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Injury-hit Arsenal to attack Olympiakos to secure Champions League progress

Arsène Wenger explained that his fears were because he knew the result would be “pivotal” to their season as victory would give his side confidence going into Wednesday’s Champions League decider at Olympiacos.

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Since his retirement from football, henry hasn’t been shy of rendering criticism on his former club for his role with sky sports.

Wenger’s squad has well-documented injury problems – the manager is now without seven players, including Alexis Sánchez, Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin – and his major selection decision relates to Theo Walcott, and whether he is ready to start. This team has been in good form lately and they are at the top of their domestic league so perhaps they will have what it takes to hang on and get through.

Campbell, who scored the opener in the Gunners” 3-1 win over Sunderland on Saturday, expects a hard game against the Greek side and labelled the tie a “cup final’ for his team.

The Premier League side have to win the contest by a margin of two goals or a 4-3 scoreline if they want to enter the knockouts.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed that key midfielder Santi Cazorla has undergone knee surgery and will be sidelined for up to four months.

Wenger’s men have made it out of the first round of the competition for the last 15 seasons and he is desperate to make it 16 in a row.

“I’m sure he’s trying to push that onto his players”.

For Olympiakos the match is being billed by local media as a defining moment in a breakthrough year for Portuguese coach Marco Silva. However, that was just the second time in their last six outings that they have found the net more than once in a game. We got the result and that’s what we wanted. They are a great team, a great rival and especially because they play at home.

While Olympiakos are definitely the favourites to advance, Arsenal showed past year they can score goals in a hurry against the best defensive teams. “We had players missing… if we don’t win, people think ‘yes, they miss too many players”.

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“Before when we came here we had already qualified, that is not the case tomorrow night”, he said. “I was very nervous because I knew it was a very important game for our season. I know there’s more to come and now we are just focused on the game on Wednesday because it’s a really important one for us”.

Theo Walcott of Arsenal warms up with team mates