Kevin Whitcher's Arsenal Blog

Arsenal 0 Olympiacos 1   Europa League Round of 16 2nd Leg Thursday 18th March 2021, 5.55pm Although Arsenal seemed to have done the job in the first leg in Athens last week, Mikel Arteta didn’t take too many chances in his selection for last night’s return match at the Emirates against Olympiacos. Granted, there was no Bukayo Saka, whilst Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard were on the bench. Otherwise, it was a fairly strong team, with Pepe, Ceballos and Elneny the players less certain of starting if the manager went with his strongest current eleven (at least in his view – there is always a debate about David Luiz). It was indicative of the importance of qualifying that both Partey and Odegaard came on (for Elneny and Ceballos) in the 57th minute with the visitors a goal to the good.   By that time, the home side should have made the game safe given the quality of two chances enjoyed in the first half. After a slow start, Pepe beat the keeper and you have to question his decision to t

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