Arsenal take on Olympiacos in Greece tonight in search of revenge after what happened last year.
The Gunners secured a 1-0 lead in the away leg but lost 2-1 at home. The Greek giants stunned us in the 119th minute, and Arsenal were knocked out of the competition in a truly embarrassing fashion.
Olympiacos’ first goal at the Emirates last season was a very avoidable set-piece. Their second was another aerial cross into the box that all of our defenders missed completely.
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The Greek champions will turn up tonight with a similar game plan. They have players who are incredible in set-piece situations inside the box, and Mikel Arteta will have to get his lineup spot on to counter that.
Calum Chambers should start again
One player who could make a difference is Calum Chambers at right-back.
The Englishman made his first start in the Premier League for over a year against Burnley and did fairly well. He went up the pitch to support Bukayo Saka and was fairly solid defensively as well.
It is highly unlikely that Chambers will start again tonight. However, giving him the nod at right-back might just turn out to be an excellent decision by Arteta.
Yes, the Englishman is a lot better as a centre-half, but hear us out.
The former Southampton man is superior to Hector Bellerin and Cedric Soares in aerial duels. He can be used as an extra body in set-piece situations, and that will certainly help us limit Olympiacos’ biggest threat.
Chambers is not too bad offensively either. He may not be as quick as Bellerin, but he takes up some decent positions on the overlap and his crossing is extremely underrated.
Arteta started the 26-year-old against Burnley to help out in set-piece situations and he did really well. The Clarets posed very little aerial threat inside the box, and that should’ve helped us win the game – sadly, we shot ourselves in the foot.
It will be very interesting to see if Arteta decides to start Chambers again. We simply cannot afford to make the same mistakes as we did last year, and the Englishman might just be the extra aerial presence we need to eliminate Olympiacos’ threat in the Sokratis Papastathopoulos derby tonight.
