{"id":12025,"date":"2025-10-02T13:52:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T12:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12025"},"modified":"2025-10-03T19:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T18:24:14","slug":"arsenal-labour-to-hard-earned-victory-against-obdurate-greeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12025","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal labour to hard-earned victory against obdurate Greeks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arsenal recorded their second successive victory in the Champions League group stages with a 2-0 victory at a pleasantly autumnal Emirates tonight. My night began most pleasantly as I met up with the sage of Hertfordshire, one Btm, who was having none of the 3-0 predictions suggested in Ned’s superb preview<\/a>. His pessimism was unfortunately borne out by an increasingly edgy Arsenal performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a deceptive game, the early stages suggesting the Greeks would be comfortably beaten as Arsenal swept forward with a combination of pace, aggression and not a little elegance. Martinelli missed a free header in the second minute but Odegaard who looked back to his creative best was ripping the Greek rearguard to shreds. We took the lead with a twelfth minute tap-in by Martinelli after good work by Gyokeres. This presaged a potential thrashing for Olympiacos but a combination of careless finishing and dogged Greek resistance saw us reach the interval only one ahead. Gyokeres who worked hard and showed a mixture of subtlety and brawn up front was unfortunately the main culprit. He had done most of the spadework for the goal latching onto an Odegaard through ball which he squeezed under the keeper and onto the post whence Martinelli touched the ball over the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Olympiacos 0 – Martinelli 12 mins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odegaard’s inventiveness set up two very good chances for our Swedish striker, but he snatched at both, and Raya had to produce a quite brilliant save to tip over a close-range effort from Podence after White was slow to anticipate the danger as the Athenians built up down the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all honesty White struggled all through against the pace of Podence and looked in need of the game time. Whether we could afford to give him that opportunity became one of the questions Olympiacos posed as the half wore on. It was a curate’s egg of a half where beautiful midfield combinations mainly involving Zubimendi and Odegaard were slightly offset by a feeling that the Arsenal defence was not at its most impenetrable. But half time arrived with a general feeling of optimism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half- time – Arsenal 1 Olympiacos 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arteta who always cuts an agitated figure on the touch line chose not to make any changes at the interval and one sensed that part of his rationale was that players like White, MLS and Trossard needed game time in a competitive environment. Worryingly what began almost as an exhibition developed into a more even contest with Arsenal failing to find either the midfield rhythm or penetration of the first half. White looked increasingly shaky and it was no surprise when Rice and Timber replaced White and Merino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal survived a scare when Olympiacos forced the ball home after a long ball through the centre but an immediate offside flag removed our immediate concern. Eze and Saka then replaced Trossard and Martinelli but not before Trossard had spurned a very good chance in the Olympiacos box. We suffered a review for a potential penalty which thankfully came to naught and \u00d8degaard saw a double wonder save thwart him when he met a Saka cross with a thumping volley and could not turn home the rebound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The margin of superiority was worryingly thin, when thankfully Saka who had switched wings with the effortlessly elegant Eze drove the ball in from close range after another perceptive Odegaard pass, just as we entered stoppage time, the goalkeeper allowing the ball to slip under his body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 2 Olympiacos 0 – Saka 90+2 minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cue massive relief around the ground and the final minutes were played out fairly serenely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final score – Arsenal 2 Olympiacos 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one sense, this was a solid continuation of our form in Europe this season. We have yet to concede a goal, and Arteta has flexed the squad effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less satisfactorily, we picked up three yellow cards: Gabriel for time wasting and Rice and Zubimendi for professional fouls which stopped dangerous Olympiacos attacks. Gabriel was taken off as a precaution in the second half to be replaced by Mosquera but Arteta has subsequently suggested that he sustained a kick and his removal was precautionary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather like a cricket match where you can\u2019t assess the pitch until both sides have batted, we can\u2019t assess our progress in Europe without a better idea of how good our early opposition is. Nevertheless a repeat of the sloppiness that developed after such a good opening would be likely to be severely punished by Atletico our next opponents in the Champions League. In fairness we started with a heavily rotated side and there were fine performances by our midfield three and Gyokeres deserves, and seemed to get, credit for a wholehearted performance. There is however a justifiable concern about whether the injuries that have plagued Ben White over the last few months have taken away some of his sharpness and his ability to overlap effectively. It was noticeable that we looked much more secure when Timber replaced him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We move on to confront our bogey side Wet Spam on Saturday. Nuno would have watched this game with a mixture of trepidation and relish. Not unlike most of the crowd tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal recorded their second successive victory in the Champions League group stages with a 2-0 victory at a pleasantly autumnal Emirates tonight. My night began most pleasantly as I met up with the sage of Hertfordshire, one Btm, who was having none of the 3-0 predictions suggested in Ned’s superb preview. His pessimism was unfortunately […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12025"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12025"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12034,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12025\/revisions\/12034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}