3️⃣ points as Alexandre Lacazette strikes late to seal Arsenal win | OneFootball

Arsenal have put themselves in a strong position to make the last-16 of the Europa League after their 1-0 win over Olympiacos tonight.

The Gunners go into the second leg of their round-of-32 tie back at the Emirates with an away goal thanks to Alexandre Lacazette’s 81st minute winner.

Here are our main takeaways from the clash at the Karaiskakis Stadium.

Advantage Arsenal but chance missed?

Arsenal have put themselves firmly in the driving seat to qualify for the last-16.

The two sides reconvene in North London next Thursday and the Gunners go into the second leg with that precious away goal.

In truth, the visitors were sloppy in the final third throughout the game and their decision-making was lacking tonight.

And still, Mikel Arteta may feel they should have killed the tie off in Greece.

Lacazaette may have netted the winner but he will be kicking himself tonight after spurning two guilt-edged chances.

The first, coming after 20 minutes, was a bit of a horror show.

After Gabriel Martinelli’s brilliant work to beat two defenders at the byline and pull the ball back across, the Frenchman somehow put the ball wide from seven yards out.

It was quite the miss, and certainly won’t make for easy viewing for Arsenal’s number nine when he watches that back.

Arsenal should seal their progress next week but this is one that could have been dead and buried.

Sak attack

The Gunners have one hell of a player in the making in Bukayo Saka.

After his incredible show of skill to set up Nicolas Pépé’s goal against Newcastle on Sunday, the 18-year-old provided another killer assist to help win this game.

His incisive pass across goal took out the Olympiacos defence and laid it on a plate for Lacazette to finish off.

This was the third game under Arteta where Saka has had a goal involvement, as the teenager is starting to add numbers to his obvious talent.

Saka has been operating in an unfamiliar role at left-back under the stewardship of Arteta, and is starting to make the position his own.

Another shut out tonight makes it five clean sheets kept in 12 games.

Arsenal spent £25m to bring in Kieran Tierney from Celtic in the summer.

The Scot might find that his position is no longer vacant when he returns from injury.

Up for the cup

There won’t be much expectation on Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal for the remainder of this season.

This campaign has long been written off as a transitional season for the Spaniard to use to work out what players he feels can benefit his squad going forward.

However, maybe the Gunners should go full tilt at winning the Europa League.

Despite their struggles under Unai Emery, this is a squad full of talent and one more than capable of reaching the latter stages of the competition.

Arsenal’s chances of achieving qualification for next season’s Champions League through the league are less than slim, so why not take a crack at winning European football’s second tier prize.

Arteta seemed to recognise this by going strong with his line-up against Olympiacos, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Lacazette and Martinelli all starting.

They will need to perform better than how they did in Greece tonight, but Arsenal certainly can be ones to watch.