Champions League
2009-12-09 - Olympiakos Pireus vs Arsenal F.C
A Sports Betting Pick by Cruiser
Analysis:Arsenal will hope to follow what Manchester United did last night starting with a young and inexperienced side when they face Olympiakos in the UEFA Champions League tonight.
The Gunners will have at least 10 teenagers in their side when they travel to face Olympiakos for the final match of their Group H campaign with most of their stars staying behind in London. Arsenal are already guaranteed of top spot no matter what, but Arsene Wenger has given a challenger to his young side to stay unbeaten in the group.
Theo Walcott is set to return to the starting line-up after a hamstring injury which saw him miss the Gunners 2-0 win over Stoke last weekend. Walcott is a number of young experienced players in the side who will start together with names such as Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere and Carlos Vela all expected to start alongside him at the Karaiskakis Stadium.
The most senior player in the side will be French defender Mikael Silvestre and Cameroon midfielder Alex Song who Wenger hopes can help the younger players in the side.
For Olympiakos, they just need a point to progress, , although they can still qualify if they are defeated at home and Standard Liege fail to beat AZ Alkmaar in Belgium. However, if the Greeks lose and Liege win at home then they will exit from the competition and have to settle for a place in the Europa League.
As for the team news, William Gallas (hamstring), Emmanuel Eboue (muscle), Armand Traore (hamstring), Andrey Arshavin (ankle), and Tomas Rosicky (groin) all did not travel to Athens and have stayed back to recover from their injuries. Long-term absentee Robin van Persie remains sidelined after an operation on his serious ankle injury and Nicklas Bendtner is still recovering from groin surgery.
Kieran Gibbs will be out of the side until at least February having fractured a metatarsal in his left foot against Standard in Arsenal's last European game. Captain Cesc Fabregas has not travelled with the squad, while Abou Diaby (calf), Bacary Sagna (ankle), Johan Djourou (knee), Gael Clichy (back) and Denilson (back) also stay at home.
Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia has not flown out and he could be replaced by Lucasz Fabianski, while Thomas Vermaelen and Samir Nasri are also rested.
The hosts Olympiakos comes into the match on the back of a 1-0 domestis win over Skoda Xanthi at the weekend and remain top of their league.
They have kept 14 clean sheets in 23 competitive fixtures so far this season and Arsenal's strikers will have to work extra hard to score tonight.
As for their team news, Cristian Ledesma has recently had surgery on a knee problem ruling him out until the end of the year while Andreas Vasilogiannis could be sidelined until March. Jaouad Zairi missed the trip to Xanthi due to a thigh injury while Vassilis Torosidis has recovered from a knee problem but was diagnosed with swine flu last Thursday so he misses out.
English striker Matt Derbyshire has been out of action since September with a groin problem while there are also injury concerns over Diogo (knee), Leonidas Panagopoulos (back), Ieroklis Stoltidis (chest) and Michal Zewlakow (groin).
Go for Arsenal's young guns to get a draw here at least.
Cheers and good luck,
Cruiser
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Draw Match 0-0 or 1-1
