Ramsey picked up the ball in the center of midfield spotted Walcott starting his run behind the center back and with the outside of the right boot

Match Review – Olympiakos 1 Arsenal 0 – Champions League

The Olympiakos away match was always going to be a win-win situation for the Gunners as soon as Standard Liege were put to the sword in the last round. The youngest team in Champions League history took to the field last night and you would have been forgiven for thinking that Arsenal were being outplayed by the Greeks in the blue shirts with the Fly Emirates logo’s. Like typical Arsene Wenger sides, this young team started the game with the intention of taking the game to the Greeks.

Olympiakos could not get near the ball in the opening 15 minutes or so, all of the Arsenal players looked confident and assured in possession, from the defence across to the attack. I spoke before the game about the set up of the Arsenal attack and the movement between Wilshere, Vela and Walcott was great.

Theo Walcott had the first sighting of goal when he fired down the throat of the Olympiakos keeper, a low shot would have caused the keeper more problems but instead the grey haired keeper parried away to safety.

Aaron Ramsey started the game a little sloppy, giving away a few passes but he kept his head and grew into the game in a big way. His pass through to Walcott on the 22nd minute was perfect but the rusty Walcott could not keep control of the ball and the chance was gone. Theo Walcott is a player who needs games, he needs sharpness to perform at the highest level. Theo hasn’t warmed up his turbo engine so far this season and it showed last night. He cut out at crucial times when he needed to purr. Walcott was our most dangerous, ineffective player last night. Always looked a threat without causing enough problems to the opposition who were on the ropes.

The 90 minutes would have done him the world of good, hopefully he can build on the fitness and the sharpness will come.

All the talk will be about Aaron Ramsey who had a superb game but for my money Alex Song ran the show in the middle of midfield. It looks effortless for the big man at times. Wriggling out of tight situations time and time again as well as always finding the right pass. It is amazing what confidence can do for a player.

Jack Wilshere is a player that we all have high hopes for and will turn out to be a fantastic player at the club but we didn’t see the best of him against Olympiakos or Manchester City in the Carling Cup. His final ball is usually his strength, strangely it was lacking last night. On a few occasions when in good positions he over hit his pass or cross.

He like Walcott, has just back from an injury and will take time to find his ever so quick feet again, he would have been desperate to put in a top performance as plenty of pressure is on his shoulders. The spotlight has been on Wilshere for a while and Wenger is correct in not exposing him too early as he still needs work.

I thought Fran Merida had a very good game, a technically wonderful player who has an eye for the final pass, it is difficult to know why he hasn’t been pushed through into the first team squad more often, apart from the obvious high level competition. He is a different player to Ramsey but at this stage I cannot see how he below the dynamic Welshman in the pecking order. It was interesting to see Walcott take the responsibility with all the free kicks, perhaps it was a seniority decision, but at one time with the ball central about 25 yards out, I was hoping that the left foot of Merida to have had a strike on goal, instead Theo fired into the wall.

The home side began to get into the game, mainly from the counter attack. It it almost a mirror image from the first team, dominance of possession, knocking on the door but open to being caught on the break. As long as the first goal doesn’t come then the chances of an opposition goal increases as the game goes on.

The two sides went in goalless at half time but moments after the break Arsenal conceded just as they did at Eastlands last week. Against the run of play Olympiakos found a way through when Kyle Barley crashed into an Olympiakos player but he missed the ball, Gilbert stopped expecting a free kick but the referee waved play on, and that allowed Leonardo to race past Gilbert and the floored Bartley, Fabianski came out but couldn’t get close enough to the Brazilian who fired it low into the Arsenal net.

Two minutes later the score should have been level, Ramsey burst down the left into space and squared a perfectly weighted left foot pass into Vela who struck a low right footed effort against the advancing Nikopolidis. A chance the Mexican should have buried.

Had it have been on his other side then he may have scored the equaliser but as we know football is a game of small margins, those small margins count.

Everybody knows about the pass of the game, it has been one of the major talking points of the game and rightly so. Ramsey picked up the ball in the center of midfield spotted Walcott starting his run behind the center back and with the outside of the right boot he curled a low daisy cutter into the path of the speedy winger, Walcott got his shot away but it was blocked very well.

Twenty minutes from time Vela was provided with another fantastic chance to get Arsenal back in the game after Fran Merida played a marvelous through pass in the right side of the penalty area, on his stronger left side he poked the ball high and over the crossbar. Vela could have controlled the ball, opened up his body and side footed wide of the keeper. It was the wrong type of finish and the chance came and gone in an instant.

Gilles Sunu came on for Wilshere to add some more pace and power to our attack. Sunu looks to have added bulk to his frame and looked tidy in the brief time that he was on the pitch.

With minutes to spare Ramsey had an effort cleared off the line from the Olympiakos goal scorer, the young Gunners luck had run out and left the field beaten but not defeated. The young players showed that they were not out of place and proved that they could perform at a high level.

Had one of our attacking trio performed anywhere near their best then we would have come away with a victory but it wasn’t to be. As I said before the kick off, no matter what the end result is the players would come away with valuable experience.

Next up Anfield.