UEFA Europa League: Olympiacos vs Arsenal preview

Arsenal are hoping to restart their UEFA Europa League campaign with a good result on Thursday, when they visit Olympiacos at Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus for the first leg of their last-32 tie. The two teams have last met in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2015, at that time Olympiacos pulled off a surprising 3-2 victory in London before losing 3-0 at home. Overall, the head to head record is perfectly balanced with four victories apiece. 

Olympiacos are in excellent shape, they are undefeated in their last eighteen matches in all competitions and fourteen of those matches were won. They ended up in this round of the UEFA Europa League after having finished third in their Champions League group, behind Bayern Munich and Tottenham. Last week they collected a comfortable 4-0 league win over Panionios and they sit at the top of the Greek top flight table. Hillal Soudani is the only injury concern for the home side. 

Arsenal have their own unbeaten run going on, they are undefeated in their last eight matches in all competitions but they have only won four of those games. Last weekend the Gunners finally got back to winning ways in the Premier League after four consecutive draws as they hammered Newcastle 4-0. Head coach Mikel Arteta will most likely try to rotate a few of his players and January signing Pablo Mari could make his debut for the club as a result of that rotation. Cedric Soares, Kieran Tierney and Calum Chambers remain sidelined, along with winger Reiss Nelson. 

Probable line-ups: 

Olympiacos: Sa - Elabdellaoui, Cisse, Semedo, Tsimikas - Masouras, Camara, Bouchalakis, Lovera - El-Arabi, Hassan

Arsenal: Leno - Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Mari, Kolasinac - Torreira, Ceballos - Pepe, Willock, Martinelli - Lacazette

My prediction: 

Olympiacos are in good form and I don't think Arsenal are capable of beating them in Greece, I think the most likely result is a 1-1 draw. 

Here are the odds for the match at NetBet: 

Olympiacos win - 3.05

Draw - 3.40

Arsenal win - 2.20