Pre-match comments
The “trump cards” from the bench are becoming a powerful weapon for Arsenal in the early stages of the season. In the last 4 matches in all competitions, coach Mikel Arteta has made a series of pivotal substitutions.
Arsenal's string of "super subs" started in Europe two weeks ago, when after 70 minutes of goalless stalemate against Athletic at San Mames, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli came on together and took turns creating, helping the Gunners win all 3 points.
The left-wing duo continued to make their mark against Manchester City in the Premier League and Port Vale in the Carabao Cup, before Mikel Merino opened the scoring and Gabriel Magalhaes completed a remarkable comeback in the 2-1 win over Newcastle United at St James' Park last weekend.
Taking advantage of Liverpool's loss of points in round 6, Arsenal has reduced the gap with the reigning Premier League champions to 2 points, and victory at the "death ground" of St James' Park could be extremely important as the season enters the decisive stage.
With ambitions to compete in both the Premier League and Champions League, Arsenal have every reason to be confident this midweek as they have won all 13 of their last home games in the European group stage, including 10 consecutive clean sheets.
The above statistics are bad news for Olympiacos, especially after a disappointing opening match against Pafos. Although the opponent lost a man from the 26th minute (red card for right-back Bruno) and also lost former Arsenal star David Luiz due to injury in the 33rd minute, coach Jose Luis Mendilibar and his team were still helpless against the resilient defense of the team from the Republic of Cyprus, despite controlling the ball 69% and launching 18 shots.
The goalless draw further extended Olympiacos' poor run of form in the Champions League, with only two wins in their last 21 group stage matches, losing 16.
More worryingly, they are on a run of 10 consecutive away defeats in the Champions League group stage. The last time they won away in this competition was exactly 10 years ago, against Dinamo Zagreb in October 2015.
However, last weekend Olympiacos managed to maintain their unbeaten streak in the domestic league when they beat Levadiakos 3-2 in the Greek Super League, thanks to Chiquinho's 96th-minute goal, thereby keeping the top spot in the table, above AEK Athens on goal difference.
In particular, Olympiacos also has an impressive head-to-head record against Arsenal, winning 6/12 official meetings. They even won all 3 recent trips to Emirates, a statistic that makes the Gunners not subjective.
Force information
Arsenal will be without Noni Madueke, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Piero Hincapie due to injury.
On the other hand, Olympiacos also had personnel difficulties when Yazici, Yaremchuk, Vezo, Mancha, Cabella and Angelakis were all unable to play for various reasons.
Expected lineup
Arsenal (4-3-3): Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Eze, Merino, Rice; Saka, Gyokeres, Martinelli.
Olympiakos (4-3-3): Tzolakis; Costinha, Ortega, Retsos, Mouzakitis; Martins, Biancone, Hezze; El Kaabi, Chiquinho, Taremi
Score prediction: Arsenal 2-0 Olympiakos
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Source: https://tienphong.vn/nhan-dinh-arsenal-vs-olympiakos-02h00-ngay-210-pha-dop-tai-emirates-post1782856.tpo
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