It might not be one of the grand old rivalries of the European game — Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United against Juventus, the ripples of the “remontada” when Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain — but there tends to be something in the air when Arsenal face off against Olympiacos.
In 2015, David Ospina contrived to carry a corner into his own net before Olivier Giroud saved the Champions League bacon with a brilliant hat trick against Piraeus. Six years later, the Gunners nearly blew an impressive first-leg lead with one of the most bafflingly meek performances in their European history. Those ties, however, are barely fit to clean the dramatic boots of the trilogy’s finest hour, the thrills and spills at the Emirates Stadium in the first knockout round of the 2020-21 Europa League.
Holding a one-goal lead from their trip to Greece, Arsenal found themselves pegged back in normal time by Pape Abou Cisse. A stunning bicycle kick by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang seven minutes from time seemed to have won the tie for the Gunners only for Youssef El-Arabi to turn home in the last minute of the 120.
Still there was time for further twists before time ran out on the first European tie of rookie head coach Mikel Arteta. Aubameyang, at the time one of the most feared forwards in the game, found himself in the perfect position to strike home with the last kick of the ball when Mesut Ozil’s cross deflected to him eight yards from goal. Somehow he contrived to turn it wide.
So far, sufficiently dramatic. And yet this was only the start of one of the most remarkable fortnights in Arsenal’s history. Arteta would soon test positive for COVID-19, a diagnosis that immediately brought English football to a halt. Barely three months after his managerial career had begun, Arteta heralded the start of weird atmospheres, bizarre results and eerie grounds.
“That’s the beauty of football as well,” he said of that most curious of beginnings to a career. “I perfectly remember when we scored the goal, when we conceded the equalizer, the last chance that we had in the last second of the game as well to go through. What happened after that, as well, when COVID and everything hit, so it’s part of the journey to get to where you are.
“It was a lot to swallow, coming into a massive club in the middle of the season when you’ve never coached a team. I think that’s already a big challenge. On top of that, everything that was happening at the football club, COVID hits. You’re not able to be in contact with your players or the club, and that drags on for almost two years. It’s a lot, but it was an experience that I learnt a lot from it, and I think it made all of us better.”
If nothing else, there is a fascinating alternate reality where Arteta is in similar circumstances but with 60,000 Arsenal fans watching his every move. Would the fans in the ground, whose grumblings in the autumn of 2019 did for Unai Emery, gave stood for back-to-back eighth placed finishes as Arteta shook the tree, breaking off the branches he thought might damage the roots? Could the delirium that helped to make the Emirates Stadium such a fortress from 2022 onwards have been fostered if supporters had not been starved of that communal experience for well over a year?
The reality Arsenal find themselves in is probably not one to be sniffed at anyway. Last time they met Wednesday’s opponents, they were scrapping it out in the relatively meagre confines of the Europa League. Now Champions League football returns from N5 for the first time since the bitter blow of a semifinal defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. Aspirations to go further are eminently realistic even if Arteta’s focus is more immediate.
“We have the same ambition which is to go game by game and try to be better than the opponent, which is very difficult in this competition and win as many games as we can,” he said. “Tomorrow we’re going to have a really difficult one. We know how important the home form is going to be to reach in this phase where we want to arrive and tomorrow we have the opportunity to start well.”
He has the tools at his disposal to start well. Tuesday brought no fresh injury concerns and though a quartet are missing — Piero Hincapie, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus — there is more than enough quality for Arteta to rotate and still put out a competitive XI. After a thrilling late win over Newcastle, the fixture list ahead of the Gunners look more manageable than that behind them. The weeks ahead offer a chance to build some wins in a more under the radar fashion. That will, however, require an Olympiacos match nothing like as dramatic as those from the past.
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Viewing information
- Date: Wednesday, Oct. 1 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
- Location: Emirates Stadium — London
- Live stream: Paramount+
- Odds: Arsenal -600; Draw +550; Olympiacos +1400
Predicted lineups
Arsenal: David Raya; Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera, Gabriel Magalhaes, Myles Lewis-Skelly; Martin Odegaard, Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze
Olympiacos: Konstantinos Tzolakis; Costinha, Panagiotis Retsos, Lorenzo Pirola, Francisco Ortega; Santiago Hezze, Christos Mouzakitis; Gelson Martins, Chiquinho, Daniel Podence; Ayoub El Kaabi
