Champions League - Olympiacos beat Arsenal but go out
Arsenal lost 3-1 to Olympiacos at the Stadio Karaiskaki, though the Greek side still crashed out of the Champions League as Marseille overcame Borussia Dortmund with a couple of late goals in the other game in Group F.
The Gunners sent out a weakened team since they were guaranteed top spot regardless of the result, but Olympiacos were left heartbroken as news of the other game filtered through late on.
The Greek side opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour through Rafik Djebbour and doubled their lead 10 minutes from half-time courtesy of David Fuster after a Vito Mannone mistake.
Arsenal got back in it when Yossi Benayoun lashed in an excellent strike, but the game was put to bed late on when Francois Modesto tapped in.
The first half was all Olymiacos. As early as the second minute they nearly got through courtesy of a woeful clearance from Lukasz Fabianski. The home side streamed forward, but Johan Djourou did enough to smuggle it clear.
Arsenal created their best chance of the half soon after. Marouane Chamakh slipped Andrey Arshavin into the area, the Russian tried to nutmeg Balazs Megyari eight yards out, but the keeper saved well with his legs.
Olympiacos got off the mark when a through ball took a fortuitous clip off Sebastien Squillaci, then Djourou, before Djebbour took it round Fabianski to slot it in at the near post.
The Pole again hit a terrible clearance shortly after that fell straight to Kevin Mirallas about 40 yards from goal. He tried his best to clip it over the goalkeeper, who would have been beaten, but it fell just wide.
After 25 minutes Fabianski went off injured after clashing with Thomas Vermaelen. Mannone came on in his stead, but did nothing to improve the standard of Arsenal goalkeeping.
Ten minutes before the interval he rushed out and headed away well on the edge of the area. The ball fell straight to Fuster, who clipped a ball back towards goal. The Italian did not know whether or not he was in the area, so went with his feet, when it would have been a simple catch.
Arsenal reduced the arrears through Benayoun who was making a rare start. Chamakh chested the ball down in the area, where the Israeli met it with a swerving half volley into the top corner.
Olympiacos should have put the game to bed just a minute later after hesitation between Squillaci and Mannone allowed Modesto a free header, but it went just wide. Half chances came and went for both sides until Modesto atoned late on for his previous miss.
A free-kick by the corner flag was headed onto the post by Olof Mellberg, the Arsenal defenders stepped up, but too late and Modesto had the simplest of tasks.
At that point they thought they were going through. At the final whistle though the news of the other result seeped through, to the despair of players and fans alike.
Comment 49 - 68 of 68
Arsenal have absolutely no squad depth. Players like Chamakh shouldn't be anywhere near a professional football club.
Feel sorry for olympiacos....they deserved the win .
Wenger must spend out in January for another striker. We cannot simply depend on the brilliant form of RVP.
Guonugunners
the only beef i had with this game was that Santos was played, Squillaci was played in favour of Miquel. oh and the fact that we had forced subsitutions so Park wasnt given a chance and Chamak stayed on for the full 90. other than that im fine with how it all turned out. Dont care about the loss
Wenger the greatest that ever was!!! The carling cup loss to man city proved it, fielded kids and next to nothing buys and competed with citys million pound players! Ok they lost but were all over them... one counter attack...
dont care what the result was why play a game you dont need to win with your best players risking injury its about getting experience and if you get your ar*e kicked on the field then as a player you learn from it,your not gonna learn sitting on the bench man utd lost at home to a half weakened team now thats as some comments say is hahaha!
The same people saying here that Wenger should take every game seriously are the same people who would be complaining had he started RVP, Walcott, Gervinho, Arteta etc only for one or two of them to get injured in a meaningless game!!The same people who are complaining about this team are the same ones that were praising the team after a good performance against City last week!!!Very funny indeed!!!!The game was meaningless let's now move on to the draws for champions league proper!!
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Referee Stuart Atwell had shown the red card for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity. However, Bolton lodged an appeal against that and an independent panel have upheld their claim for wrongful dismissal, the Football Association have confirmed.789966543
No rvp?
Oh, and if we don't win anything of consequence this season ( the Mickey Mouse Cup is irrelevant) then what odds RVP leaving, and subsequently Vermeulen looking around the squad and deciding he wants out too?
Asernal is my team but Ecconomist Wenger should not ecconomise football, he should not try players on games like a champions league because records have been set for Olympiacos whether they are out or not what matters is they won.
Manager Wenger should learn to take every game as serious as it should be. The league is as important as Championships.
Go Gunner Go. Though i opted to watch Chelsea's game.
AW, pls off load Squilaci, Djourou, Chamakh & all your goalkeepers except Szczesny in the Jan window and get in new players to fill their places.
Whenever these 3 jokers - Squilaci, Djourou, Chamakh - start the game, Arsenal will end up losing. How many horrible performance must they display to convince AW they're not good enough to make the Arsenal team?
Pls, AW, enough is enough!
So AW has already stated that he won't buy another left back in January. He just does not learn does he? IF he had bought Arteta and Mertesacker last January then Arsenal may well have won something, but being without Fab and Vermaelen meant we didn't.
I seriously doubt he would have bought anybody in the summer after Fab and Nasri left if we had not been thrashed at Old Trafford. Do thrashings determine out transfer policy?
I can't understand why Mr AW played TV & Santos in this game. now we have lost the only left back we had and TV should fill in his palce against Everton. Miquel did a good job as left back against mancity and did well yest too, can't understand why didn't he start yest.
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t seems alot of you dont get what went on, wenger did not use his strongest team because the game did not mean anything, arsenal already through and topped the group so why use the strongest team, and for thoughs that are saying arsenal could not beat the groups whipping team are you stupid oh wait you are, like i said this game meant nothing so wenger gave players a run around in a CL game, there was no harm done, but all it does is give the haters some ammo to hate more and show what lack of brains they have, if the game meant anything it would have been a different arsenal team.9854146
Could not bear to watch; except for Chamberlain, was this really the future Arsenal? Quite simple: Fabiansky (calamitous), Nanone (comical), Squilaci (is he really a footballer?), Jourou (never rated him), Arshavin (too cocky; thinks he's still got it), Rosiscky (does not really care anymore), Chamakh (awful)all out. They do not stand a chance in League 1. What is Wenger thinking!
I must confess I was unable to watch the second half after such a disgraceful showing which left us 2 nil down in the first period so switched to the chelsea game where the emphasis was on both sides wanting to win refreshing after witnessing the rabble in athens. Vermullen remains a great player but in general the other more experienced players were a let down, how would any aspiring youngster learn from the garbage in that first half. we were unable to pass our way out of our own half and players were guilty of hesitating on the ball until all their options were shut off, despite this trend we still passed the ball to team mates who were fully marked and in many instances in front of our own goal. I was fully prepared for the loss of this game and agree youngsters need experience but there were players out there who have proven at every oppotunity they lack the ability to represent this club of ours.
Crazy Arsenal fans, just accept that your team is weak and that it, was by luck that your team is were it is now hahahahahaha
This was a dire game to watch, quite painful.
Diabolical is the best word.
Defence is still a problem I suppose. Either that or the Prof was telling his boys to go easy and end the match without anyone getting injured and/or carded. Makes perfect sense if you ask me considering we're already top of the group.
We need to use Park more often - hopefully in RVP's position cos Chamakh is just not confident enough.
GuNNeRs-4-LiFe!!!
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