Arsenal vs Olympiakos preview

Team news, stats and prediction as Arsenal host Olympiakos in the last 32 of the Europa League.

• Paul Merson, Gary Neville assess Arteta's Arsenal start
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• Europa League news | Europa League fixtures

Team news

Arsenal will be without Sead Kolasinac for Thursday's Europa League second-leg clash.

The Gunners hold a 1-0 lead from the first leg but will be without the left-back after he suffered a serious shoulder injury in the weekend win over Everton.

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Cedric Soares (knee) and Kieran Tierney (shoulder) are back in training but not expected to feature, while Calum Chambers (knee) remains sidelined.

Olympiakos will be without suspended defender Ruben Semedo.

Opta stats

• Arsenal have won three of their four home meetings with Olympiakos in all competitions, though they did lose the last such match 2-3 in the 2015-16 Champions League group stage.
• Including qualifiers, Arsenal have progressed from all 17 of their European ties when winning the first leg away from home. Should the Gunners avoid defeat here, they'll have progressed from as many two-legged knockout ties in the last three seasons in the UEFA Europa League as they did in the Champions League between 2000-01 and 2016-17 (8).
• Including qualifiers, Olympiakos have won just two of their 32 European ties when losing the first leg, getting past FK Rad in the 1989-90 UEFA Cup, and Chornomorets Odesa in the 1992-93 Cup Winner's Cup.
• Excluding qualifiers, Olympiakos have lost 10 of their last 11 away games in European competition, beating F91 Dudelange 2-0 in the other (October 2018).
• Arsenal's Bukayo Saka has the most assists in the 2019-20 UEFA Europa League this season (excluding qualifiers) and is the first English player to assist 5+ goals in a single campaign since the competition was rebranded.

Charlie Nicholas' prediction

I do not think this is a certain win for Arsenal. Mikel Arteta will sit and read into the fact that they let in two against Everton. Bernd Leno gets Arsenal out of a lot of holes but he did slip up for the second goal.

Joe Willock and Alexandre Lacazette will come in I think. You have to keep Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in for his goals. Will Nicolas Pepe get another run? Probably. Does he deserve it? Probably not. I would probably look at Gabriel Martinelli.

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The game against Manchester City has been postponed as they are in the Carabao Cup final, which means Arsenal can go at it and get into the last 16. You can still see the mess at the back, but Arteta will change things again. Sokratis Papastathopoulos may come in, while Hector Bellerin may drop out.

You have to play Bukayo Saka at the back. This side has got its attacking side back and got its mojo back in that respect.

CHARLIE PREDICTS: Arsenal 3-1 Olympiakos (12/1 with Sky Bet)

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