Yossi Benayoun was our best player on the night, he never stopped working for the team and tried to keep the ball moving for us. He needed another similar player. He needed Tomas Rosicky or Mikel Arteta so we could keep the ball. His goal was very well executed and he deserved it.

We had qualified, we had finished top of the group. Tonight’s fixture was a contracted fixture that we had to play but nothing more. Any positive result was a bonus but surely keeping the team fit and fresh for the weekend had to be the priority.

Arsene Wenger said post match

“Santos suffered a bad ankle injury. He looks like he will be out for a while. We have Gibbs coming back in two to three weeks. Hopefully Santos will not be too long but, for Saturday against Everton, he looks to be short. We have as well Vermaelen who can play in his position.”

Santos stretched for a ball and went over on his ankle. He was our only established left back as Kieran Gibbs is once again on the treatment table.

You cannot predict injuries, they can happen at anytime even during training sessions but there was just no need for Santos to play the game and the same applies to Thomas Vermaelen.

The defensive balance will be disturbed both offensively and defensively. The influence of Vermaelen will not be as great at left back and will not be able to contribute going forward the way that Santos can and also Johan Djourou is not as strong defensively as Laurent Koscielny.

On the game tonight, we were hemmed inside our half by a very aggressive Olympiacos who slammed the door shut on our build up play. Djourou, Frimpong and Squillaci were continuously boxed in and we ended up conceding possession time and time again.

The frustrating thing was that once we managed to pass around the intense pressure, we had so much space to exploit and we certainly should have made that count in the first half.

The first Olympiacos goal was fortunate, Squillaci intercepted a pass that bounced off Djourou and fell kindly to the Olympiacos striker. Fabianski had no chance but to come out and I do not understand the criticism for making that decision.

The second goal was an obvious error for substitute keeper Vito Mannone, if he was aware of his surroundings then he would have simply caught the ball. The ball was too high to clear first time and with hindsight he could have even taken a touch and then cleared if he thought he was outside the area.

Before Olympiacos had scored, we could have already scored two goals. Arshavin should have scored the first after Chamakh slid him through but instead of lifting the ball over the keeper he hit the ball straight at Megyeri.

Chamakh had a good chance to test the keeper from inside the box after a Frimpong break but he took too long to get his shot away and a covering defend got back in time to block.

Yossi Benayoun was our best player on the night, he never stopped working for the team and tried to keep the ball moving for us. He needed another similar player. He needed Tomas Rosicky or Mikel Arteta so we could keep the ball. His goal was very well executed and he deserved it. Chamakh was instrumental in the move, first winning the header and then chesting it back to Benayoun.

At that point I thought that we could have increased the gears and found the equaliser, especially as the Greeks had lost some energy from the first half pressing. Rosicky could have scored that equaliser but failed to beat the keeper after a good exchange with Benayoun.

Two minutes from time the home side scored the third. Mellberg rose completely unchallenged to head against the post only for Modesto to tap into an empty net from close range. Olympiacos were heading through to the knock outs until Marseille scored two late goals to knock them into the Europa League.

At the end of 90 minutes the game meant nothing to both teams. Arsenal finish top of the group and Olympiacos finish where the started the evening, in third.

Not many outstanding performances on the night but some game time was given to those who needed it. Unfortunately Santos did not need it and we shall have to make do without him for the next few weeks.

Man of the match: Yossi Benayoun