Arsenal v Olympiakos live! | Barry Glendenning
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54 min: Having cut in from the right flank, Alex O-C tries to dink a cross to the far post for Marouane Chamakh to nod home. Theball bounces on the cross-bar and bounces back into play for a defender to clear. Arsenal are putting the hurt on Olympiakos early in this second half. Moments previously they'd peppered the goal with a series of shots, forcing assorted defenders to throw their bodies in front of the ball.
53 min: "Half time scores in other matches, mate?" asks Nicholas, who appears to have mistaken me for Google. If only there were some easily clickable, clearly signposted "Live scoreboard: all of tonight's Champions League goals" link provided at the top of this report where people could check tonight's latest scores ...
50 min: Despite being a Brit, that poor fellow who got attacked by the sharkl was a regular swimmer in the sea off that beach, apparently. While it's difficult not to have sympathy with him, he knew the score.
48 min: Olympiakos full-back Jose Holebas gets booked for some infringement or other. Then Marouane Chamakh threads the ball through a thicket of legs in the Olympiakos penalty area for Oxlade-Chamberlain to run on to and shoot from a narrow angle, but his effort is blocked by Costanzo at the near post.
47 min: Kevin Mirallas trie! s a shot from just outside the Arsenal penalty area and his shot looks close enough to being on target for Wojicech Szczesny to dive to his left just in case. Wide.
Second half: Olympiakos get the second half underway, as I finish reading a story about a British swimmer who is fighting for his life after getting his leg bitten off by a shark off the coast of Cape Town. He'd gone swimming off a beach where a shark had been spotted several times in recent days, and where there were lots of flags warning of the presence of a shark in the water.
Half-time: Arsenal go in at the break with a 2-1 lead they scarcely deserve. They've been good in spots, but on the balance of play parity would probably be a fairer state of ... um, affairs. On Sky Sports, Jeff Stelling says the Arsenal defence has been "rockier than the Greek economy." He'' be pleased with that, will Jeff.
42 min: After scoring their goal, Olympiakos took the game to Arsenal for 10 minutes, but the home side are starting to dominate again.
39 min: I love it that Eamon Nolan thinks people who write sport for the Guardian automatically read the comments sections that appear under articles. Out of some perverse sense of duty I check in from time to time to make sure I'm not missing anything and invariably end up shaking my head wearily, vowing never to bother doing so again. It's a shame, really, because out of every 300 or 400 that appear under an article pertaining to one of the Big Six football teams, you get five or six that are worth reading.
38 min: "Lee James (18 min) certainly seems to be a bit whiny, but I don't know how rare he is," writes Eamon Nolan, who is that rarest of creatures, a football fan who doesn't get sarcasm. "When was the last time you trawled through the comments section of a football article (presumably rather recently given your job)? On the topic of Walcott, though, frankly I'm not sure Saints fans ought to be scream! ing too loudly about him being a product of their academy. He has the technical skills of a codfish."
36 min: Arsenal corner, which Mikel Arteta whips in to the penalty area, where Frank Costanza punches the ball clear. Olympiakos break on the counter-attack that breaks down when Ljubomir Fejsa is adjudged to be offside.
34 min: Tomas Rosicky gets booked for a tackle from behind on Kevin Mirallas just outside the Arsenal penalty area, well left of centre. Ariel Ibagaza squares the ball across the edge of the penalty area for Jose Holebas to run on to, but his low drive is blocked.
33 min: The camera cuts to the Arsenal substitutes' bench, where several glum young men sit with their arms folded. Cheer up, lads - there are worse ways of earning a living.
32 min: "Has Costanzo begun airing his grievances with his defenders already, or does he wait for half-time for that?" asks Michael Konopka. "I presume the feats of great strength takes place following the post-match orange slices."
30 min: Olympiakos tails are really up now, with Rafik Djebbour blazing over the bar from a narrow angle, then one of his team-mates - apologies, I didn't see who - forces Szczesny into a smart save.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos (Fuster 27) Oh Arsenal! The Gunners concede from a dead-ball situation, as is customary. Olympiakos won a corner, prompting the Arsenal defence to zone out and catch 40 winks. While they dozed, Olympiakos took the corner short, leaving them with a two-on-one down in the Arsenal right-back position. The ball was crossed in and, rising completely unmarked, David Fuser headed downwards and into the back of the net.
24 min: Tomas Rosicky dinks a delightful pass over the Olympiakos defence, where centre-backs Mellberg and Ivan Marcano allow Marouane Chamakh to burst between them, control the dropping ball and then shoot wide when scoring looked easier.
18 min: "So Chamberlain's got his first of the season and now us Saints fans get to be treated to the usual game of the big six media pretending he sprouted out of one of their academies (a la Bale and Walcott)," writes Lee James, who appears to be that rarest of creatures: a paranoid football fan with a persecution complex. "Also, at Southampton he favoured going only by Chamberlain, presumably to make life a little easier for journos- has he gone back to both names now?"
15 min: Slack Arsenal marking at the corner enables Olympiakos to go close again. The corner was pulled back to an Pablo Orbaiz on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area, who shot. his effort pinballed off a couple of players and broke kindly for Rafik Djebbour, lurking on the edge of the six-yard box. He shot for the bottom left-hand corner, but with Wojicech Szczesney beaten, Mikel Arteta was on hand to clear the ball off the line.
13 min: Rafik Djebbour crosses into the Arsenal penalty area after a good Olympiakos attack down the left flank. Emmanuel Frimpong is back to cover and puts the ball out for a corner at the near post.
13 min: Chamakh has a pop from distance. Wide.
11 min: From the centre of midfield, Andrei Arshavin strokes the ball out wide for Tomas Rosicky to chase down the inside left channel. Right-back Vassilis Torossidis wins the race and clears it up the field.
10 min: ! Corner f or Arsenal, which Mikel Arteta swings into the near post. Olympiakos clear.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Olympiakos (Oxlade-Chamberlain 8) That's a great goal from the 18-year-old who is making his debut in the Champions League. Running on to a through ball to the edge of the box, Oxlade-Chamberlain catches a break when the ball breaks off an Olympiakos defender and bounces back into his path, allowing him to stroke a diagonal shot into the bottom right-hand corner from 18 yards.
7 min: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ambles down the right flank with the ball at his feet, passing it square to Mikel Arteta before I've got to the hyphen in 'Oxlade-Chamberlain'.
4 min: The first chance of note falls to Olympiakos, with Ljubomir Fejsa getting on the end of a cross to prod the ball wide of the upright from 10 yards when he should have at least hit the target and could probably be expected to have scored.
3 min: The camera cuts to Olympiakos goalkeeper Franco Costanzo. Sadly, he isn't small, hunched, red-haired and wearing a cheap pullover under a cheap tweed jacket.
2 min: "Here's a grievance," writes Bruce Cooper. "Wenger never properly replaced Fabragas and Nasri despite knowing they were going to go all summer. Where is the Joey Barton shaped piece needed to hold together their crumbling puzzle. Serenity now, the Championship later."
1 min: Arsenal kick off playing from left to right in an Emirates Stadium that looks fairly sparsely populated by its usual match-night standards.
Not long now: To warm applause, a blushing bride and groom took their seats in the Emirates as the teams made their way out on to the pitch, with the bride wearing a long white dress, the groom a grey suit, Arsenal's players their usual home kit of red and white shirts, white shorts and white socks, and Olympiakos in blue shirts, shorts and socks.
How they'll line up tonight: W ith Robin van Persie and Aaron Ramsey the surprise omissions from Arsenal's line-up, they'll play a 4-3-3 with Emmanuel Frimpong and skipper Tomas Rosicky on the left and right of Mikel Arteta in the midfield trio, while Andrei Arshavin and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will bookend Marouane Chamakh up front.
Boasting former Aston Villa defender Olof Mellberg, scorer of the first ever goal at the Emirates Stadium, in their defence, Olympiakos will line up in a 4-2-3-1, with Ljubomir Fejsa and Pablo Orbaiz patrolling the space between the back four and a midfield trio of Kevin Mirallas and David Fuster on the left and right of Ariel Ibagiza, with Rafik Djebbour on his own up front.
An email from Mark Coale: "I thought water bottles were on the Arsenal sideline just for Wenger to kick when he got angry and/or ejected," he writes, forgetting that Mr Wenger will be watching tonight's match from the directors' box, as he sits out the second game of his two-match touchline ban.
SERENITY NOW! No, your eyes don't deceive you, the Olympiakos goalkeeper's name really is Franco Costanzo. "Welcome, newcomers. The tradition of Festivus begins with the airing of grievances. I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you're gonna hear about it!"
Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Song, Andre Santos,
Frimpong, Arteta, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arshavin, Chamakh.
Subs: Fabianski, Park, van Persie, Ramsey, Jenkinson,
Gibbs, Coquelin.
Olympiacos: Costanzo, Torosidis, Mellberg, Marcano, Holebas,
Orbaiz, Fejsa, Ibagaza, David Fuster, Djebbour, Mirallas.
Subs: Megyeri, Modesto, Pantelic, Papadopoulos, Makoun, Potouridis,
Abdoun.
Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain)
Preamble: With their recent 3-0 win against Bolton and the mild turmoil enveloping Manchester City having moved their team from the unforgiving focus of the! Crisis Spotlight, Arsenal fans will tonight be hoping for a routine home win that will help steady a ship that spent the early part of the season listing in choppy, waters, like one of those trawlers you see on Deadliest Catch, but with a stubborn Frenchman gazing impassively from the wheelhouse, rather than a chippy Scottish cursing the cameras for forcing him to pretend his natural inclination is to put the safety of his crew over the prospect of landing a giant haul of cod.
At the time of writing, no Arsenal players have refused to play in tonight's match, while Arsne Wenger is understood to have banned his substitutes from wearing tracksuits or drinking from water-bottles so that anyone wishing to throw a showbiz hissy-fit will have nothing to fling to the ground in anger in order to show just how angry they really are. Having drawn with Borussia Dortmund in their opening Group F match, tonight Arsenal entertain Olympiakos, who began their Champions League campaign with defeat at the hands of Marseille.
Eschewing this reporter's perfectly adequate nautical metaphor in favour of a rail-related one of his own, Wenger has acknowledge that his side is "a train that left the station a bit late" and said they "cannot afford any more to drop our consistency". In the Olympiakos camp, his opposite number Ernesto Valverde has been bigging up his team's chances, saying the match is "going to be very difficult for us", pointing out that Arsenal "have a lot of quality players with a great deal of experience" and pointing out that his side are "up against the toughest of opponents".
For Arsenal, Gervinho, Laurent Koscielny and Theo Walcott are among the lame and halt who miss out through injury, while Olympiakos players Giannis Fetfatzidis, Giannis Maniatis and Francisco Yeste have also been ruled out. Tune in around 7.15pm for more team news.
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