Arsenal suffered an embarrassing 3-2 defeat at home to Greek champions Olympiacos on Tuesday night. The loss not only leaves the Gunners at the bottom of Group F in UEFA Champions League play, but some are even suggesting that the lackluster performance was one of the worst nights in manager Arsene Wenger’s career with the club.
It appears that the biggest issue to the majority of fans and pundits is the fact that the Frenchman made too many changes to his team for the important match. Following the game, Wenger defended his decisions to rotate the squad on the night, particularly starting goalkeeper David Ospina instead of Petr Cech.
“That is a simple thing,” stated Wenger. “David Ospina played 19 games last season and kept 14 clean sheets and last week he had a fantastic game. No keeper is mistake free, it could have happened to Petr Cech as well.”
There were also questions whether Cech suffered an injury prior to the match (as reported by Gunnerblog). Wenger confirmed the report during his post-match interview. “(Cech) had a slight alert before the game at Leicester and I did not want to take take a gamble but it is not because of that we lost the game.”
While some (perhaps most) fans would argue that Ospina’s terrible display Tuesday night had a direct impact on the match, Wenger would be under just as much pressure if he started Cech against Olympiacos only to see his star keeper be substituted mid-match due to an injury. Nevertheless, if Cech was able to make the bench for the match at the Emirates, questions remain on just how injured the Czech Republic international was.
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Outside of the switch at the goalkeeper position, Wenger made four other changes to the squad from the 5-2 victory away to Leicester last weekend. Kieran Gibbs, Gabriel Paulista, Francis Coquelin and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were installed in the starting XI in place of Nacho Monreal, Per Mertesacker, Mathieu Flamini and Aaron Ramsey.
Metro’s Oli Price-Bates echoed many other Arsenal fans by saying that the four outfield changes were welcomed. The Gunners do have a deep squad and should rotate due to the long season ahead. The quartet of Gibbs, Gabriel, Coquelin and Oxlade-Chamberlain are quality players and would feature for just about any other club in England.
After the Arsenal offense sputtered at times during the first six weeks or so of the current campaign, the Gunners forwards have netted seven goals in their last two matches. The offense performed adequately on Tuesday, scoring twice and forcing the visiting goalkeeper to make a few solid saves; however, there is a glaring lack of goals from the club’s midfield. Mathieu Flamini, a defensive midfielder, is the only non-forward to score so far this season for the team.
The Gunners need more offense from their midfield going forward, as they face an uphill battle to qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions league. If losing their first two matches of the European competition wasn’t bad enough, the north London side now have to face Bayern Munich twice in the next five weeks. Arsenal are now forced to pick up points against the German giants, as well as beat Dinamo Zagreb (home) and Olympiacos (away) if they have any chance to move on to the next round.
