Arsene Wenger reacts to Swansea decision and reveals key Arsenal injury update

Arsenal made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League for a 16th consecutive season on Wednesday night, beating Olympiacos 3-0 in Greece in the last Group F game.

Olivier Giroud, who scored a Champions League hat-trick against Olympiakos last night, is the only recognised striker in the squad, although Theo Walcott – who John has doubts about – has been used an an alternative.

“Not many people gave us a chance but we are a real team”, Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger said. “We needed the ideal performance and it was one of the best we have given in Europe”.

“When you can deliver something special, you can create something special for the rest of the season”.

Former Arsenal manager George Graham believes the Gunners “can take on anybody” in the Champions League if they maintain the form which saw them beat Olympiakos to qualify for the last 16 on Wednesday.

Arsenal’s qualification completed a remarkable turnaround after they lost three of their first four games of the campaign and needed to win by any result other than 1-0 or 2-1 in their decisive group clash to finish second behind table toppers Bayern Munich.

“Maybe it is a lucky year for us in the Champions League, you never know”. We knew we had to push for the third goal because it’s very unsafe at 2-0, and we had the ideal game. Now he is back and Matthieu Flamini believes that having the Englishman waiting in the wings has given Giroud the impetus to up his game.

Olympiakos responded to going behind positively, however, and finished the first half stronger.

“This is a team, and they showed it again”. Arsenal have now advanced to the Top16 teams in Europe’s best clubs competition for the 16th time in a row.

“It’s nice to go through the group stage because we were not in a good position and finally we’ve done it and we’re very pleased for our fans and the club and we feel relieved tonight”. We played against a hard team who were well organised and good on the break, so all the ingredients were there for a disappointing result. “We had a flawless performance on the mental front and the tactical side”.

Arsenal opened up the second half with a second goal from Olivier Giroud in the 49th minute. The Gunners were calm and they tried not to rush things as they known that they will have chances to score their goals. Find us on Facebook too!