It doesn’t appear that Arsenal is any better this season than they were last season. Nothing about the Gunners results thus far, either domestically or in Europe, convey a sense of significant improvement. Manager Arsene Wenger needs to answer for that. He stood by his decision to start reserve goalkeeper David Ospina at home versus Olympiacos in the UEFA Champions League yesterday, despite the result being a 3-2 defeat.
Following the 2-1 loss at Dinamo Zagreb in Arsenal’s first Champions League match, Wenger took aim at the officiating. The Frenchman put some of the blame on the referees, but no matter who’s really at fault, Arsenal is still in major trouble. Despite losing both of their first two Champions League matches, Wenger believes that Arsenal can still advance to the knockout round.
Wenger said to BT Sport: “Yes, it’s still possible, of course.”
“It was a shock of course for the team and a boost for Olympiakos, but I must say as well that we put the effort in and everything went against us tonight.”
“It puts us in a bad position but we are still in it. We have to think we can deal with Zagreb and Olympiakos, and we need a result in our next game away from home against Bayern Munich.”
Arsenal is the only club in Group F of the Champions League that hasn’t acquired any points yet. Olympiacos and Dinamo Zagreb each have three points while Bayern Munich have six. If there is good news for Arsenal here it’s that they have the same goal differential as Olympiacos and a better differential than Dinamo Zagreb.
It’s not just Arsenal who are currently in trouble in Champions League, the other English clubs have been losing too. There’s been a lot of talk in the media lately that if the British clubs continue to lose out in Europe, there will be repercussions. Those repercussions being England could only have three teams placed into the European Cup, instead of four, in upcoming years.
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