Arsenal secured their third win a row tonight with a 2-1 win over Olympiacos. Ok, it wasn’t the most convincing at times but at the moment it’s all about results.
Arsene Wenger obviously had an eye on the North London derby as he left van Persie and Ramsey on the bench, with Chamakh starting up front and Tomas Rosicky captaining the side.
After some meaningless early tussles Arsenal made the breakthrough in the 8th minute. Alex Song played a ball forward out of defence, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain took it on his chest, got a bit of luck with a rebound from a defender, ran on into the box and finished sweetly with his left foot. He becomes the youngest Englishman ever to score in the Champions League.
A few minutes later the away side should have been level. Arsenal’s defending from a corner was all over the place and when a shot rebounded to their bloke about 4 yards out I feared the worst. But Mikel Arteta charged across goal like a motherfucking neutrino, baby, and blocked the shot. From the rebound of that their bloke put it wide from 3 yards out. I laughed.
We then went 2-0 up, Andre Santos charged down the left and got onto a good ball from Rosicky, he crossed it for Chamakh who was tackled. Again we got a bit lucky with a rebound but Santos took it on and rolled it home at the near post for 2-0. Shortly after that it should have been three but Chamakh dragged a left footed shot wide with just the keeper to beat.
Then their goal. Honestly, this should be played over and over again at a team meeting this week until they’re sick of looking at it. We switched off completely, left The Ox to deal with a short corner on his own, with two against one they made the most of it and crossed for some bloke to come in completely unmarked and head home. If I were the Olympiacos coach I would have told the team to play for corners.
We were different in the second half though, more urgency, more aggression. I suspect they got a Pat Rice hair-dryer. The best chance of the half fell to the Greeks though when some slack defending let some bloke smash a shot off the crossbar. Other than that I thought Arsenal defended well enough though, Song in particular displayed some quality and assurance at the back and without ever really creating a real goalscoring chance I think we did enough to deserve the win in the end.
It won’t go down in history as a sparkling Arsenal performance but that’s three wins in a row and just what we need to keep things ticking over until we have to face the scummers on Sunday.
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Stats via @Orbinho:
Arsenal v Olympiakos Shots 13-16 On target 5-5 Passing Accuracy 83%-82% Fouls 15-15 Duels Won 54%-46% Possession 58%-42%
Song is a better centre half than Merts.
Thought Mertsacker did alright. Slow as anything but no doubt he’s got a great nack of nicking the ball of peoples feet. Thought both CB’s did alright.
I remember Auclair saying that the great centrebacks tend to make less tackles than the average ones because their presence and positioning prevent the need to make them. On another night, we could have conceded more, and that says something about the games of Mert and Song tonight.
Yeah he did okay. But Song got his head on more balls, passed better, talked more and defended cleverly at times…….and he’s a midfielder.
The boys worked hard in the second half and deserved the win.
Early days for the Ox but he looks to have more about him than Theo at the moment.
I think we’ll do Sp*rs on Sunday. Frimpong will hurt Adeiwantmore.
Rubbish. Mertesacker was awesome tonight, as was Song. Mertesacker made several crucial interceptions, and dispossessed players with ease and accuracy throughout. He’s also extremely quick in jumping in to cut out a play; reminded me of Vermaelen. Our weakest link at the back tonight was, surprisingly, Sagna.
Hate the way all of the cunty pundits are slamming us for conceding 1, umm Man u let in 3 last night against basil brush!!! And I don’t think they were as harsh on them!!!
Just a reminder, the whole world is against Arsenal this season. You might as well get used to it…
Boom boom!
I will now spend the rest of the day trying to find the highlight of arteta being a motherfucker
am really pleased with the team’s performance. I think AOX is a great prospect.
Who let the Ox Out
Moo Moo Moo Moo
Who let the Ox Out
Moo Moo Moo Moo
ahahaaha
heh
Well done AFC. The headlines will read Arsenal scrape to victory, unlucky Chelsea and Man U held, but Gunners don’t give a fuck…Work in progress, the train just warming up….Well done lads, a win is a win….Fuck the media…..Guns Out……………
Just leaving the stadium… Won’t be one of the fondest to watch, but we did a clinical job… Not happy with arsenal though, not the players, the fans. We were consistently outsung by the minority of away fans… The players seriously need us now, and we aren’t helping, much is needed from us, we need to be the 12th man.
PS: I sang my heart out
well fuckin said lad 57 odd thouasnd against 3 should be no contest.
Well done to the boys – results, results, results, and it’s a great one for us.
And congratulations to AOC and Santos and making the difference on the night. Great stuff.
Content. A wins a win. How many of us in the past have said most especially at the start of this season, we don’t care how it happens, winning and getting that winning mentality is all important; voila. We’re the only English side to win this round of games, so lets here no talk of ‘ underwhelming victory against inferior opposition’ bollocks peeps… because a victory is a victory, you only have to look to last nights results to see that no one is guaranteed a result in the CL, even if you are those that ‘coughs’ sweep all before… Read more »
hear*
Bfg and song platyed well as did santos sagna picked up in 2 nd half yet we still look vulnerable at the back, I think it’s down to the midfield, altho arteta and frimpong played well arshavin again was a waste of space rosicky marginally better, so seems we are always light in the middle and those that play well have to do the work for arshavin who does fuck all.
We play with ten men every time he plays and lose the ball, get over run and thus the defence ends up under pressure again.
i cant remember arshavin once backin up either full-back which is not fuckin on. Rosicky is never same player s his early days, he played some key football for czech but all he seems to do for arsenal is go backwards. two maybe 3 times is all he turned oppisition midfielders n drive on. 1 win=3 pts thats all that matters. g4life
Arshavin was a disgrace at times, you could see him standing stock still. Rosisky just isn’t an Arsenal player anymore, neither should be in the shirt.
The difference between Arshavin and Rosicky is that the latter actually gives a fuck. Rosicky will give 100% every time, and he made some crucial tackles in the first half especially. Arshavin gives 50% every time. If I had to choose, the Russian would leave. Rosicky has great character.
Besides which, Rosicky has just come back from injury.
What’s Arshavin’s excuse?
Boredom?
I’m pretty sure Rosicky didn’t play it backwards that time he fed Santos for what turned into our second goal.
Rosicky is a ruddy workhorse. Every squad needs someone who’ll play his socks off for 90 minutes. Also he’s loyal to us after we stuck with him through his injury mare. His passing’s accurate too, which is more than you could say for some out there last night. I reckon Arshavin got the full hairdryer effect at half time. Largely anonymous in the first half, barely adequate in the second. Now there’s a player who’s form these days is nowhere near what it was and desperately needs a rocket up his backside. I’ve seen glaciers move faster for position than… Read more »
Defending was frickin atrocious. The first chance they had, the guy was just STANDING there unmarked, and no Arsenal player even noticed him. It was shameful, horrible!
Gotta say Ox looks amazing though.
I thought Santos was brilliant all night.
yes, specially in the second half.. but in the first half, didn’t do enough defensively… let ppl run past him far too easily quite a few times…
well he is a bit of a fatty isn’t he. Once he’s got into shape I think he’ll be more effective. I think I wouldn’t mind seeing him on the left wing sometimes with Gibbs at left back, though that might be a bit risky.
First half: great going forward but shit defending (pathetic goal conceded).
Second half: solid defending but shit going forward (we hardly troubled their goalkeeper).
Bright spot: the Ox was fantastic. This guy could develop into a world-class player – we could make 50 million quid when we sell him to Man City!
Verdict: we look like a mid-table Premiership team. We will probably qualify for the knock-out stages of the CL, but that’s it.
PS: what happened to our beautiful passing game? And why did we keep giving the ball away?
Fuck off, so what if we only beat the Greeks 2-1. Manchester United only managed a 3-3 draw AT HOME! Also Chelsea tied 1-1 with Valencia. (Great job Mata, you went from a good club to a club that is also good and by far no better than the one you were with. Also Man City lost 2-0 to the Germans. Yet Manchester City, United, and Chelsea are probably still title contenders. Come on give me a fucking break.
There’s more chance of Dennis Bergkamp becoming an astronaut than us winning the Champions’ League – and you know it.
I am not talking about the Champions League I am talking about your verdict which states that we are a mid table team. We are not, we are definitely a 4th place team, yet with the results of this week there is a chance we could hope for a higher place
Have you looked at the League table recently? Top-four teams do not concede 14 goals in just six games. Yes, we have the players to finish forth, but we won’t because or glorious manager can’t coach basic defending – yesterday’s pathetic conceded goal is all the evidence you need.
Couldn’t give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut how we win at the mo. Long as we do, that’s all that matters.
Well scrapped lads.
I’d like to watch someone giving a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut, would probably pay good money to see it infact.
Dirty Barry can get you a video.
I think we did well. Big german lad was good. slowly we’re improving. we were missing 4 of our starting 11 at least. although if i was theodore walcott id be expecting to be warming a lot of benches soon as the ox looks class. the referee was fucking shite. Well done men. keep it up.
Fantastic!! When we were winning by 4 or 5 goals early last season and in years gone by, they said we couldn’t win ugly and dig out those nervy wins that champions are able to. Now we’ve won a few games without really playing a great deal like we know the team can and scrapping for results and the outlook is that we won’t go far because we can’t play our ‘passing game’!! These people must live short lives with all that tension they create for themselves! Anyway great result and some more consistency and good solid support and we… Read more »
The team just can’t win it with the fans don’t they? Could be worse had the results was a draw or defeat. Why can’t all the fans enjoy the win and get behind the team already? Give them time to gel and supports them no matter how they going to win a match!!
FEED THE OX AND HE WILL SCORE
I thought Chamakh had a decent game tonight, like to see him a get a good run of games and return to the form he showed at the start of last season
Sorry, but Chamakh looked like a sad, lost boy tonight. No confidence. The one great chance he had in the first half, he fluffed it.
Why didn’t Park start this game? When are we going to get a look at him? If Chamakh is ahead of him in the pecking order then he can’t be any good.
before tonight Walcott was most certainly ahead of the OX in the pecking order and it certainly doesn’t reflect on his quality. I take your views on Chamakh, but I feel with a little bit more backing and some confidence he can get back to being decent. Certainly did more than arshavin tonight. Another in a long line of players lacking the confidence and the spark. But a win’s a win and if this boosts the team’s confidence then that’s good enough for me!
Hate to say it, but the guy is completely shorn of any confidence. A top striker would have put away that gilt-edged chance he had.
Chamakh’s through ball to the Ox was excellent though to be fair. Ox should’ve hit it first time but dallied a bit too long. Just a bit of inexperience showing there.
Chamakh has looked really poor for a while, but if he could do it before, then why not again?
I would like to see more of Park too. Maybe he’s not quite ready yet.
Thank you ox first goal at 9/1 handy 100 euro, did’ent play great but a wins a win bring on the shit at weekend, come on the gunners
Arsene is an idiot! We only won 2-1. I’ve not seen Park play so he must be shite. AOC looks good. Who signed him? Oh, Arsene? That guy sucks. He’s old and needs to get sent packing. We kept giving the ball away and that never happens in football, except to shitty Arsenal.
Ok, so I’m not FATGOONER, but I think this is a reasonable approximation.
C’mon mate! We won a game, and Arsene’s most expensive signing looked great.
I suppose I’ve got to apologise for just being a realist. Narrowly beating a very average Greek team at home suddenly doesn’t make us a great team again. And all the underlying problems at our club haven’t suddenly gone away. If we lose to Spurs – which I think we will but hope we won’t – then this website will be full of vitriol against Wenger again. But he IS finished, and we DO need a new manager. Wenger can’t make us great again. Oh, and by the way: making a great signing doesn’t make you a great manager –… Read more »
I think you’ll find David Dein did all the critical spadework in the Bergkamp deal.
Definitive opinions are all the rage at the moment. You either know everything or can see everything happening in the future and I don’t mean just you fatgooner, I’m just being general with it. If someone says something negative with a lot of certainty and repeats it a few times it’s almost inevitable to happen whereas someone saying something positive with an equal sense of calm and belief is merely being delusional and can’t accept reality. It’s the way of the world we live in I guess? Saying Arsenal might struggle or might finish in the top 4 is not… Read more »
A win is a win…
I went to the game, I applauded and clapped, and I swore (in a ladylike manner). Shocking defending… including from the man of moment. Oxtail. We need a defensive coach… please Arsene..please. From your elevated view you must be able to see the problems we the fans see. However…. we won…Game On. Song was my man of match… and Santos was great,,, especially with Arshavin in front of him… poor man. Great goal… never give up…well done lads…
Got away with it tonight to an extent but (cliché alert)- a win’s a win…we’ll need to play FAR better Sunday though-& Alex OC already looks more of a player than Walcott…
Is a win.
The best teams dig out a win even when playing badly and this weekend it looks as though were the only ones in england to do it (also without our top team)
Is it just me or does Santos look like he needs to eat a few less pies?…
Excited about Arteta this season
75% of female Arsenal fans surveyed agree.
Making fun of someone for having a disease? I guess sometimes you appeal to the lowest common denominator…you guys are usually much more clever than that.
Let’s get real chaps, beyond the parodies of AMG or AKB. The defence is not being improved. This is worrying for AFC. This manager is not going to change things. There certainly is only one Arsene Wenger, and a board with their own economic model based on massive profits in the TPA. So as actual Arsenal fans, do we applaud this profit making ability or do we think there should be more ambition?
Personally I think they’re exploiting the model as long as they can.
I think it’s pretty harsh to compare Walcott with The Ox. Yes they played in the same position for Arsenal but naturally, they are different players. Walcott is a striker, while Ox is a midfielder. Had we play a system that can exploit Walcott true abilities, we might have a different argument today. I don’t know when will Arsene play Walcott in the middle, but I believe he is a very good pacy striker.
Ox had a great debut, but apart from the well-taken goal I thought he showed all his youthful inexperience with poor decision-making, both in attack and defense. I would suggest he was the reason why sagna was so exposed last night. Though the latter is such a beast – what a performance from him yesterday!
I too would like to see chamakh get more games in the side. He lacks “a bit the sharpness” at the moment – evident from the number of misplaced one-twos and lay-offs tonight – but he is regaining confidence with each game.
But how come the away fans were way louder than home fans? That was a shameful performance by the fans last night.
Ratings
Sczezzzy 8
Sagna 6
Merta 7
Song 8
Santos 6
Frimprong 7
Arshavin 3 Auditioning for the invisible man
Rosicky 5
Artetta 7
Ox-Cham 7.5
Chamak 6.5
Ramsey 6
RVP 6
Guys prepare for sunday,hit the fucking spurs.
Amen. Let’s give the cunts a damn good Frimponging.
Amen to that!
Would singing “I predict a riot” be too distasteful at Sp*rs?
Sold ! Love it.
Song is clearly our most under rated player. He put in a great shift at centre back and his absence from his preferred midfield position allowed Olympiakos far more space to strut their stuff. He was composed, commanding and decisive. He also initiated attacks with great balls out of defence (he had a hand in Chamberlain’s goal). Sacker hugged him tight at the end of the game with a big grin on his face. I guess it’s testament to the fact that he’s probably the best the big German has played alongside all along. Scant mention of his contributions to… Read more »
[…] If you watched the match yesterday, you would have realised that it was a real surprise the scoreline stayed as it was after the second half began. Goals from both Oxlade-Chamberlain and Andre Santos ensured that 3 points was secured, and two very happy new signings. For match highlights go to http://player.arsenal.com/player/968-olympiacos-h-bitesize the free videos provided by Arsenal. Or you could skip the video and go to the match report. […]
We’ve needed a player with massive bollocks for a while. Arteta proved how big his are when he used them to block a certain goal.