Champions League: Arsene Wenger revels in ‘greatest escape’

While the former Arsenal defender doesn’t believe Giroud is on the long-term option for Arsene Wenger, Keown insists Giroud does have a big part to play.

Arsene Wenger said that Arsenal produced a “perfect performance” in turning Champions League adversity into triumph in their 3-0 win over Olympiakos. “It was a good test for us to see if we had the personality and character to have a positive result”.

However, three wins from their last four group games was enough to seal second spot in Group F and squeeze them into Monday’s draw.

When Arsenal’s official Twitter account put forward Campbell as a potential Man of the Match victor, alongside Laurent Koscielny and hat-trick hero Giroud, the 23-year-old was one of the 2,100 who retweeted to vote for him.

Arsenal’s injury problems are well documented and they travelled to Piraeus without seven first-team squad members.

Arsenal can now face Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester United’s conquerors Wolfsburg or the Spanish trio of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in the next round.

“We started well and denied them, especially in the first 20 minutes”, Olympiakos coach Marco Silva said.

That sounds like Le Prof is confident that we will maintain the habit, and is trying to remind the players that we have usually had some awesome results in away games in the past which have ensured we get through the Group Stages. “Olympiakos was a good test for us and Olivier responded well”.

“It doesn’t matter who we play”.

“As long as you don’t win the competition – at any stage to go out is bad”. He is a real handful when we need to play. It is just the way it is now. “That’s what you want going into the Christmas period because the Christmas period in the Premier League really maps out where you are going to be at the end of it”. The target is to reach the quarter-final for me personally and I think it’s the same for the team. “In the dressing room this team is very close and you could see that again today”. It is the spirit that we can push on and improve. “It was a tough match, in special circumstances as we needed to score at least twice to advance”, he said.

Arsenal still have seven first-team players out injured but winning in such a convincing fashion without them gave Wenger extra satisfaction on what he admitted was a memorable night.