Olympiakos Preview and Open Thread

By: Martin | September 29th, 2009

So we’re back in action today with a big match against Olympiakos. At the moment, we are co-group leaders after we had that erm…”interesting” win over Standard and Olympiakos dispatched AZ. A win and 3 points today would put us well and truly in control of the group. As I’ve discussed before, the last match of the group stage for us is playing Olympiakos in Athens, which is always a tricky fixture, and I’d rather not have our knockout stage qualification depend on getting a result out of that match. Plus we’ve got a very tough domestic fixture list in the late fall as well, and it would be best if we could rest a lot of our first-team and rotate the squad a bit for the last match or two of the group stages.

Anyway, along with Panathinaikos, defending champions Olympiakos are a perennial Greek power, and currently sit 2nd in the table in their domestic league. I can’t claim to know much about them, but they’re a solid team of international veterans and managed by Brazilian great Zico. Their defense is tough–they shut out AZ in their first match of the group, and have only allowed 2 goals in 5 domestic matches. There will be no secret to their strategy today–they’ll be out there trying to frustrate Arsenal at every turn, and they would be more than happy to come away with a draw.

But we can’t let that happen. Anything less than 3 points for us today will be a massive disappointment. Teams like this have frustrated us in the past, but we’ve got to play our game and find a way through their defense, and we can’t be as wasteful with the chances we do create as we have been lately.

The squad is pretty lean today. Almunia, Fabianski, Nasri, Denilson, Bendtner, and Walcott are all out–Walcott, incidentally, played 60 minutes of a friendly earlier today, apparently without incident, so should hopefully be available for Blackburn on Sunday. In better news, Eduardo apparently returns to the squad after missing the Fulham match with a knock, and will give us an extra option in attack. My best guess at a squad:

Mannone

Sagna-Gallas-Vermaelen-Clichy

Rosicky-Song-Fabregas-Diaby

Arshavin-van Persie

It’s entirely possible that Wenger could opt for more of a 4-3-3, with either Eduardo playing up front and Rosicky or Diaby starting on the bench, or Arshavin moving to the left and Rosicky moving up to play the forward/winger position. But given the short two-day break since we last played, don’t be surprised to see a bit of rotation or early substitutions if we can grab a goal or two early. van Persie might be due for a breather, and Fabregas has logged a lot of miles already this season. I think we could see a fair bit of Eduardo, Eboue, Ramsey, Wilshere, or maybe even Vela today if we can control the game.

This is a tricky fixture, but the thing about these matches is that the longer a team like Olympiakos can stay in the match against us at the Emirates, the more they grow in will and confidence, making them that much more dangerous. It’s a snowball effect. The best thing for us to do is come out strong and grab a goal in the first half-hour or so, getting the crowd into it, forcing them to come out of their shell and try to score, and making them feel as if there is a mountain to climb.

Conversely, I think that unlike Standard, this is a team that is capable of holding a league, so we have to make good decisions in our own end (*cough* Clichy *cough*), make sure the ball gets cleared out, and, very important, do NOT concede a lot of sloppy free kicks around our own area. Olympiakos are apparently very good in the air and very effective on set pieces, which just so happens to be a weakness of ours. I think their road map to victory consists of staying tight at the back, trying to catch us on the counter and forcing us into conceding set pieces where they can put a ball high into the box and see what happens. We’ve got to be disciplined and not allow them to do it.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m traveling for work today so probably won’t be able to see the game, so let this serve as your open thread as well.

Come on Arsenal.