Olympiacos V Arsenal | Champions League 04/12/2012

[Trina]

Olympiacos v Arsenal

UEFA Champions League, Karaiskakis Stadium

Tuesday, December 04, 2012, 19:45

[Arsenal~Fanatic]

Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere and Lukas Podolski are not flying to Athens.

Cazorla and Arteta likely to be rested.

We may see the midfield of Ramsey, Coquelin and Rosicky.

[TheArsenalPost]

Theo Walcott, Jack Wilshere and Lukas Podolski are not flying to Athens.

Cazorla and Arteta likely to be rested.

We may see the midfield of Ramsey, Coquelin and Rosicky.

Good. The lads need to rest. I think we could still put in a win with some hungry youths. Personally, I'd say they all have a shot at forcing some game time with a good performance. Especially how we have been playing of late.

[Özilfan]

Sneezy

Jenkinson - Mertesacker - Vermaelen - Gibbs

Ramsey - Coquelin

Ox - Rosicky - Arshavin

Giroud

[GoonerGetYA]

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... enal-squad

Arsène Wenger has named his 18-man squad for the Champions League game against Olympiacos.

The Arsenal manager has rested a number of first-team regulars and has included a number of young players, including five who could make their first-team debuts - Zak Ansah, Sead Hajrovic, Elton Monteiro, Chuba Akpom and James Shea.

"Some players needed a rest because they were a bit on the fringe of injury, and some players are injured," explained Wenger before travelling to Greece.

"When I count the injured players I speak about Podolski and Walcott. We needed to rest Wilshere, 100 per cent, and Cazorla, Arteta and Mertesacker played many games recently. They have been rested.

"It is [to avoid fatigue], and we have one luxury, that we can do it. But we have as well one necessity, to win the game tomorrow night. I tried to find the right balance between resting some players and as well having a competitive team tomorrow night."

Arsenal squad:
1 Wojciech Szczesny
5 Thomas Vermaelen
7 Tomas Rosicky
15 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
16 Aaron Ramsey
18 Sebastien Squillaci
22 Francis Coquelin
23 Andrey Arshavin
25 Carl Jenkinson
27 Gervinho
29 Marouane Chamakh
38 Martin Angha
39 Zak Ansah
48 Sead Hajrovic
53 Jernade Meade
55 Elton Monteiro
60 James Shea
67 Chuba Akpom

Youthful team

[mel4]

Where is Djourou, Gnabry and Eisfeld?

[GoonerGetYA]

Where is Djourou, Gnabry and Eisfeld?

Gnabry and Eisfeld are injured i believe, no idea about Djourou, whats worse is i think it means Squidy will start!

[Zenith]

I'd start with something like this:
LHS is a bit weak/inexperienced with Angah and Meade, so Gervinho will have to work his socks off, he certainly has the stamina for it!

Szczęsny
Jenkinson Vermaelen Angah Meade
Coquelin Rosicky
Ox-Cham Arshavin Gervinho
Chamakh

Subs: James Shea, Sebastien Squillaci, Elton Monteiro, Sead Hajrovic, Aaron Ramsey, Chuba Akpom, Zak Ansah

[GSK_AFC]

Looks like we are happy with finishing second which isn't necessarily a bad thing considering the teams we can avoid.

[TheArsenalPost]

We qualify, I think that's enough given our season so far. It gives our starting 11 a chance to rest, regroup and put in some better performances.

[CynicalGooner]

Big shame that Gnabry and Eisfeld are injured, this could have been a good opportunity for them. Akpom deserves his inclusion, he's doing really well.

It's looking like we've no real choice but to throw this game away (unless our shadow team put in a great performance this time around) and settle for 2nd place in the group. Olympiakos must be kicking themselves, third time we've gone there in recent years with a weakened squad and they don't really have anything to play for.

I guess this time it doesn't make a huge difference, just have to avoid Barca....

[Royal Gooner]

I see yet again we are going to Greece bearing gifts, if i'd spend £700 to go to greece with that team I'd be a bit cheesed off! Nevertheless, it's good to give a the youngers a real test, they've already played olympiacos in the NextGen series so they should be able to handle themselves OK. Still second isn't bad. Aside of barca and munich, it looks OK with the potential of porto/psg, malaga, dortmund, Shaktar/juve,

[TheArsenalPost]

I see yet again we are going to Greece bearing gifts, if i'd spend £700 to go to greece with that team I'd be a bit cheesed off! Still second isn't bad. Aside of barca and munich, it looks OK with the potential of porto/psg, malaga, dortmund, Shaktar/juve,

if you spent over £700 I think you might be over paying?!

[Royal Gooner]

I see yet again we are going to Greece bearing gifts, if i'd spend £700 to go to greece with that team I'd be a bit cheesed off! Still second isn't bad. Aside of barca and munich, it looks OK with the potential of porto/psg, malaga, dortmund, Shaktar/juve,

if you spent over £700 I think you might be over paying?!

That's what the official Arsenal travel were offering for flights and tickets.

[TheArsenalPost]

I see yet again we are going to Greece bearing gifts, if i'd spend £700 to go to greece with that team I'd be a bit cheesed off! Still second isn't bad. Aside of barca and munich, it looks OK with the potential of porto/psg, malaga, dortmund, Shaktar/juve,

if you spent over £700 I think you might be over paying?!

That's what the official Arsenal travel were offering for flights and tickets.

Fook me! You must be able to get that cheaper, surely no one can afford that on a whim.