Former Arsenal forward Charlie Nicholas believes Arsenal will NOT qualify to the next phase of the Champions League tomorrow night.
The Gunners face Olympiacos at the Karaiskakis Stadium in a winner takes all match in their final Champions League Group Stage match, with only a 3-2 (by virtue of goal difference) and a two goal or better result their only chance of making it through to the Last 16 Round of the competition.
However, Arsene Wenger takes a much depleted side to Greece, with the likes of Alexis Sanchez, Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla, among others, all ruled out of the match.
And because of their current injury crisis, Nicholas, who had a four-year spell at Arsenal during the mid-80’s, reckons his former club will be confided to the Europa League, though he thinks they will come close only to have it snatched away from them.
He was quoted in the Daily Express saying:
‘Arsenal can do it, there’s no doubt about that, but I’m not totally convinced that they will because the injury situation is a dramatic one.
‘For too many years now they’ve needed the big performances and they get them but somehow fall short.
‘I mean, how can you beat Bayern Munich and still be in this situation?
‘I see Arsenal scoring their two goals but I have a horrible feeling that they’ll get into a good position and then concede and go out.’
Certainly history is not in our favour as we have lost our last three away games to Olympiacos in the same competition.
Arsenal are more than capable of going to Greece and pulling off the result to send them through to the next round, but it will be a difficult task, and you can see why Nicholas and the majority of Gooners I’ve spoken to are a little edgy ahead of the game.
We have been asked to pull off miracles before against greater teams, but many worry because we do not have our best players available, me included.
However, if Wenger picks the right team, gets his tactics and the players’ mentality spot on then we will do it.
Like Nicholas said, how can you beat Bayern and be in this position? Madness
Fingers crossed tomorrow becomes our night, otherwise it’s Thursday night football L.
