Mathieu Flamini: Arsenal Do Not Want to Face Barcelona

Walcott was Arsène Wenger’s preferred central striker until he injured a calf in the Capital One Cup loss at Sheffield Wednesday in October.

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. These kinds of performances make the team stronger.

Wilshere is making progress in recovering from an ankle injury but Wenger said: “If you ask me if he will be fit before the end of December, no chance”.

However, fans and pundits still feel Arsenal need to sign someone better up front, with supporters quick to turn on Giroud when the goals dry up. However, the striker put in a complete performance in the must-win clash in Athens. Thierry Henry has endorsed this view although he has attempted to backtrack from it.

Arsene Wenger believes that this could be “a lucky year” for Arsenal in the Champions League after the Gunners completed “the greatest escape”.

Giroud has now scored 26 goals in the calendar year and 13 in his last 15 games for club and country. After looking dead and buried time and time again in Group F, maybe Arsenal are destined for good run in the competition this season after all.

Merson wrote in his column for the Daily Star: “Fair play to them for a massive result against Olympiacos but it didn’t shock me at all”. The kind of performance tonight, in a very heated atmosphere, showed that we have great character. He is a top scorer.

“The players were really committed to get a result, as much for their pride”, he said. He is proving it on the pitch so is doing very well. “The penalty was an important penalty and I’m happy for him, he did well again”.

Those two giants aside, Arsenal could face a third La Liga side in Atletico Madrid, Manchester United’s conquerors of Tuesday night, Wolfsburg, or Zenit Saint Petersburg, who took advantage of a weak group to ease through at the expense of Gary Neville’s Valencia. “But for the rest, we will see”. We had a good balance.

“We were searching for it and we knew if we played our game, if we have a great team performance and great individual performances then we will have a chance, and we did say exactly that”, he said after. “It’s nice to go through because we were not in a good position”.