Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Injury-hit Arsenal have no fresh worries ahead of their must-win Champions League tie at Olympiakos.
Chile attacker Alexis Sanchez and Spain midfielder Santi Cazorla are among a host of key Gunners players out.
Olympiakos midfielder Esteban Cambiasso may return after injury, with Serbia international Luka Milivojevic or ex-Fulham man Pajtim Kasami giving way.
Former West Brom striker Brown Ideye will return after being rested for Saturday’s 4-3 win at Panthrakikos.
Editor’s Note: Arsenal have the deck stacked against them tonight but it’s not an impossible task in front of them, that task being they have to win by either 2 clear goals (2-0 or 3-1 will suffice) or a 3-2 win or better. A 3-2 win would put them through on a better goal difference a 4-3 win for example would put them through on a better head to head.
Right now we’ve got the maths out of the way, the big question is can they pull of a miracle in Piraeus? Olympiakos isn’t the easiest place to go there and Arsenal have never won there in their previous 3 visits, although they had already qualified in previous visits so had the luxury of resting players.
Tonight they don’t have that luxury and they also without star men Alexis Sanchez and Santi Cazorla through long term injuries, Arsene Wenger can take some comfort in the fact that there are no new injuries going into this evenings fixture. It’s probably going to need an early goal and Wenger will be buoyed by the fact that Joel Campbell and Oliver Giroud both scored on Saturday (Giroud even managing to score at both ends)
After losing the first two group stage matches they have been up against it but a memorable win at home over Bayern has seen their campaign resurged, they didn’t look great in their win over Sunderland on Saturday but the most important thing was that it delivered a first league win in 4 games.
Can they get over the line tonight and qualify for the Round of 16?. Personally as much as it pains me to say it as a Spurs fan I have a feeling they can do the unthinkable and salvage their Champions League campaign.
