Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Koscielny, Gabriel, Gibbs, Coquelin, Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain Alexis, Ozil, Walcott
Subs: Cech, Mertesacker, Debuchy, Ramsey, Monreal, Chambers, Campbell
—
Arsenal defended and kept goal like twats to ensure their Champions League campaign picked up where it left off, going down 3-2 to Olympiacos at the Emirates this evening.
Arsene Wenger made changes to the team that beat Leicester with David Ospina replacing Petr Cech (reportedly carrying a calf injury), Kieran Gibbs coming in for Nacho Monreal, Francis Coquelin back in the holding midfield role and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain given a run on the right ahead of Aaron Ramsey.
Arsenal started brightly with the visitors sitting deep as you would expect, but looked most dangerous on the break. Oxlade-Chamberlain should have scored in the 12th minute having been set free but under pressure from the defender he shot into the side-netting.
Another break saw Theo Walcott with a sight of goal but his effort was tame, straight at the keeper. The Greek side had some moments of pressure, but didn’t threaten, one shot dribbled wide, although a free kick that was allowed to bounce might have caused some problems but Ospina showed safe hands.
After that the game settled down into a kind of stalemate, huff and puff from both sides, but neither keeper had very much to do until the 32nd minute when the visitors took the lead. Having won a corner after a mix-up between Gabriel and Koscielny, the ball was played to the edge of the box, Pardo took a first time shot which deflected off Oxlade-Chamberlain and into the bottom corner. 0-1.
The lead lasted less than 90 seconds though as Theo Walcott grabbed an equaliser and his 4th goal of the season. Alexis worked the ball down the left, fed it into Walcott who made a run in behind, he opened up his body and took a shot which ended up in the back of the net – although Roberto in the Olympiacos goal will feel he should have done better. 1-1.
Whatever he felt though, David Ospina will have felt even worse after he gifted the Greek side a goal to go ahead. From a corner he got his positioning wrong, he caught the ball, dropped it over the line and the official behind the goal flagged to award the goal to Olympiacos. A goalkeeping howler. 1-2.
There were yellow cards for Gabriel and Alexis before the first 45 minutes were up, and Arsenal went into the break knowing they’d been at fault for two very avoidable goals.
At the break Olympiacos made a sub, taking off some bloke and putting on some other bloke in his place, and Arsenal faced a wall of blue shirts as they sat very deep. Hector Bellerin was the most dynamic man in red, trying his best to make space down the right, but not much came off.
There was a further blow when Koscielny was replaced by Mertesacker in the 57th minute with what appeared to be a hamstring strain – an injury that will surely rule him out of Sunday’s game with Manchester United.
THere was another change almost straight away as Ramsey replaced Coquelin and the Welshman made an immediate impact. He split their defence wide open, Alexis crossed, the keeper got a hand to it, pushed it out then saved a Mertesacker rebound. That rebound fell to Cazorla whose shot was blocked off the line.
The Spaniard then saw a rasping shot from distance parried away by Roberto, before Alexis curled one wide and their keeper was booked for time-wasting. There was genuine pressure from the Gunners and in the 66th minute they drew level as Alexis headed home a Walcott cross. 2-2.
If that was supposed to put them on top, the lead lasted less than a minute, as the Greeks pushed forward from kick off, saw a shot blocked, then a forward allowed a simple tap-in from close range to make it 2-3. Bananas stuff.
Roberto made a fantastic save from an Ozil free kick, Oxlade-Chamberlain miskicking the rebound as Arsenal looked for an equaliser. Another fantastic Ramsey pass played Bellerin into the box, and as the ball came back to him he lashed a shot over the bar. An Ox shot deflected out for a corner, a Gibbs cross was headed just wide by a combination of Alexis and a defender, Ramsey had a shot blocked, the keeper scooped a Cazorla free kick out from under the bar but Olympiacos defended strongly.
Walcott curled a shot wide in the 4 minutes of injury time, but in the end Olympiacos held out for the win, Arsenal are left with no points from the opening two games, and they only have themselves to blame.
Next up United in the Premier League and Bayern in Europe.
*gulp*
Useless, overpaid, spineless. Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost for the Premier League.
Pathetic stuff.
All attack and no defense makes Arsene a dull manager.
All impressions of an attack but it’s passive. There are no attacking options of the bench either.
You are right, no focus on defence – that’s beneath us!
I swear we played well enough in attack to win this game, also scored enough to put away an olympiakos team. Wenger supporters will usually want to blame the players but you can’t really blame them in such games because they didn’t play bad. This is one such game where you can’t really pinpoint where’s the REAL problem.
Our attacking system works against us when we’re chasing a goal, while our defense set up works against us ALL THE TIME. Wink* wink* guess who’s the person responsible for all of the above.
Player: “We must learn a lesson from this defeat”
Lesson: **tiptoes away**
Well Barca came from 1-0 down to win 2-1 vs Bayer & they “dont have bench” too.
If your giving 100% then you have a chance if not you lose.
God known what this team is made of. One season we build our form on brilliant defense and another, it’s gone like….
like Arsenal’s form.
Trash.
Alexis must be pulling his hair out about what goes on behind him.
I just hope he doesn’t come to a conclusion that maybe the 10 behind him are the just not good enough.
Like all players did before him, saw the light the manager is finished 5 years ago and left.
Arsene IS the problem
Was sat in the front row. Interesting to hear Alexis reactions close up. He was very frustrated. At one point he roared in frustration. I hope we can keep him.
Arsene is an arrogant tw@t. What gives him the right to rotate key players in a CL group match, unless he’s already qualified? He’s won nothing for years, never won the CL ut he acts like he’s manager of Real or Barca.
Idiot!
Jesus H Christ… What in the fuck was that? But here is the upside, 200 mill in the bank still looks as good as ever.
Just sick of being sick with this team. It’s a ‘must win game according to the manager. And Cech and Per are ‘rested’ WHY???
Neither are tired, up against more pace than the game on Sat.
What’s the point of doing everything to get in the CL, to then rest players and go out? Just plain stupid. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
At least we can watch them on a Thursday on ITV4, if we are lucky.
The Premier League is a tall order for this bunch but since we are in the business of winning a trophy we might start looking at the UEFA Cup. That might be our real chance of silverware.
Thursday evening football……..oh my.
The only word I can use to describe that was careless.
I thought we had turned the corner (pardon the pun) regards to defending corners but I just get a very 2010-2012ish chill in my bones whenever we have to defend them nowadays.
And don’t get me started on that third goal, what the fuck.
Poor Sanchez ran himself ragged tonight good to see him getting back to his old self.
Theo did well enough with a goal and assist against that packed defence.
We really are down to the bare bones regarding attacking substitutions though.
Just wank
2010/2012? Bitch please. We’ve been conceding from set-pieces for ages now. Arsenal conceding from a set-piece is as predictable as Arsenal getting knocked out of the Champions League last 16 or losing 2-0 to Chelsea.
Why? Why? Why do these players continually bottle these easy things? Why?
Chamberlain has so much potential, it’s so annoying seeing him waste it….
Should be sold in January along with Gibbs. Prefer Flamini in both positions.
Haha that’s bloody hilarious 🙂
Flamini for goalie I say.
it’s like supporting Sisyphus.
Sisyphus was better at defending set pieces.
Sisyphus liked to mix it up more than we do
The big rock would be more effective.
*Syphillis
I read that as syphilis
I read that as syphilis first time
El Blondo – tell me again what you read it as, I didn’t hear you the first two times.
Arsenal: Professionals at making minnows and average goal keepers look like world-beaters. Oh well, CL was a pipe dream anyway. Goal now is to avoid complete and utter destruction at the hands of Bayern.
It’s ok guys, we’ll get Qarabag in the knockout round of the the europa league and go on to beat spurs in the final this season is still ok…. Seriously though, in a must win game in the champions league why the fuck is our 2nd keeper starting.
Because the manager don’t change. His arrogance is his downfall.
Like having different GKs for Premier League and Champions League – can we have two different managers for the two competitions!
Are we not good enough for CL? Or do we simply not prepare enough for CL?
Our gameplay, as beautiful as it is, is predictable and becoming a new route one.
And the bench, well, nowhere near ‘good’ level. Surprisingly shocking.
Seems to me Arsene’s forgot that he needs to assembly a squad, not only the starting XI.
In recent years I think we can feel hard done by in Europe, some key injuries, some dodgy red cards, away goals etc.
However this year I think is entirely representative of where we are as a club at the moment. Uninspired, unambitious, and stagnant. Oh so stagnant.
^^^^ Couldn’t agree more Don.
We are not even good enough for the BPL what more the CL.
Pathetic and sadly, expected.
Every bleeding time.
Well we didn’t make our own average goal keeper look like world-beaters for sure.
That was utterly dreadful. Well, we might as well just go out in the group stages instead of getting knocked out by Barcelona or Real Madrid in the second round. Really hard to seriously care about us in this competition nowadays. We’ve been hopeless for a long time now and have no realistic chance of winning it.
The Premier League is becoming a joke. A competition is only as good as the teams participating in it. And you can see that against the really great European teams (or even the not so great, great ones), the PL clubs struggle a lot. The only reason the PL seems more competitive is because the rest of the teams are just a little bit better than the other leagues’ relegation-bound teams. A bunch of overpriced players, coached by a bunch of nutters, fighting for the title in ‘the most prestigious league’. And the sad part is, we are measuring ourselves… Read more »
Would be a shame. I think a lot of fans would quite like the possibility of Madrid v Arsenal.
Ahh RM v Arsenal, has it been that long since a CL game really felt amazing? We fucking ruined them that evening.
So I hear Klopp’s itching for a job?
Give that man the job already!
I am tired of hearing the same tune every year.
I think Klopp’s situation at Dortmund ought to be quite parallel to Wenger’s: great managers who did a lot for their clubs, but there comes a time when you need a breath of fresh air (besides, Klopp was at his club for a shorter time than Wenger, and I think Arsenal fans have much more of a severe case of deja vu than Dortmund fans).
Well that was a pile of shit.
Did Ospina drive off the field in a clown car?
Ye,s and Gibbs and Chamberlain were in it as well
And now his confidence has been knocked down a notch.
We have one good keeper now not two atleast for a while.
Thanks Arsene.
Starting Ospina in a must win game was wenger’s fault. I agree. but ospina’s confidence knocked down is not wenger’s fault. The way he handled that ball…. his confidence wouldve taken a knock regardless of the opposition or the competetion.
What has Arsene to do with a ridiculous GK performance? Should he assist Ospina in goal? Or are you saying Ospina is clearly not good enough to stand against the world renown and terrifying Olympiakos attack?
He started him.
Even if you’re trying to say Ospina’s not good enough to be in goal agains the mighty Olympiakos – you’d rather start Cech with is calf thingy and risk losing him for Sunday?
Don’t be silly.
Yeah and he started Cech vs West Ham as well.
likely out of the Champions League, and it isn’t even October yet. I swear, being an Arsenal supporter can be so unhealthy at times.
And humiliating, dont forget humiliating.
Queue 10 interviews during the week about learning from our mistakes……again.
Please no….not that again…mercy!!!
Most of the times actually.. we didn’t even learn a thing from Monaco last season, its a huge shame on Wenger. i wonder if he as ever dream of lifting the UCL ever..
I don’t even know what to say.
What the fuck is the problem with us? 🙁
The same problem it’s been for years. No spine no backbone no leadership no plan b no tactical awareness no fucking chance of winning the champions league anyway.
I’m not a goalie but Ospina surely should be ‘boxing’ the ball away there. (I know Cech would have!)
Careless from the whole team especially when at 2-2.
Or catching
There was no bloody pressure on him either for him to fall back into his goal like that
Well that sucked.
this match was a showcase of how many things we do wrong
our defending can be really atrocious
our pressing is non existent
our set pieces are really really bad both attacking and defensive wise
we tend to play too slow when the oposition sits back and waits for us
i’m so disappointed
The more these type of results happen (and they’ve been happening for years) the more it’s strikingly obvious that the problem lies with how we’re set up. nobody can say that we don’t have the players to beat fucking olympiakos or zagreb… two shitty teams. it’s a joke.
Ozils corners drain me.
He tries to find a head for an assist instead of standing a corner dangerously infront of the keeper like that Olympiakos chap.
Cazorla has been no good either.
Good to be a gooner…
I don’t think the team cares about the CL
Arsene should get a lot of stick for this one
Pathetic. where’s the morphine?
If we think we are a force in Europe because we always qualify for the last 16 of the CL we are just deluding ourselves. We are way, way, way off the level of the European elite. We looked very ordinary going forward tonight and were defensively appalling. Well played Olympiakos but you can only beat what’s in front of you. It wasn’t that hard for them in truth. I only hope now we finish bottom of the group. Scraping enough points to get into the Europa League (unlikely though it is) would be worse than going out of the… Read more »
Really? One deflected goal and one goal keeper brain fart means it wasn’t hard for them?
Look, that was appalling from Arsenal. We should have won easily. And the number of ways this club continues to shoot itself in the foot really is impressive. If for no other reason than they should have run out of feet around 2007. But they weren’t particularly good. That’s actually what makes this even more depressing.
This match is the definition of bullshit!
£193M should have started!
And Owen Goal seems to have turned against us after such a promising start to the season.
Is any one else nervous when chamberlain is near our box?
What about Gibbs then? Is he even a real footballer. Sanchez blocked more down the left than Gibbs. FFS
He’s just as shit in between the boxes and in their box
Let’s face it: Arsenal under Wenger will never win the Champions League
Wengers tactics nullify great players, Ozil was terrible, Cazorla was useless, Sanchez was good but he is starting to look like an Arsene Wenger Arsenal player more and more now…pass pass pass pass pass lose the ball and the other team score on the counter. We are so predictable. Our next two games are a no brainer, we will lose both of them because we are so easy to play against. Bayern will rip us a new arsehole and wenger will say we have togo back to basics but we have a strong spirit…..so sick of this. Wenger has the… Read more »
4th place might not be enough anymore with the way english clubs are performing…3rd place is the new trophy
What a farce. Please don’t anybody talk to me for at least 48 hours.
Or even look at me.
Sorry, couldn’t help myself.
Hi,Hi-brid
Typical.
Same old mistakes. Same old Arsenal. We better start improving in europe and the league because as it stands we could lose 4th place qualifications and won’t even have CL football to watch in the future. So sad that players bust their balls to get us back into the game only for the defence to fuck it all up again. Pathetic. Shameful. Embarassing
Honestly? I’d rather avoid watching the same shit we’ve watched tonight. Blessing in a fucking disguise.
I just realised, we’ll be joining the Europa League won’t we….. ah fuck! What a dreadful impact that’ll have on our league campaign.
Let’s try and finish 4th in our group now?
4th is a trophy!
10 years of crap football with the occasional good game. And Wenger’s buying, but it’s not working. These lot seem to do the same thing the likes of Squillaci, Djorou, Silvestre, Gervinho and co. did. Good luck explaining that.
The only way left to qualify now is to beat Bayern once. Or, two draws can do it if Olympiacos and Zagreb play draws against each other and lose to Bayern, with Arsenal winning the other two games.
I think it would be better to field youth teams now, try to get knocked out completely. Better than playing the Europa League on Thursdays.
I am saaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
Why do you do it to me Arsenal…
Why..
Deary me, what’s the excuse this time?
On a day when Wenger confirmed he didn’t go after Martial because he didn’t think Monaco would sell him how many more examples of his incompetence do we need to see?
Monaco deja-vu doesn’t even cover it. Utter bollox from top to bottom (inc of officials…again) Cue Wenger out again no doubt.
Dinamo Zagreb get their first win in the CL in 15 years against us.
Olympiakos score as many tonight as they have in previous 50 years playing away in England
#OneArseneWenger
Exactly !
First Manager to lose 50 games in CL.
Wenger absolutely on point!!!
I love having Ozil and Sanchez in the team. Thanks for the memory’s guys. We’ll understand.
After this performance, not sure Ozil can really be put in the same catergory as Sanchez
Thanks Arsenal.
*lights blunt
Precisely what I’m on the way home to do… it’s the only cure for a hideous case of Arsenalitis
If Cech’s injured… Why even have him on the bench? Sounds fishy to me………….
If Bayern hammers everyone in the group 5-0 and only beat us 1-0 and we win the rest of our games against the best team Croatia has ever seen and the best team Greece has ever ever seen we could still go through.
But what would be the point?
Not much if at the end of the day you still serve up games like this on a regular basis. Then you just go out in the Round of 16.
If either Olympiakos or Zagreb wins both of their back to back matches we have to beat Bayern at least once and both of them when we play them again. No points against Bayern over the next two matches and we’re 99.9% done.
Olympiakos and Zagreb playing to two draws is less likely than one of them winning both.
well if they both beat each other they’ll be on 6 points and if we lose twice to bayern and beat them we’ll be n 6 points too. goal difference could be quite important
Shocked beyond words. Did not see this coming at all. It’s like Europa this year as I can’t see us getting out of this cul-de-sac.
When there is no Giroud and no Per in the team I know from the first corner against us we will have problems, awful defending this game could be easily won after 1-1 but opsina what were you doing are you mad gifting goal like that even almunia would not made that mistake a mistake that would cost us and sends us out of the group, I’m sure now wenger will bring back cech and will try everything for bayern to won the game which would not be enough, but hey whit this awful playing in CL we have no… Read more »
Shambolic. Pathetic.
I’m not even mad. It’s funny. Fuck.
I still can’t believe we lost to olympiacos? At home? Unbeleivable
Admit it,you miss me.
Well I expect people to be angry but if they don’t win on sunday, they’ll be very angry. No one likes to get in the way of angry people, so please Arsenal (and you primadonnas) win for f*cks sake!
This guys have no ambition, when they see they might not get to the CL at the end of the season then they start caring & playing like they really can but the start of the season is all the same. This time mayb even without the 1/8 of CL!
I’d rather eek out of the groups and go out in the knock outs, rather than go out in the groups and have to do Europa League.
Is that wrong of me?
Disgraceful
Tonight i didn’t argue with the Mrs unlike the last time we played in the champions league. And we still lost. Beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, the squad is really shit at times. Nothing to do with arguing with the wife at all.
no comment
It is about time someone laid into this totally underperforming and – at times – frankly inept Manager.
We had and have £70 million to spend. He declined to use any of it because ‘ the players weren’t available’. That – in my eyes – is dereliction of duty, in the light of this and other results.
No motivation ; no tactics ; no scouting the opposition.
Just the reiteration that he has managed 1000 + games and knows it all and any of his critics don’t.
Wenger’s departure cannot come soon enough.
It’s a 25 squad limit size we don’t even fucking use that size given our injury history.
We wasted one summer transfer window chasing Surez then we waste another chasing Benzema.
Its embarrassing when Martial’s agent says “there are those who follow players and there are those who do the deals”, Wenger’s response was “but Monaco said he wasn’t available” – who the fuck told you that Benzema was?
SB – double thumbs up for your comment!
Pathetic.
I can’t even be bothered to list the mistakes the manager has made from the transfer window to tonight’s game as I’ll be thumbed down in the hundreds.
For all those who defend him, just tell me the positives of going out of the champions league after 2 games?
What can I say??..what else can we say that hasn’t already been said..all I can do is be a fan..honestly wish we could do more..did we underestimate them?, what actually is our target as a club every season!! Players lacked confidence, no pointing of fingers here but we all know where the fingers point to…Oh to be a gunner,,,sigh! Keep your head up guys..lets keep faith!! Onward an upward #COYG
We USED to be a force in Europe, not any more. Past glory can’t seem to save us anymore.
Unfortunately for English football, seems there’s something in th water. We are all a shadow of ourselves.
Actually we never were much of a force in Europe, even during Wenger’s best years! We had the occassional decent run.
Well on the plus side, Alexis did score again