FAMILIAR FACES MEET AGAIN

Arsenal FC and Olympiakos stand in each other’s way again, but this time for the second main European competition, the Europa League. They’ve only met in the group stages in their history so far, as it will be the first time they go head-to-head in a knockout tie. Even though there’s obvious differences between the English and the Greek team, both historically and financially, their clashes have been nothing but balanced. With 4 wins for each team, this tie should be able to see one club taking the lead for now, as they fight for a spot in Europa League’s next stage.

Interesting stats about this matchup:

Arsenal’s total market value is 6 times bigger than Olympiakos, a statistic that doesn’t add up when we check their head-to-head (4-4). They’ll try to take advantage of their better squad this time, as they try to progress.





The last time Arsenal lost to Olympiakos, the Greek team also had a Portuguese manager under their ranks . Pedro Martins is now leading Olympiakos and looks to perform the same feat that Marco Silva did 4 years ago.





Mesut Ozil and Héctor Bellerin are the only ones in Arsenal’s squad who remain with the club since their last defeat. Konstantinos Fortounis (who’s injured) and Omar Elabdellaoui still belong to Olympiakos’ ranks as well.

4 - Arsenal have lost four of their eight meetings with Olympiakos in all European competition - only against Bayern Munich (7) and Barcelona (6) have the Gunners lost more. Tragedy. #UELdraw pic.twitter.com/FymU6jIeoY — OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 16, 2019

After sacking Unai Emery, Arsenal promoted Freddie Ljungberg from their reserve team to the first team in hopes of turning the club around, but things haven’t been going very well for the Swedish as well. There’s still much time left for their tie, and the January market could bring some news for both teams.