And will the media apologise about their prognostications? Of course not

 

• How PSR is continuing to affect clubs in the Premier League
• Why do clubs keep falling foul of the Profit and Sustainability Rules?

By Tony Attwood

The aim of this part of the Champions League is to finish in the top reaches so we avoid the play-offs and go straight into the knockout round.   No one said Arsenal would not do this, but most said suggested that Arsenal would lose last night because Arsenal always lose at home to the Olys.

And yet despite the endless talk about Arsenal’s supposedly awful record against this particular club (which in fact meant a couple of home defeats and a couple of away wins) Arsenal sauntered through.  Leaving the table to read:

 

	Club	p	W	D	L	F	A	GD	pTS
1	Bayern	2	2	0	0	8	2	6	6
2	Real Madrid	2	2	0	0	7	1	6	6
3	PSG	2	2	0	0	6	1	5	6
4	Inter	2	2	0	0	5	0	5	6
5	Arsenal	2	2	0	0	4	0	4	6
6	Qarabag FK	2	2	0	0	5	2	3	6

 

The top eight after the qualifying matches automatically qualify for the knockout rounds.

We had uncertainty surrounding Martin Odegaard’s potential return, not least because the media were saying,  “Martin Odegaard’s readiness to start a game is uncertain.”  And maybe in the end the raging media negativity about Arsenal always losing to Olymp made the Olys feel happy, although reading the table of the last six games between the two sides now might make them wonder how the media ever got to that state…

Dagte	Game	Res	Score	Competition
9 Dec 2015	Olympiakos v Arsenal	W	0-3	Champions League
20 Feb 2020	Olympiakos v Arsenal	W	0-1	Europa League
27 Feb 2020	Arsenal v Olympiakos	L	1-2	Europa League
11 Mar 2021	Olympiakos v Arsenal	W	1-3	Europa League
18 Mar 2021	Arsenal v Olympiakos	L	0-1	Europa League
1 Oct 2025	Arsenal v Olympiakos	W	2-0	Champions League

 

And from there, we might think, what on earth was all the media fuss about?   

It was, of course, the normal frantic desperate attempt to make things difficult for Arsenal, as if by telling us over and over and over again that Arsenal ALWAYS lose to this club, then on this occasion Arsenal would lose.

And it also shows how the wretched media always go around copying each other.  Someone says, “Arsenal always lose to Oly” and the others copy in.  What a bunch of ….. [fill in the word of your choice; we usually go for turnips but other vegetables are available].

Although we might consider that all this negativity could have been to Arsenal’s benefit, for the last thing we need in any important match is for the opposition to find out who they are really going to be up against before they get the Arsenal team sheet one hour ahead of kick-off.

Of course, some of the guessing was right, as with Hard Tackle, which said, “Odegaard will return to the starting lineup” and thus would return to being captain, and would play “alongside Zubimendi and Merino, Gyokeres at centre forward and Eze and Saka either side.”  Well, two out of four isn’t bad, compared to some lineups that were suggested.

What would be good (and I am not in any way getting at Hard Tackle here) would be for the media that do give us their utterly certain line-ups, and then get them wrong, to come back the next day and explain why they were wrong and whether the match would have gone a different way if the manager had used their journalistic approach, and whether the failing journalist was nevertheless paid.  That would at least be informative – although I doubt they would write, “By highlighting a couple of Arsenal defeats from the past and not mentioning Arsenal’s victories, I am just trying to cause anxiety and concern.” 

Moving on, there was an interesting commentary from Saliba on the Arsenal site, which includes the statement that, “Of course, we’re always close. If we don’t win, it’s because we missed something…. We had a lot of experience from the last three seasons… Now we know how hard the Premier League is, we know how hard the Champions League is.”

And so, contrary to what all the media suggested, Arsenal were able to adjust their team and their game and win.  

I haven’t cited Sports Mole for a while, which is remiss since they are normally very well informed, and so I took note when they quoted their weekly correspondent foresaw the game as “a ‘chilling’ prospect following the Gunners’ previous heartaches against the Greek giants.” 

That again would be a reference to the fact that in recent games between the two, Arsenal won away to this club but lost at home.  I am not sure that is particularly “chilling”, especially when one considers that Arsenal had won three of the last five games against Olympiakos (now of course four of the last six).  Nor does it account for the fact that the goals total across the previous five games was eight for Arsenal and four for the Olymps.  (Now of course, it is 10 for Arsenal)

The full table continues for anhother 31 rows.