Olympiakos 1-3 Arsenal: 5 talking points as Gunners grab crucial away win | UEFA Europa League 2020-21
Arsenal grabbed a crucial 3-1 victory away to Olympiakos in the first leg of their Round of 16 UEFA Europa League tie on Thursday.
The hosts appeared to have the Gunners on the ropes, but two late goals ensured that Mikel Arteta's men travelled back to North London with a sizeable lead ahead of the second leg.
Arsenal dominated proceedings right from the start, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hitting the crossbar in the opening exchanges. The Gunners fashioned multiple dangerous situations only to fluff their lines.
Martin Odegaard decided he'd had enough of the pretty patterns and thwacked a wickedly swerving shot into the net from distance to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute. The London giants nearly conceded after David Luiz gave the ball away in the box, but Giorgos Masouras blasted high and wide.
The second half began in a similar pattern with Mikel Arteta's side in control of proceedings. As has become the norm for the Gunners, they gifted Olympiakos a way back into the tie - with Dani Ceballos's error resulting in Youssef El Arabi scoring past Bernd Leno on the hour mark.
Arsenal looked increasingly nervous with the scores tied but found redemption from the unlikeliest of sources. First, Gabriel powered a wonderful lopping header past Jose Sa in the 79th minute to give the Gunners the lead. It was followed by Mohamed Elneny powering in a long-range effort six minutes later, as the game ended 3-1 in favour of Arsenal.
On that note, here are five major talking points from the game:
#1 Martin Odegaard finally breaks his Arsenal duck
It was a strange night for Martin Odegaard. Right until he scored his goal, the Norwegian midfielder was having his worst game in an Arsenal shirt. An error-strewn performance saw him misplace plenty of passes, struggling to be in sync with the rest of his teammates and even conceding a chance to Olympiakos.
So, when the ball rested at his feet outside the box in the 34th minute, it was as if Odegaard had released all his bottled-up frustration and unleashed an absolute howitzer.
The first-ever Norwegian to score for Arsenal, Odegaard looked a different player after his goal, picking out passes and taking the initiative to dribble past a few players as Olympiakos packed the box.
Ahead of the game, Mikel Arteta had spoken about how pleased he was with the 22-year-old's performances so far. He'll be glad to know that the Real Madrid loanee can contribute tellingly even when he's not having the best of nights. There's more to come from Martine Odegaard, so Arsenal fans better be ready.
#2 Olympiakos fluffed their chances
You wouldn't expect a side sitting 16 points clear at the top of the table to be generous, but Olympiakos will look back on this game as a huge missed opportunity.
Pedro Martins is dealing with an injury crisis in defence to be fair to him. However, having watched his side be gifted a route back into this game, he ought to be rightly upset.
The Greek side had Arsenal under the cosh for a good 10-minute spell after equalising but were unable to punish a fair number of misplaced passes, much like the first half.
As it turned out, Olympiakos conceded two fairly preventable goals late on and have now handed Arsenal quite the advantage.
However, the Greek champions lost their home leg to Arsenal last season as well and produced an incredible comeback at the Emirates - where they have as many wins as Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. It may be a two-goal advantage, but the tie isn't over yet.