likes of Olympiakos.
As someone who considers himself reasonably well-versed on European football I learnt a huge amount from this very interesting preview. Thanks for a smashing job Bt8.
I won’t be there tomorrow night as I have one of my occasional work engagements, as it happens listening to a journalist who is a very serious West Brom fan . We can lament the departure of Serge Gnabry together.
The last time we played Olympiacos , Ospina decided to Chuck a corner into the net and we defended at our most colander-like only to thrash them in Athens . We are in a good position and they don’t travel well traditionally and I hope we will see a 2-0 victory. I’d go with Laca upfront and Saka for Kola from Sunday’s team but otherwise be very close to the sort of team we took over there .
El-Arabi is the leading goal scorer in the Greek Superleague this season with 17 goals, but the only Olympiacos player in the top 15, which suggests cutting off his supply lines is key to holding them scoreless.
Also Chuka Aprom, once of this parish, is no 11 in that list with six goals. He got a half-hour run-out as a sub for PAOK in its weekend game against Olympiacos.
A couple of videos popped up today. The first featured the 5-2 demolition of Bottenham eight years ago (featuring the comeback sparked by Sagna’s late first-half goal). Heart breaking to admire Roin Van Persie’s quality and then recall that the club decided they weren’t “going to break the bank” to keep him. The second was a compilation of Aubameyang’s 50 goals, every one of them, since he arrived at Arsenal. Spectacular, clinical finishing tied up in a bow of somersaults and smiles.
One of the most noticeable aspects of this second one is the attacking contribution made by Bellerin. He was directly involved in many of the 50 goals. We’ve missed Hector’s defensive performance during his year in the ACL ward, but equally, and less often remarked upon, we’ve missed his marauding wing play on our RHS.
Get back to you very best quickly, young Hector.
I was wondering if Olympiacos’s win over PAOK, leaving them five points clear in the Greek Superleague with one game of the regular season to play, had made them champions-elect. But no. I read on Wikipedia that the league has introduced an intriguing competitive structure this season. At the end of the regular season (each of the 14 teams plays the others home and away), the top six sides go into a Championship Round. Each then plays a further ten games, home and away, against the other five to determine which team is champion and the allocation of Greece’s two CL and two Europa League slots for next season. The eight other teams go into a Relegation Round to determine which get relegated.
All four teams now between sixth and ninth in the table go into the final match week of the regular season uncertain whether they will be in the playoffs from which they could conceivably emerge as champions or the ones that could lead to their being relegated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_Superleague_Greece#Relegation_round
Ah, Chuka Akprom, Ned. A legend in his own lunchtime. Was he by any chance closely related to Chuba Akpom who looked like he might well emerge as a potent attacking force from the academy? (Apologies 🙂 ).
I really liked Akprom/Akpom and thought he had real potential. His current berth highlights the challenge confronting young players and the low likelihood that they’ll actually make the grade and manage the transition from U-18 ‘superstar’ to first team squad player.
Accordingly, congrats and best wishes for continued success go to Saka, Nelson, Maitland -Niles and hopefully ESR.
Btm
That 5-2 win will always loom large in my mammary ( sorry memory ) because aside from beating the old enemy in such spectacular circumstances my mate and I espied ( in a very innocent way) a topless lady on the corner of Drayton Park and Gillespie Road after the match . I was with my PA who was disgusted that a lady in a state of deshabille should gaze out on the crowds in such a brazen way but it added an unexpected erotic tinge to a very fine day. I think there was a football match too. 😃
BtM @13, don’t forget Willock and Nketiah! We have more talented youngsters on the edge of breaking through into the first team than we have had for over 30 years. That’s them in the bottle neck. Will they get out the other side? History tells us that they won’t all make the grade at Arsenal but alongside Martinelli, I expect at least 3-4 of them to be key players for us within a couple of years.
BtM@ 12 not 13!
TTG@13, that lady clearly left an imprint on your cortex! Are you sure you kept on walking?
Bath,
No problem at all. I only lingered for two hours!😃
bt8 excellent work. it would be a tragedy to lose as we’ve just gotten our mini-run going, but if we lose let’s hope it’s not the end of of our EL run.
i really wonder if özil has another start in him tomorrow, tired as he looked at the end of sunday’s game. i’d not be shocked to see joe in that spot working with granit and dani. if saka isn’t starting and xhaka has to play left back, i could see worse midfields than lt11, dani, and joe.
ttg, is she the woman who screams all the time at the game? sounds as though she might have reason to. full marks for using the word deshabille…
Scruz
No that’s the wonderful Maria (the shouter, not the stripper)
We used to hear her screaming at virtually every home game at Highbury. I haven’t heard her in years, maybe even not since we moved to Drayton Park.
Scruz, Willock in place of Özil could be a good call, especially at home. Joe is on the verge and I would love for him to get the opportunity and have a breakout kind of game. Thanks Ned for the links about the Greek League, where it sounds like they take their football seriously enough to risk going to jail. Or should I say, it would at least be a risk if they had a better justice system.
Thanks to all for your kind comments on the preview, and credits to UEFA.com and transfermarkt.com for most of the factual aspects of it.
I was chatting to Maria at the Bournemouth game. She sits in club level at home, not sure where. She’s much more apparent and audible at away games.
CM100@22, Ah. Clearly minted then. That’s why we don’t hear her anymore. It’s a quiet zone in my only experience of it. Passion is discouraged.
This young lady was nothing like Maria who was at the game obviously .
I think she was either an exhibitionist or a very happy Arsenal fan or she was very absent-minded and had forgotten to dress fully. Frankly I didn’t care !
Anyway back to football. Citeh played well in Madrid tonight. Real looked like a spent force
Shitteh deserved their win though the red card for Ramos would have been harsh had it been almost any other player bar those playing for Tottnumb, Manure, the Bindippers or Stoke.
Thanks bt8, very informative
stuff and I think I’ll go with
your optimistic first thoughts
on the score line.
MA will know who needs a rest
but I’d like to see at least 3
changes from the Everton
game.
Shitti deserved the win tonight.
I thought, Real, like Barca last
night, were nothing special.
BtM@12: Spillchucker!
Cheers bt8, that an interesting, informative & well researched preview from the twin cities – top stuff. Team selection will be interesting as MA8 determines who will be most suited to achieve the win – fatigue & form will be at the foremost of his thoughts. Whoever he chooses to start I’m confident he will select well.
The guv’na always went for an optimistic scoreline so I’ll go with your 4-1.
Tierney again in the pre-match training shots that the club has released:
https://www.arsenal.com/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/images/D52_5091_2020022610520596.JPG?itok=mnPtqgpT
But is probably still well short of being match fit.
It’s good though as I wasn’t
expecting to see Tierney till
the end of March.
I read somewhere that he’d been
able to do a lot of running as it
was a shoulder injury.
I read the same OM. He’s been working on the fitness of his legs and his stamina since the early days of his shoulder injury. He should come back with quads of the girth of Saka’s waist.
Bath @ 14 – nor John-Jules I suppose? A very promising young bunch.
@13 ttg, a great pity that your young lady didn’t do an Erica Roe during the game to add a bit of Boom Boom after we’d scored five 🙂
Erica Roe! What a blast from the past. “Here was this jolly well-built and naturally breasted middle class girl running onto the field at Twickenham!”
For those unfamiliar with the lass due to tender years or international isolation :
That ridiculous man with his
Union Jack 🙂
Another blast from the past
Lovely! More than the British Standard Handful there, Bath. The lads in the white coats on the pitch appeared to be enjoying the view until the silly old blokie with the flag appeared. Ha! Mum and dad reported that “the phone hasn’t stopped ringing all day”.
Re: The clip of Erica Roe. I hadn’t seen that before, but come to think of it I wouldn’t mind living in Portugal growing tropical flowers. 🙂
In an unrelated story, Maria Sharapova has retired from tennis to dedicate herself to other endeavors including the promotion of her premium candy that she has dubbed Sugarpova.
I wouldn’t make up something like that. Really. 🙂
Erica Roe – a blast from the past indeed. I happened to be at that match. Unsurprisingly the party I was with consumed a voluminous amount of alcohol before kick off. My friend next to me dashed to the loos at half time ( along with thousands of others ) and was delayed a little to the start of the second half. He returned just after the incident and asked who scored as he had heard the huge cheers. When I explained it was a streaker bare chested, he was disconsolate at what he had missed. She was indeed a well endowed lady on full show until MR England stepped in. We all thought she probably was a native of Bristol with what was on display 😉
A casual visitor would surmise that we are sad, middle-aged men obsessed with breasts .
I recognise myself from that description!
TTG, I would to think we are modern thinking men who like to keep a breast of things.
On my way to keep Bath’s seat warm at that fine establishment on Stroud Green Rd. Anyone fancy a mighty fine pizza and something wet, red and Italian before the game?
Enjoy, BtM. I wish I could join you. 🍷🍕 Buono appetito!
sounds like fun, btm. while you’re drinking that wet, red stuff spare a thought for a poor gooner who has to go lights out because of jury duty in five minutes. i’ll see you lot tomorrow, after i get to watch the game in 12 hours!
Scruz: Let me pass on a tip which an old frient swore got her dismissed from jury duty in short order every time she was called: When they do jury selection, just let slip that you are a regular reader of Parapsychology Today.
lol, i didn’t get the chance. and the prosecution just rested; i don’t have to be back until well into the second half, and i’ll watch if i can get it on wireless here at the courthouse 😃
Leno
Bellerin, Mustafi, David Luiz, Saka
Xhaka, Ceballos
Aubameyang, Ozil, Pepe
Lacazette
Bench: Martinez, Martinelli, Guendouzi, Willock, Maitland-Niles, Torreira, Sokratis.
Attacking starting XI with all the closing-out the game firepower to come off the bench late on.
Cheers bt8 – Excellent preview!
Come on you Arsenal!
Unlucky
COYG!!!! I found out at halftime that the game is part of my cable package. Will wonders never cease. Spanish language announcers even let me brush up on my rusty second language. *Listens for the sound of “gol del Arsenal”*
more testing than I wanted so
far, another set piece goal
given away
A bit of pressure finally and a
couple of shots on targets
Willock for Hector is bold
Extra time, bollocks.
We haven’t made enough chances
so far. Can’t imagine anyone
fancies us at penalties either
Squeaky bum time.
We’ve barely put in a decent final ball into the box.
We may have to “concentrate on the league’ if this extra time goes badly.
Is Torreira really supposed to mark one of those trees when we are defending corners?
bt8@56, extraordinary isn’t it?
Martinelli on.
Bollocks
What OM said.
What NBN said.
And OM too.
Basically we bottled it at
squeaky bum time. I thought.
A large step backwards.
I was not there tonight but this is a result that seriously damages our season .
Huge disappointment. Olympiacos aren’t even very good
That was Throwback Thursday. We couldn’t find the movement or creativity to get around a parked bus (although it was bus-parking of the highest quality; even Fat Sam could learn a thing or two from Martins on that front). And then we had the collective comedy of defensive errors at the end to throw away a game just about won. And I would have bet my grandmother — or at least bet yours — on Auba burying that chance at the death.
TTG@63: I thought Olympiacos played to a game plan with discipline and tenacity. That will get them (has got them?) to a round further than their ability would dictate. Martins’s tactical nous may well get them to a round beyond that.
How seriously this damages our season will depend on the reaction. Obviously, it has halted the forward momentum that was beginning to build, and the apparent recovery of our defensive chops. It was our first team that started the game, so it can’t be passed off as a bad night for the kids. If anything, we looked better after Martinelli and Willock had come on. But Arteta is going to have to walk a testing line between rebuilding confidence and bollocking out our refound weakness over set pieces.
Winning the Europa League was arguably a better bet for getting back to the CL than the league, though by no means a certain one, given the quality of the teams still in. However, two of the sides we will be scrapping it out with for fourth/fifth place in the Premiership, Wolves and Man U, are going to have to contend with the extra Thursday games, which might prove a silver lining. But most of all we have to win our next four league games and have a decent run in the FA Cup. Do that, and tonight might not seem as bad as it feels now.
We may have taken a painful fall, but at least we haven’t fallen as far as quickly as Ajax, last season’s Champions League semi-finalists who are out of the Europa League after being beaten 3-2 by Spanish minnows Getafe over two legs.
Then there was the Europa League exit of Celtic, which was described as calamitous, catastrophic and shocking (all of them being words that wouldn’t be too amiss in describing what happened to Arsenal, but still, misery loves company).
Valiant efforts to find silver
linings gentlemen.
To be honest I expect Olympiakos
to go out next round, also think
Ajax and Getafe would both beat
them over 2 legs.
But yes we can concentrate on the
league as the old saying goes.
My commiserations to C100 who
I believe has the short straw of the
match report for that debacle
bt8b@67: Getafe is this season’s Sheffield United in La Liga, and is riding high in the table. Traditionally minnows, but no so much this season.
I hope C100 can channel his inner Guv’nor in his match report. It was inevitable that there would be setbacks along the Arteta recovery path. It is unfortunate that one happened in a match as consequential as this. As mention in earlier drinks, it will be the response to this defeat that will show whether we are on the path to a better place or not.
Yes, exactly that Ned.
Wise words Ned.
Fortunately C100 is a very sensible and experienced Gooner who has suffered the exigencies of football fate for many years. I have absolute confidence that we will see a sense of proportion on this blog. This is a very unfortunate blow but such things were inevitable . C100 has been through worse than this as many of us have.
Unfortunately, the Goonerverse is populated by many idiots who react in a completely OTT way. On Le Grove on Monday I noticed one moron who expressed a wish that Lacazette would die of CoronaVirus because he was such a bad striker. Faced with twats like that I know we will retain a sense of decency and proportion on here . We are in good hands with C100
Bugger.
Losing to an Olympiakos side who were not very good at any point of two legs and extra time is frustrating to say the least. I strongly think that MA should have hooked Laca for Martinelli on the hour mark. The Torreira/Ceballos swap changed nothing when it came. I am sure our boss is still learning how to affect games with his subs and last night he did not get it right for me.
Although none of our team got it right either. A strangely ineffective performance with a couple of costly individual errors.
I don’t think that we were going to win the competition without a huge slice of luck (despite the teams left in it looking fairly mediocre) so it may be better to go out now and focus on the league and FA cup as well as have less travelling and more time on the training ground. I’m not sure there is much benefit to reaching a Europa League semi unless you go on to win it. The financial rewards are meagre. Hopefully this turns out to be a good thing in terms of our long-term rebuild. A crappy result like last night’s doesn’t change much in our general position and trajectory as a team and a club, so we must keep on working hard and building ourselves up for the future. And trust in Arteta. He’s got this.
UTA
Countryman might be well advised to pay scant attention to the footy and just review his pre match meal.
It was so unbelievably Arsenal that after Mustafi became a laughing stock that we could not offload to any other club he has now been rehabilitated, played well yesterday, and it was only after he came off that we conceded the decisive goal.
You take Mustafi off at your peril. He’s our lynchpin!
If watching the team performance yesterday evening was excruciating, then watching Auba’s tv interview was even more so. He was totally distraught, not only in the manner of the defeat but also feeling responsible with his last ditch miss. He scored that superb goal along with all the wonderful goals he has scored this season, without them we would be in serious trouble in the league. He has nothing to be ashamed of. No doubt there will be great demand for his services next season and most likely will be at a club at the very top level – sadly not The Arsenal at this period of time.
You are quite right GSD, Mustafi had another good game with lots of tackles won and blocks made. It’s an amazing turnaround – all credit to both him and MA8 for this. When Sokratis came on as replacement he looked well off the pace – maybe not much t8me to get into the game – but he looked nowhere near Mustafi’s level, whodathoughtit.
Deeply disappointing as last night’s performance and defeat were, I think the silver lining is that we have dropped out of a competition that this team was incapable of winning, reducing our fixture congestion and allowing MA8 to work more with the players on the training pitch and the team to concentrate on climbing up the league table to achieve at least 5th place and to win the FA Cup. Olympiakos aren’t world beaters but we were even less so yesterday. There’s a lot of work to be done in this club.
TTG@73: All true.
Olympiacos draw Wolves in the Europa League Round of 16. The Mancs get a comfortable looking draw against LASK. Getafe with have their minnow status tested by Inter Milan.
Olympiakos drew Wolves in the next round, Ned? In my preview I hoped for any draw but Wolves so on the surface it may seem like I got what I asked for but no draw at all is not the same as any draw, as if you needed reminding. May Olympiakos do us a double dozen favors using the panoply of Greek gods and goddesses to the full extent of their powers. 🦅🦂🐍🐊🐅🐁⚡️🌊⛈⛈⛈
I think Wolves will progress, Ned. I thought that Arsenal made the Greeks look much better than they actually are last night. Wolves will run at their back lines of five, not pass the ball backwards and sideways in front of them. Also Wolves can defend corners. Probably the last thing we needed was a home and away Europa to Wolves to add the upcoming PL game. See, if you know where to look, there are always silver linings in the playbook.
U-23’s at the stadium tonight. Tempting, but two wet nights in a row is a bit of a chiller for these old bones.
Sitting high in the Clock End last night I was thinking of your preview prediction scenario two, Bt8 (not kindly, I have to say until Auba scored, as I feared that it was you who had tempted to inspire the Gods to this uncomfortable drama 🙂 ). I guess we got scenario three and it would have been scenario four if Auba had taken that late chance.
Ah weel, I suppose.
I really don’t think this Arsenal team had a hope in hell of winning the Europa League and while it may have been ‘our most likely route to the CL’, I don’t think one transfer window will make our squad CL-competent. A period of consolidation with focus on the PL is in order now. Work out who in the squad has the ambition and aptitude to fit into MA8’s vision for his team and jettison those without both qualities. Those who would rather go to a ‘CL club’ should be sold for top dollar to facilitate the rebuild that is clearly required. No tears over the EL exit here. MA8 has achieved remarkable progress in a short period of time but miracles don’t happen. This squad is unbalanced, contains players who lack the necessary drive and skills and inevitably reverts to the mean. Onwards.
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