Arsenal's squad is more banged up than Greece's economy right now, with several first-team players out injured for the club's home Champions League match against Olympiakos. Across the pitch, there are problems - four centre backs are missing, meaning that new signing Per Mertesacker will have to team up with one of Alex Song and Ignasi Miquel in the centre of defence. Jack Wilshere, Yossi Benayoun, Abou Diaby are all absentees in midfield, with the former having just had ankle surgery that will keep him sidelined for months. Up front, both Theo Walcott and Gervinho are unfit, meaning that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain may well get his first taste of Champions League action.
Arsenal Vs. Olympiacos, 2011 UEFA Champions League Matchday 2 Preview: Injury-Hit Gunners Hoping For Home Win
Arsenal have their hands full with injuries, but may still prove too tough a nut to crack for Olympiakos when they visit the Emirates Stadium.
This doesn’t leave Arsene Wenger with much of a selection dilemma - he simply doesn’t have that many players available to him. Fortunately, Olympiakos are hardly the most threatening team his side must face in the group stages, and this match will be held at the Emirates. It’s difficult to get a read on the Athenians. They’ve been leaking goals this season (all three games of it), and their strength may well be in their forward line. However, poor finishing cost them against Marseille, where they were beaten at home in their first match of the group stages, and although they like playing with two strikers domestically, they’ve so far shifted to a 4-2-3-1 against European opposition, so we may see Marko Pantelic dropped to the bench.
It's unlikely that they'll pose much of a threat to Arsenal, then, but then again the Gunners barely beat Swansea City at home a few weeks ago and despite their crushing win over Bolton Wanderers last week are having a season that would be most charitably described as 'erratic'. With that makeshift back line, the most natural thing for the visitors to do would be attack and hope to turn the match into a shootout. That said, that sort of an open game will play right into Arsenal's hands, and with Robin van Persie in top form they can certainly sneak a few goals past Olympiakos as well.
This is a difficult game, in other words. There aren’t many obvious tactical weaknesses for the Greeks to exploit, but Arsenal’s problems have rarely been tactical, and if the Gunners are having one of their weird games then they could easily find themselves losing at home here. I’m going for a 2-1 Arsenal win, but that’s barely even an educated guess.
Projected Lineups
Arsenal (4-3-3): Wojciech Szczesny; Andre Santos, Per Mertesacker, Alex Song, Bacary Sagna; Emmanuel Frimpong, Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey; Andrei Arshavin, Robin van Persie, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Olympiakos (4-2-3-1): Franco Costanzo; Vassilis Torossidis, Olof Mellberg, Avraam Papadopoulos, Jose Holebas; Djamel Abdoun, Francois Modesto; Ljubomir Fejsa, Francisco Yeste, David Fuster; Kevin Mirallas.
You can catch the match at 7:45 PM GMT/2:45 PM EST on Wednesday, and we’ll be covering it live here on SB Nation soccer. Hope to see you here.
For more on Arsenal, check out the Short Fuse.
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