🕟 Kick Off: 20:00 BST

🏟️ Venue: Emirates Stadium

📺 UK Broadcaster: TNT Sports

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: François Letexier 🇫🇷

📹 VAR: Sören Storks 🇩🇪

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Gabriel Jesus: Knee injury (Major surgery), ruled out
• Kai Havertz: Knee injury, ruled out
• Chukwunonso Madueke: Knee injury, ruled out
• Piero Hincapié: Groin/hip/pelvic injury, ruled out

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟩🟩🟧🟩🟩

🇬🇷 Olympiacos Team News:

• Roman Yaremchuk: Unspecified injury, ruled out
• Lorenzo Scipioni: Knee injury, ruled out

⚽ Olympiacos Form: 🟩🟩🟧🟧🟩

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

• Arsenal 0-1 Olympiacos (18 March 2021, Europa League)
• Olympiacos 1-3 Arsenal (11 March 2021, Europa League)
• Arsenal 1-2 Olympiacos (27 February 2020, Europa League)
• Olympiacos 0-1 Arsenal (20 February 2020, Europa League)
• Olympiacos 0-3 Arsenal (9 December 2015, Champions League)

📖 Match Facts:

• Arsenal and Olympiacos have met 12 times with 6 wins for each team. The two teams have never drawn a game.
• Olympiacos manager José Luis Mendilibar has never faced Arsenal in his managerial career.

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

When I looked at the head to head for this fixture I was surprised not to see a longer list. In recent years it felt like we were playing Olympiacos every other year, but I suppose I remember it differently due to the circumstances around some of the matches in that list. Most notably, the game where we were knocked out of the Europa League on away goals after Auba scored once in extra time and missed an absolute sitter to send us through. What I didn’t remember about that game was that Olympiacos scored in the 120th minute to make it 1-2. Another interesting note about that game was that Saka started at left back, those were the days, eh?

Anyway, Arsenal come into this game after an invigorating comeback against Newcastle which leaves us trailing Liverpool by just 2 points after playing a substantially more difficult set of fixtures. I expect to see a strong lineup here – Olympiacos are no joke (as we already experienced in years past. The visitors sit atop the Greek league without a loss after 5 games, and a draw in their first Champions League game against Cypriot side Pafos FC.

I would like to see Odegaard return to the starting lineup to get some minutes in his legs after a tumultuous start to the season, fitness wise, for our captain. 60 minutes would do him wonders ahead of a game against a West Ham side that may experience a new manager bounce at the weekend. I also expect to see MLS return to the starting lineup following a good cameo against Newcastle, and perhaps another start for Norgaard. We probably can’t afford too much rotation here, so Mikel faces some tough choices. It is vital that we rack up a good tally of points in the league phase to ensure we finish in the top 8 and avoid an extra fixture.