Even doing a bad group phase – because to lose at home to Olympiakos and to lose in Zagreb and to lose six points they should win is bad – they can qualify. Sanchez has played 1,489 out of a possible 1,620 minutes in Arsenal’s 18 Premier League and Champions League games this season and remains integral to their hopes of success of both fronts.
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“We did our bit, Bayern Munich did their bit and it is now a grand finale for us in the last game and we are literally entering the play-off already”.
Matching the Greeks’ 3-2 win at The Emirates will also be enough for Wenger’s side as they now have a better goal difference.
Arsenal are in the midst of an injury crisis, and Mathieu Flamini started against Zagreb instead of midfielder Francis Coquelin.
“We trust the way we play”, Wenger told reporters in today’s press conference. Then of course I couldn’t take Sanchez off. We now have five days to recover anyway.
“We have to face the truth and that is that we have to score more than one goal against Olympiacos”.
There are two ways of us getting through; winning the game by at least two goals or winning the game by one and scoring at least three.
The 66-year-old Frenchman wanted his squad to come out firing against Zagreb in order to give them a chance of qualifying, and he added that he backs his side to get the right result when they travel to Greece in a fortnight.
“Of course it’s a lot of pleasure that I get back to the team”, said Flamini. How big the chance is, I don’t know but I believe we can do it. Let’s make right what we didn’t do right until now.
“Now we’re going to play for our lives against Olympiakos”.
The Chelsea manager said that though he usually prefers English clubs to progress in Champions League, he is making an exception for Arsenal.
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Gunners boss Arsene Wenger can see some light at the end of the tunnel with fit-again Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain set to return to the bench at Norwich on Sunday. “They just need to make sure they’re ready, mentally”. Overall we had a game of quality that we controlled well.
