Match Preview

Advantage Arsenal, after last weeks slender 0-1 victory in Greece curtesy of Lacazette’s late strike which saw Arteta’s side become only the second team to win at the Karaiskakis Stadium this season and the first to keep a clean sheet. Arsenal will expect to make it through this tie and get further into the knockout stages, although Olympiacos will not go down without a fight at the Emirates.

The feel good factor is back around Arteta’s new home after a recent flurry of results against Newcastle, Olympiacos and Everton just in the nick of time, as the Spaniard’s side are approaching a now or never period in the season if they are to put a run of wins together in order to salvage European Football next season. I believe we will see a slightly different game to the one in Greece last week, as the Gunners will feel very confident at home having scored 7 goals in their last 2 games, meaning they will more than likely try to kill this tie off early to avoid any upset. The home side will try to control the tempo more effectively than they did a week ago to ensure Bernd Leno isn’t as busy as he was against the Greek champions last time out. Pedro Martin’s side will have to be cautious in their approach on Thursday night, which will probably see them set up to counter attack, as soon as they win the ball back. Chances will appear at both ends, but I believe Arsenal will have too much quality for the visiting side, lets see the latest team news for them both:

Arsenal’s only long term injury remains to be Callum Chambers as he is currently completing his rehabilitation programme for a torn ACL. Bosnian powerhouse Sead Kolasinac seemed to pick up a similar injury to fellow left-back Kieran Tierney in the form of a shoulder issue due to a nasty fall. News broke on Wednesday that Sead is having further specialist assessments during the week before Arsenal know the full extent of the injury. Talking of left-backs, Tierney is progressing well after surgery on his dislocated shoulder and is aiming to be in full training by the end of February. Another player who will be unavailable for Arteta on Thursday is Cedric Soares who is still recovering from a knee injury, who should be in the first team squad soon. Olympiakos will be without 32-year old winger El Arbi Hillel Soudani who ruptured his ACL and is expected to miss around 6-9 months. Key attacker Daniel Podence completed a January move to Wolves, who will be a big miss for the Greek side in this fixture.

Predicted Lineup

Formation – 4-2-3-1

GK – Bernd Leno

RB – Sokratis

CB – Shkodran Mustafi

CB – David Luiz

LB – Bukayo Saka

CM – Dani Ceballos

CM – Lucas Torreira

RM – Reiss Nelson

CAM – Mesut Ozil

LM – Gabriel Martinelli

ST – Alexandre Lacazette

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James Humphreys