‘Difficult to swallow’ – Arsenal fell to new Champions League low after shock Emirates defeat to Olympiacos

Arsenal suffered an all-time low the last time they welcomed Olympiacos to the Emirates in the Champions League.

The Gunners host the Greek giants on Wednesday night, live on talkSPORT, in their second game of the new campaign.

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But Mikel Arteta and co. will certainly want a different outcome compared to the two teams’ meeting ten years ago.

The most recent clash between Arsenal and Olympiacos in the Champions League came in 2015, also in the second fixture of that term.

But unlike this season, where the Premier League side won their opener away at Athletic Bilbao, they had lost their first game to Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia.

It meant the Gunners were desperately in need of three points to avoid closing in on a shock elimination from UEFA‘s old format’s group stages that only included six matchdays.

Iconic boss Arsene Wenger’s team included Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott and more stars.

Meanwhile, Olympiacos, who were managed by now Fulham boss Marco Silva, started with Esteban Cambiasso in midfield.

And it was the Greek visitors who took the lead on the night, with Felipe Pardo’s effort deflecting past David Ospina, who was handed a start despite legendary ‘keeper Petr Cech being on the bench.

Walcott equalised not long after, but Ospina then made a howler as he dropped the ball into his own net from a corner.

That error handed Olympiacos the lead heading into half time, until Sanchez equalised again for the Gunners after 65 minutes.

But moments later, striker Alfred Finnbogason regained the lead for the away side and they managed to hold on to win.

The result meant that Arsenal had lost their first two Champions League games of the season.

And that was the first time ever that the Gunners had been beaten in their opening two group stage fixtures in the competition.

It saw them drop to the bottom of their group and threw their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages into major doubt.

‘Difficult to swallow’

Arsenal boss Wenger was left disappointed with the loss as he identified where things went wrong for his side.

“It is still possible, of course, to qualify but it is difficult to swallow losing a game like that,” the Frenchman admitted post-match.

“We lost it on a lack of defensive concentration and bad luck. They had four shots on goal and we conceded three goals.

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“The turning point at 2-2 is we give them a goal again straight away. If it stays 2-2 for five minutes we win the game.

“A goalkeeper can make a mistake – that doesn’t explain that we lose the game. It happened to Petr Cech already this season.”

Fortunately for Arsenal and Wenger, they did manage to go on to qualify for the Champions League knockout stages.

The Gunners bounced back from the 3-2 defeat to beat Bayern Munich at the Emirates later that year.

That was followed by 3-0 wins against Dinamo Zagreb and then away at Olympiacos in the second meeting between the sides.

However, in the last 16, Arsenal were drawn against Barcelona and the Spanish giants, who had Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez running rampant, thrashed them 5-1 on aggregate to progress.

Arsenal vs Olympiacos: talkSPORT coverage

Arsenal will meet Olympiacos at the Emirates in the Champions League for the first time since 2015 on Wednesday, October 1.

Kick-off in north London is scheduled for 8pm.

talkSPORT will have live coverage of the game presented by Adrian Durham.

Commentary will come from Jim Proudfoot and former England striker Darren Bent.

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream. 

You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.