You have to wonder whether Arsene Wenger and his back room staff at Arsenal even bothered to do any homework on our latest Champions League tormentors Olympiacos, because it looked as though the Arsenal players had no real idea of what they would have to cope with.
Just because Arsenal have always beaten the Greek champions at the Emirates, and quite recently at that, did we decide that some detailed tactical scouting was not necessary? I hope not because the Olympiacos team was hardly recognisable from the last time we played.
Did the scouts just do a bad job and miss the fact that one of their biggest threats was from corners and crosses into the box, with size on their side? Why else would Wenger rest his tallest (and best of course) keeper Cech as well as the giant centre back Per Mertesacker? Ospina is just 6 feet tall while Cech is a significant five feet taller and more dominant in his area.
Maybe the scouts did their job and were ignored by the manager, or the players then ignored their manager´s words. There has to be someone to blame for missing the fact that a quick counter attack was their other major weapon, because we certainly did not set ourselves up to cope with that tactic, a fact put into stark focus on their third and winning goal.
You have to think that the homework was done on Olympiacos and if that is the case then I can see only arrogance and complacency as the reasons we failed so dismally to cope with them. What do you think Gooners?