Olympiakos 2-1 Arsenal - Return of Little Mozart

It was a disappointing night in Greece for Arsenal who fielded a reserve team of fringe players and youngsters with one or two senior players. We could have had top spot in the group with a win but like Wenger I too think a rest is needed for a lot of the first team.

The first half wasn't too bad. We started the brighter of the two teams but lacked that bit of cutting edge. Gervinho was his usual frustrating self and Aaron Ramsey looked like a player very short of confidence. This was underlined when the ball fell to him in the box and he looked certain to score but he couldn't even make any decent contact with the ball and really messed the chance up. We did find a breakthrough though and Gervinho's only good bit of play on the night saw him take the ball to the byline and drag a few defenders with him before cutting it back to the 'Little Mozart' himself, Tomas Rosicky to curl the ball into the net.

The second half was just poor from our point of view. Rosicky went off at half time to be replaced by Arshavin who moved into the front three with Oxlade-Chamberlain dropping back. We just didn't have that creative flair in the middle nor anyone at top who could make something out of nothing. I still don't see the point of Chamakh. He did nothing on the night but will be disappointed that on a couple of occasions Gervinho could have played him in and didn't. Whether that is a lack of vision or just selfishness I don't know. Maybe a bit of both.

Olympiakos turned the game around. They were fortunate however. Their first goal resulted from a corner which should have been a goal kick but nevertheless we should have done better defensively. Moments after the corner was cleared the Greeks played in into the box which saw the ball hit Aaron Ramsey and fell kindly to Maniatis who stabbed home from close range. The second goal we couldn't do anything about. It was a superb curling shot from range by substitute Mitroglou.

So we finish second in our group which is still better than half the English teams in the champions league but I do fear we wont get beyond the last 16 whoever we are drawn against. I'm far more interested in three points at the weekend to get our league campaign back on track and then the league cup tie against Bradford. Come on you Gooners!