So now that things look settled in the Arsenal camp since the arrival of Mikel Arteta, and after knocking in 4 goals against Newcastle, we have hit the perfect time to resume our Europa League campaign this Thursday. Olympiakos are certainly not going to be pushovers having played reasonably well in their Champions League Group, where they were faced with Tottenham and Bayern Munich.
But the fact is that the Greek Champions have never progressed past the Round of 16 in this Thursday night competition and have only won twice in this current round. But the one thing I am expecting is a lot of goals to be scored in both our meetings, and it would seem that Pedro Martins, the Olympiacos coach agrees with me. He told UEFA.com: “It’s a big challenge for us against Arsenal, last year’s UEFA Europa League finalists. They may not have started well in the Premier League this season, but they have great players, are dangerous and deserve our respect.
“Both [Olympiacos and Arsenal] love attacking football. Arsenal are favourites due to their pedigree, but we will have a say in it too. We want to continue in the competition and we will give it our all.”
The Gunners started their Qualifying Group in style and our youngsters did themselves proud, and in the 6 games we scored 14 goals, while conceding 7. Olympiakos may have had a much harder task in the Champions League Group, but still scored 8 goals (including 4 against Tottenham and 2 against Munich) in their six games, while conceding a massive 14.
So both teams have averaged more than 3 goals scored in each game in their qualifying group. So surely we can expect more of the same on Thursday?
MA will surely make changes and I feel he will start with Martinez, Kola, Holding, Mari, Soares(if fit), Torreira, Willock, Ozil/Ceballos/Guendouzi(if selected), Martinelli, Laca and Pepe. Arsenal have to keep the winning run going and should be able to win in Greece with the above team. MA will surely study our opponents strengths and weaknesses given the fact they have scored against Bayern, they are no pushovers. But I am still expecting a Arsenal win. Up the Gunners!
Off the topic, Tottenham will be without Harry Kane and Son for awhile and that is icing on the cake for Arsenal and huge blow for spuds.
Come on Arsenal
So then a 3-2 to the Arsenal
We must win every single game in EPL in order to make it to CL and do same to win EL.
We have two ways to CL, gives us edge on everyone else beside Reds we host in 36th game, by then we should be rolling and gunning down, beat them and remain only team invicible!
I don’t expect an high scoring game but i expect a win or at least a score draw.