Joel Campbell knows the quality of Olympiakos more than any other member of the Arsenal squad having played there on loan for a year, and famously scoring a goal when they beat Manchester United in the Champions League. But now he is expected to be lining up for the Gunners on Wednesday against his old club and he is well aware of the difficulty of the task ahead.
Campbell played, and scored the opener, against Sunderland on Saturday and it was a confidence booster for us all. “It was a good result for the team,” he told Arsenal.com. “We got the result and that’s what we wanted. Now we have to prepare mentally and physically for Wednesday’s game because it will be very difficult.
“We already played against Olympiacos at Emirates Stadium. They are a great team, a great rival and especially because they play at home.
“In the Pireo (Karaiskakis Stadium) it is very difficult to get points but it is the last game of the group stage and we will give our best.
“It is the most important game of the season so far. It will be a cup final and we have to win to continue in the Champions League.”
Just to show the difficulty of beating the Greek Champions, you have to remember that they have won every single League and Champions League game this season except for the two legs against Bayern Munich, including beating Arsenal at the Emirates. Underestimate them at your peril….
Which movie will you be watching, Against Olympiakos?
Negativity will say:
“Mission Impossible in Athens”
Starring: Gooner lose.
Whereas, Positivity will tell you:
“Wenger’s Avenger’s will prevail”
Starring: Handsome Win.
It’s 90% certain that the Greeks will park the bus against us, Whilst 10% suggests that they might be feeling arrogantly superior and play their normal game.
In either case, we have no other choice but to attack from the start, so that we unsettle and unbalance their game plan.
I hope that wenger will change his formation and tactics for this game, Maybe a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 instead.
Personally, I would be more adventurous, with a 3-4-1-2 formation! Playing a high line, whilst instructing our CB’s to sit deep in our own half, abandoning the offside trap.
I would go for a:
ALL OUT ATTACK!!
WIth something left at the Back!
——————–Cech
——Gabriel,Mertesacker,Koscielny
Bellerin,Ramsey,Chambers, Monreal
———————-Ozil
———-Walcott,——- Campbell
Subs: Ospina,Debuchy, Flamini,
Giroud, Gibbs, Ox.
For argument sake, Bellerin is a winger converted into RB, The player himself has stated that and that he didn’t know how to defend until he came to Arsenal and he thanked Steve Bould for that.
Campbell plays as a lone striker for Costa Rica and has the experience of playing against Olympiacos’s defence,
Whilst being at that club for a year.
Giroud has been more effective starting from the bench, this season.
Chambers has been schooled as a DM and he will keep improving if given the chance and I would prefer the younger legs than the ageing Flamini for this game.
No doubt it will be a tough game with a very hostile atmosphere, but if wenger turns up with a genuine game plan, We will make it to the last 16.
Come on you Gunners!
I wouldn’t want to see three at the back and four in midfield as I expect to see quite a bit of time wasting so leaving space on the outside is maybe making it easier for them. We have a terrific away record in prem probably the best over a long period so that gives me some confidence, just need to transfer it to Europe. Lets hope Ozil makes the space and finds Girouds noggin for the opener ..COYG
The Greeks aint SMUGS that you can roll over in Pireo..you seem to forget we haven’t picked a point there.
Realism says: Arsenal for Europa!!!
I’m sure that Utd and Chelsea will keep us company,
if we do end up there (Europa league)
Olympiakos’s game plan will be to sit deep and defend,I hope Wenger has a plan to break them down as an early goal is a must for us.
1. PLAY WALCOTT 2. Put Ramsey in the CENTRE 2. Do NOT play Chambers in DM 3. Do NOT play with Ox
Ofcourse Arsenal’s Gunners will not underestimate the resolves of the Olympiakos to qualify for the Ucl knockout stages draw. But the Gunners will estimate their resolves to qualify at Karakiskais Stadium field of play in Athens on Wednesday night to know how much exactly they are worth in terms of Ucl football qualification value. And from there price their football game value they what to sell to Arsenal.
But unfortunately for the Olympiakos, Arsenal have refused to pay after pricing and know the cost of the Ucl game play of Olympiakos. Talklessl of to buy it. Rather, it was Arsenal instead that have forced Olympiakos to buy their own Ucl football game playing compulsorily at guns point whether the Olympiakos like it or not.
As the Olympiakos saw that there wasn’t anyway out for them to turn down or reject the offer of the Gunners to buy their own Ucl game playing. And knowing that they cannot escape from buying the Gunners Ucl playing game that has so many away scored goals to the opposition in it, the Olympiakos reluctantly paid the Gunners their price of conceding 3 goals to Arsenal’ Gunners. And consequently got knocked out from qualifying for this season Ucl group stages knockout draw matches.
Olympiakos won’t know what hit them tomorrow….Please gunners, make us proud tomorrow.
Like they did against Monaco and Bayern ?
Amidst all the optimism, i suggest caution. This was already a difficult game but is now insurmountable due to injuries to Santi, Alexis and Coq. The creativity and the steel in the MF has taken a severe beating due to this. If the game is open, the chances are better for us. But i am 99% sure we will come against a double decker bus in this game.
Ozil will perform but can he do it for full 90 min? He is a genius but not a marathon man and in midweek games i have noticed he often gets tired and is unable to give 100% in the second half. So first half performance is absolutely vital.
Giroud is unpredictable. He can have a absolute screamer of a game or he can go completely anonymous while missing sitters.
Bellarin’s battery seems to be low.
Campbell is doing well but he has to be absolutely on top of his game in this one.
Walcott’s fresh legs and Ramsey in his favorite central midfield role are positives.
Overall i feel we are good enough to defeat them. But can we defeat them by the margin that we need to qualify, i have my reservations about that.
Valid points ?
But there’s nothing to be cautious about here,
unless you want players like Ozil rested?
This is a one off game, where we know whats needed to qualify to the next stage.
We don’t have the comfort of relying on other results to help us this time around and we already have one foot in the europa league.
Of course it will be more difficult without Coquelin, Cazorla and Sanchez but it’s not as if we haven’t lost a game with them in the team!
The Olympiakos game will be won or lost depending on formation, tactics and desire!
And I’m hoping that wenger gets it right… This time!
? ??
Not me, I want him to learn that depth is necessary to challenge for CL and relying on youngsters will never work
Ramsey should release the ball and not shoot everytime he gets the ball infront of him. Greedy bigheads style of game is getting into my nerves.
He is playing cm and not striker. His main job is, the transition from defending into starting the attack. And he needs to work on his finsish product. Worldclass in getting in good poz. but chicken class infront of the goal.
I miss Santi already so bad.
I’ve heard fans say need to shoot more and not try walk ball into net, here we have a player who likes to hit it and somehow still not good enough. Cant please everyone I suppose ..especially if they stand in whichever camp suits there argument.
The argmunet is. Shoot if you can score. Dont shoot if someone is in a better poz then you are. Very simple and not hard to understand.
I doubt anyone shooting and believe they will not hit the target. That’s what a shoot is meant for. That and the fact that you can always have a lucky deflection.
Budd. You and your tamagotchi way of thinking again. I am tllk about seflishnes not believe. A player must understand his own capacity and know that at times the goal is more important then you hitting it yourself.
And how do you know Ramsey does not understand his capacity? If you want to know whether a shoot will hit the target it seems pretty obvious to me that you have to take that shoot. Reminds me of that joke whit the bloke asking god to win the big lottery prize and god yelled at him ffs dude, I am rigging all these numbers for you but you still have to buy a lottery ticket mate!
Bec he would not make the same mistakes over and over again. Write it down.
Obviously!
But Ramsey seems to always shoot first than ask questions later ?
The point is… This is a team sport and Ramsey is a individual glory hunter! ???
And he would rather shoot from 25 yards out than pass it to a team standing unmarked at the back post.
That would be offside. I’ll take that shoot, thank you.
Hahaha ?
I knew that would be your response mr wenger!
But how can you be so sure that it’s offside?
You normally don’t see past your nose! ?
Shut up with your unjustified hate, he’s the only Arsenal player who has the balls to shoot, and unlike any of our midfielders he always puts himself in goal scoring positions even against bus parking teams. Oh, and how else do you think the likes of Lampard got 20 goals a season ?? BY SHOOTING THE DAMN BALL CONSISTENTLY LIKE RAMSEY DOES.
arsenal are the better team and should blow them away, injuries or no enjuries no excuses.
last night
i saw on Sky sports Jamie Carragher show/demonstrate an interesting flaw Arsenals game
there was huge gap between our attacking and defense at least 20 yards where no man land which allowed the opposition to counter attack with no resistance until well in to our own half our defense overwhelmed and on back foot while our midfield and attackers still in oppositions half, the reason we are better then last year is because of Coq and rapid speed of Belerin saved us but what with Coq out Ramsy loving being a forward we will have problems tomorrow night with the Greeks who love to counter attack, someone has to drop back when Ramsy is on his attack’s
I’ve noticed that backward step throughout November, huge gap between our last line including defensive mid and to our attack including midfielders. Even when other side is the one chasing the game we somehow look like it is us in need of a goal. Might be due to players coming in and trying to regain fitness or players trying to grab their chance before we regain a full squad. Cant be sure of the reason but we seem to have lost our great cohesion.
It is an issue present within all teams involved in multiple competitions at this time, November. No matter what you do, you will have fatigue around this time. We should know better as we always dropped physically around November. We played both Coq and Cazorla for half games in November and still had that feeling the gap is becoming wider with time.
Bellerin was in awful form for the last three games and I am not sure if the injury had anything to do with it.
Look at Liverpool, Chelsea, City, United, Madrid, Bayern etc. All of them lost or had a crappy game last round. It’s bound to happen. Grinding out results is not bad at all until end of December. Just don’t lose the game. I’d say if we win against Villa then we will have a good chance to beat City. I will even take the draw as long as they are still under us in the table.
That’s what Ive been saying for the past 3 weeks, it doesn’t matter if Santi plays centrally or Ramsey does, neither of them bring the defensive stability that Coquelin offera hence why we need to BUY a PROVEN quality DEFENSIVE midfielder.