Beware Arsenal Bearing Gifts In Greece

Olympiacos 1 Arsenal 3
Europa League Round of 16 1st Leg
Thursday 11th March 2021, 10pm local time

A tale of all too familiar defensive and avoidable errors from Arsenal in Athens last night, although on this occasion goals at the other end mitigated the consequences. Martin Odegaard, David Luiz, Benrd Leno and Dani Ceballos all – carrying out their manager’s instructions it has to be said – created chances for the opposition to score. Fortunately they only accepted the invitation once.

Arsenal returned to the scene of their comeback triumph against Benfica two weeks ago, this time to face the actual club that use the stadium for their home matches. Two changes from the last Premier League game, as Bellerin and Gabriel came in, although a truer comparison is to the team that did beat Benfica. Ceballos was dropped due to the return to fitness of Thomas Partey, whilst Emile Smith Rowe was only fit enough for a place on the bench and so Willian got the nod. 

The nice aggressive start as the Greeks sat back saw Odegaard put a very presentable chance well wide, and soon after Aubameyang saw a header pushed onto the bar. Do teams no longer scout the opposition ahead of a European tie? It was as if the dangerous forays of Kieran Tierney came as a surprise, so much space did he have to work in. 

Of course, this is Arsenal. Doktor Schneide messaged me at half time…
“Looking at Arsenal playing out from defence is like having to watch a Steven Seagal film. You know it’s just a question of when the pain threshold reaches a point where you want to kick the f***ing telly in.”

First up we had Odegaard doing a Xhaka with a pass to Gabriel intercepted, and later in the half David Luiz was caught in possession and his team were very lucky not to concede. Old habits die hard. Arsenal just are not sharp enough to play this style of football and need to mix it up a bit more, become less predictable. 

Still, at least some good news in between the sandwich of near suicidal moments. And that was a consequence of some wonderful Arsenal pressing deep in the opposition half, leading to possession turnover, Odegaard getting the ball in space and hitting a rocket past the keeper from outside the box. It was the kind of goal that would been against policy under Arsene Wenger, a speculative punt. But the Olympiacos keeper was very poor. 

There were numerous free-kicks from outside the Olympiacos box as pressure told, and it felt like everyone had a go, but no-one seriously threatened to score. Arsenal got to half-time with their lead intact and the home team subbed the diminutive Mathieu Valbuena during the break. There is a name from the past. He’s 36 these days, and was at his peak years ago. How time flies. 

Early in the second half, more comms from the good Doktor on the subject of playing it out from the back…
“Leno and the defence have got the look of office Christmas party planners. None of them want to do it - it’s just to keep the boss happy.”

That was a few minutes before the equalizer…

Ceballos came on for Partey with 10 minutes of the second half gone – a sub that must have been planned at the interval. There are understandable concerns about Partey’s fitness and he will be wanted for the North London derby on Sunday. 

It was Ceballos that Leno tried to pass to, to set up the Greek’s leveller – when it obvious that there were too many opposition players surrounding the Spaniard. The ball was taken off him as he tried to find an angle to pass and the finish was easy. I’ve seen enough of this footballing suicide from Arteta’s teams.

The Doktor again…
“Unbelievable. More German suicide events than Hitler’s bunker”
I responded, “I just wish you didn't have so much raw material”

A tune came to my mind at this point. The Four Tops’ “It’s the same old song”. It all feels so damn predictable, and I am coming round to the idea that the club would be better giving up on the Arteta experiment. He hasn’t got the players to play the way Pep Guardiola does, so should simply find a method to get the best out what he has available. That is good management. 

In the 67th minute Arsenal nearly went behind – the confidence the equalizer gave the home side was evident. A beaten team were given huge hope by poor and unnecessary football. 

Arsenal were about to put three subs on when Gabriel scored a great header from a corner, followed by some doubt about its legitimacy due to a prostate Olympiacos defender after the ball crossed the line. 

Those three subs came on to inject some freshness into the team – Elneny, Smith Rowe and Pepe. The last you’d have expected to score was Elneny, but allowed to run towards the edge of the box, he unleashed a great shot that the keeper could only push towards the post, and into the goal. In spite of their best efforts to be the perfect guests, Arsenal’s superior quality overall was reflected in the scoreline. Ultimately this wasn’t so much Olympiacos against Arsenal as The Gunners against themselves, the good versus the bad. 

The Greek team need to win 3-0 or 4-1 next week to overturn this – or 3-1 and a penalty shoot-out. It’s unlikely, but you’d think Arsenal could not give this tie away from the position… would you???

To be notified when there is fresh content on my blog (generally the day after matches), follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/KevinWhitcher01