YANG OUT OF ORDER
Arsenal 1 Olympiacos 2 (2-2 on agg): Dire Gunners KO’d on away goals by late El-Arabi winner as Aubameyang misses sitter
DISMAL Arsenal placed themselves into self- isolation last night as they packed their passports away for another season.
They were dumped out of Europe by an Olympiakos winner in the final minute of extra-time at the Emirates.
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And they could have precious few complaints about their early exit to the Greeks — after turning in the least convincing performance so far under boss Mikel Arteta.
They thought they had saved their Europa League skin when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored his 20th goal of the season with a spectacular bicycle-kick deep into extra-time.
But they lost their nerve right at the death when keeper Bernd Leno conceded a needless corner and from the following cross, Youssef El-Arabi lost Sokratis to prod home from close range.
And still Arsenal could have escaped, only for skipper Auba to blaze wide from six yards with virtually the last kick.
Instead they were dumped out on away goals.
This was as bad as anything we had witnessed in the dog days of Unai Emery’s doomed reign and will come as a real eye-opener for Arteta.
He thought his team had turned the corner following a run of three wins in eight days and he had serious ambitions of going all the way in this competition.
Yet in spite of coming away from Athens last week with a 1-0 first-leg lead, Arsenal never at any stage looked convinced they had the beating of the Greek champions.
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It took them 77 minutes to get their first shot on target and it was hard to name a single player in red worthy of praise.
They were already trailing by that point after Pape Abou Cisse had been allowed to run between David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi to power home a header from a 53rd-minute corner.
It was all Arsenal could do to hang on for extra-time — although thousands of disillusioned fans had already seen enough and did not even bother hanging around for the extra 30 minutes.
Too many of Arteta’s players were paralysed by the tension which had gripped the Emirates after Cisse’s crucial away goal. And their failure to deal with the pressure will be a real concern for the manager as he figures out how to take this team forward.
The Spaniard had genuine hopes of winning this competition and securing Champions League football again next season.
Arsene Wenger and Emery had both used the Europa League as an opportunity to rotate their squad and give the stars a rest.
But Arteta sent out his strongest available team and clearly expected everyone at the club to share his enthusiasm for Thursday night football.
Mikel Arteta blasts sloppy Arsenal as dodgy defending costs Gunners dear again in heart-breaking loss to Olympiacos
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Now he has to figure out how such an expensively assembled group of players can turn in such a limp performance.
They barely troubled Olympiakos keeper Jose Sa all night and surrendered the ball time after time.
Dani Ceballos and Mesut Ozil were particularly careless in possession, adding to the growing sense of panic.
Striker Alexandre Lacazette was again out of sorts, while £72million Nicolas Pepe’s inability to kick the ball with his right foot was painful to the point of embarrassment.
Arteta certainly was not impressed by such sloppiness as he cut an increasingly forlorn figure in the technical area.
His team did not manage any kind of threat until the 20th minute when Pepe was played in by Lacazette before being brought down on the edge of the area by Ousseynou Ba.
It was a cynical foul by the centre-half and rightly punished with a yellow card.
But Pepe was unable to twist the knife with a curling free-kick which just cleared the bar.
Arsenal were clearly wary of giving the kind of space to the Greek Super League leaders which had allowed them to race into a two-goal lead in their Champions League visit to Spurs in November.
But with neither team prepared to throw caution to the wind it made for painful viewing.
It was only when Cisse headed in from Mathieu Valbuena’s corner that this tie finally came to life as the visitors smelled blood.
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Giorgos Masouras clipped the top of the bar in the first half of extra-time as Olympiakos pushed forward in search of the second away goal which would put them in control.
And they refused to abandon hope even when Aubameyang seemed to have to put the tie beyond them in the 113th minute.
Then came El-Arabi’s killer strike, before Aubameyang missed a sitter right at the death.
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