Greek Farce

Olympiacos 3-1 Arsenal

Arsenal’s dire performance against Olympiacos last night can only be described as a comedy of errors. As Arsene Wenger justifiably made nine changes to the team that had beaten Wigan 4-0 at the weekend, the Gunners’ starting eleven contained several fringe players such as Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arshavin and Chamakh. In similar circumstances to the Carling Cup quarter final a week earlier, this was an opportunity for these players to impress the manager in an attempt to force their way into the first team. However unlike the excellent display against Manchester City, not one player rose to the occasion last night.

After a promising start to the game with chances falling to Chamakh and Arshavin, Arsenal simply deteriorated into a team who were incapable of maintaining possession. Every time the defence attempted to pass the ball forward to a midfield player, possession was lost and Arsenal were under pressure again. Considering the midfield contained the experienced Arshavin and Benayoun it was particularly disappointing that neither took control of the situation, allowing the game to simply pass them by. In the 16^th minute the Olympiacos pressure finally told.  A forward pass by the Greek side was not cut out, following a distinct lack of communication between the hapless Squillaci and Djourou, allowing Rafik Djebbour to calmly round Fabianski and slot the ball home. The decision to play Djourou at right back spectacularly back fired as he was absolutely woeful, with one newspaper this morning awarding him a score of three out of ten for his performance. The Swiss international was caught out of position on numerous occasions and had clearly been identified as a weak link with Olympiacos mounting most of their attacks from his side.  Even Thomas Vermaelen did not perform to his usual high standards, at one point selling Fabianski short with a back pass forcing the Polish goalkeeper to rush out and clear the ball.

Fabianski suffered an injury shortly after this and was replaced by Vito Mannone, whose calamitous error for Olympiacos’ second made Arsenal fans all the more appreciative of Szczesny. As the Italian goalkeeper came rushing out of the area to head clear a through ball, his clearance fell straight to David Fuster, who clipped the ball back towards the Arsenal goal. The retreating Mannone did not realise he was now back inside his penalty area and so rather than catch the ball, he attempted to kick it clear, completely missing the ball, leaving it to slowly trickle into the goal.

There was absolutely no improvement in the second half from Arsenal, as they continued to concede possession cheaply, with Chamakh and the entire midfield again failing to impose themselves on the game. The only surprise was the fact Olympiacos failed to capitalise on the error strewn performance of the Gunners’ defence. While Andre Santos further compounded Arsenal’s misery as he suffered what has been described by Wenger as a bad ankle injury, effectively leaving Arsenal without any fit full backs. However in the 57^th minute Yossi Benayoun’s wonderful volley reduced the arrears and gave the Gunners hope that they could salvage something from this game. Yet Olympiacos finished the game off in the last minute as Olof Melberg’s header came back off the post and into the path of Modesto to fire into the empty net.

Although the result was essentially insignificant for the Gunners as they had already qualified as group winners, Arsenal’s second string did themselves absolutely no favours with this insipid performance.