Match Preview: Arsenal v Olympiakos
Posted by: Aidan in Arsenal, Champions League, Match Previews
Greek giants Olympiakos travel to the Emirates Stadium today ahead of their Champions League Group H clash with the Arsenal. Both sides had victories in the first Champions League match day earlier this season, with Arsenal turning over Standard Liege 3-2 and Olympiakos toppling AZ Alkmaar 1-0. This means that a win to the Arsenal today will see them three points clear of all opposition after just two matches.
Olympiakos coach Zico was thrown into the deep-end earlier this season when he was put in charge at the Piraeus-based side just hours before their opening European match against Alkmaar. The Brazilian legend’s employment has paid dividends so far for the Greek giants, having won four and drawn one of their opening league five league games. Zico, however, will be without midfielder Luciano Galletti and striker Matt Derbyshire for arguably his toughest test yet.
Counterpart Arsene Wenger has far greater injury worries heading into tonight’s match, with a host of players out of contention due to injury. Nicklas Bendtner is safe following a car crash yesterday although he will sit out the match, while Denilson will spend a further two months out after suffering a fractured back. Lukasz Fabianski, Manuel Almunia and Samir Nasri remain sidelined.
I’m predicting the line-up to look something like this:
Eduardo – van Persie – Arshavin
Rosicky – Song – Fabregas
Clichy – Gallas – Vermaelen – Sagna
Mannone
BENCH: Szczesny, Senderos, Gibbs, Eboue, Diaby, Ramsey, Vela.
Vito Mannone will be looking to continue his rich vein of form tonight, and a performance even remotely close to his weekend heroics will surely cement himself as a serious contender for Manuel Almunia’s Number 1 Jersey. I am a bit sceptical about the severity of Almunia’s injury (how long is a chest infection that came out of nowhere during an uncharacteristic drop in form supposed to keep you out for?), and I’m starting to think that the goalkeeper’s spot is Mannone’s to lose now.
I’m tipping a comfortable win this evening to make it four clean-sheet victories in a row in all competitions and move the Gunners three points clear at the top of Group H. A confident victory tonight will be the perfect way to warm up for Blackburn on Sunday and hopefully begin a meteoric rise up to the summit of the Premiership table.
P.S.The latest edition of Arsenal FC Blog’s Weekly Podcast is out, featuring Young Guns‘ Jamie Sanderson and Jammathon from Third-Gen, check it out here!
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You are wrong… wenger is bound to stick with that useles son of a gun that goes by the name of abou diaby… so tough luck my friend, you are wrong in naming rosicky in the starting lineup (even though I would very much like to see rosicky play there), because we know wenger likes to put diaby in there, even though he is the most useles player that has ever don the arsenal shirt.
maybe is true diaby will play .. but i hope no one ( who hates him ) will say after a game that he plays good that he is very good like some fans did !! Diaby is very good player the thing is that he is not consistent but he played many good games like vs portsmouth that scored 2 goals , celtic away came from bench and sends in the cross that we scored the own goal with a great move and also put us back in the game vs standard with that lovely dribble and lovely pass to bendtner !! The best thing is to support our players not criticise them ;) thats how many arsenal supporters do unfortunetley :S
UP THE GUNNERS !! Arsenal to win 3-0 !
I would start Rosicky on the wing in place of Eduardo.
Diaby would fill in that defensive midfielder role. He is not ready yet to play in this role, but the only way to do so is play him week in, week out. So expect Diaby to fill this role permanently going forward until Denilson is back. Also Wenger needs to get Diaby and Denilson (injured for 2 months now!) ready for January and February while song is away. Put it this way, we are far too short of personnel in the DM role which will impact team performance in a big way.
Should Song get injured now, we will be completely screwed.
Diaby has potential. The fulham midfield destroyed us on Saturday, by giving us no time on the ball. Diaby couldnt adapt to this. I doubt olympiakos will play the way fulham did. I expect Diaby to do a much better job today. But he needs a lot of practice playing Premier league games to get a hang of the DM role. So my suggestion would be to show him a whole lot of patience so that he can get used to this position.