Arsenal won their second game in the Champions League this year and also benefit from the loss of Olympiacos to Bayern Munich. If Olympiakos gain at least a point against Arsenal, they will go through instead of the London side while Dinamo are already eliminated and will finish bottom.
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Anaemic displays away to Dinamo and here against Olympiacos left Arsenal needing snookers and although this result, coupled with Bayern’s heavy win, gives them continued hope they would have surely been home and hosed with more professional displays throughout the group stage.
“They got on with each other and we are happy for them”, Mertesacker said of the influential pair.
“I believe he had an outstanding first half”, Wenger said. “I think this situation is not the point of this press conference so we don’t need to talk about Ademi”.
Dynamo Kiev did Chelsea a big favour with a 2-0 win at Porto, Andriy Yarmolenko’s penalty putting the visitors in control at the break, before Derlis Gonzalez sealed victory just past the hour.
“One advantage is the task is very clear”.
“Hector Bellerin, I took him off because he had a groin problem just before so I had to take them off meaning I could not take Alexis off. We now have five days to recover”.
While Wenger is confident of Arsenal’s progress, he knows his team have lost on their last three visits to Olympiakos in the Champions League and this time the always volatile Greek fans will be even more fired up. “It’s tough but we have to believe we can do it and I believe we can do it”, he said.
You have to trust Uefa and organisations to do that well.
This Champions League fixture against Dinamo Zagreb was Flamini’s chance to really tie down a starting spot before Arteta’s return from a short-term calf problem.
Mesut Ozil got Arsenal up and running against Dinamo with a stooping header before Alexis Sanchez notched a brace to hand the north Londoners only their second win in the tournament this season.
“Coquelin has been absolutely fantastic but for me, they don’t have enough players who go that extra mile and do that little bit of dirty work”.
“But I would have loved to have taken him off really, but the compromise was to leave him in the centre where he can save a little energy, I tried to compromise a little bit”.
“We played at a good pace and produced a game of quality that we wanted”.
Zagreb coach Mamic gave a stinging response to Wenger’s call to improve testing procedures.
“They were really pressing”.
If Ozil is the man who provides the brushstrokes on Arsenal’s canvas when they are playing well, then Sanchez is the energiser, a perpetual motion combination of intensity and talent that can prove irresistible. The Gunners controlled the run of play and really only had to guard for the Croatians’ counterattacks.
“We have to be honest”.
Confidence now coursing through their veins, there was noticeably more swagger about Arsenal’s play and within four minutes they had doubled their lead.
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“I’m unsure that eleven is able to going there and getting the end result they want”, Gerrard advised BT Sport. “They are a higher quality team than Olympiacos and my opinion is that they will go through”.
