Arsenal vs Olympiakos match report: David Ospina blunder rings the European alarm bells for the Gunners

The clocks have not yet gone back this autumn and already there is a mood of Wenger-rage rumbling around the Emirates Stadium, the age-old recriminations of a home support that feels it has seen this story too many times before, and knows exactly how it will end.

There have been bad defeats in the Champions League in the past, but it is hard to think of one this damaging and this early in the competition for Arsene Wenger as defeat to Olympiakos that follows the opening day loss to Dinamo Zagreb. Arsenal have long since slipped behind the elite in European football but by their standards they are struggling at an embarrassingly early stage of the competition.

Two games in and it would be no exaggeration to say that the alarm has already been sounded given that Arsenal go into back-to-back games against Bayern Munich, currently crushing everything in their way in Group F, without a point. The German champions beat Dinamo Zagreb 5-0 last night and if Arsenal fail to take some points from Bayern then they may not get out the group.

It is remarkable that it has come to this for Wenger in the penultimate year of his contract, but he has to take much of the blame for another risky selection of David Ospina in place of Petr Cech, a decision which cost his side the second Olympiakos goal. That was a disastrous error by the Colombian goalkeeper and although Arsenal equalised through Alexis Sanchez, they capitulated immediately and conceded a third.

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Afterwards, Wenger was furious as suggestions that he had erred in selecting Ospina, describing suggestions that the Colombian goalkeeper’s mistake had been critical to the result as a “farce”. “I made the decisions and the selections for the team and I am responsible for them,” Wenger said. “I know many things that you don’t know. Or that you ignore. We cannot select the team by making a poll before the game and getting everybody's opinion.”

This is supposed to be a sophisticated Arsenal team but for long periods of the game they found themselves well-managed by Olympiakos who took advantage in set-pieces and then on the counter-attack. The great Argentinian midfielder Esteban Cambiasso was a major influence on the game and Arsenal, desperately shifting their formation to chase the game looked disjointed by comparison.

Wenger’s team started at half the pace of a side who needed a win in their first home game of the Champions League and the opportunity for a strong start passed them by. Their best attacks in the early stages were on the counter-attack, with a front three of Walcott, Sanchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain capable of out-running an Olympiakos side that committed to the attack.

The team for Greece were compact when they were out of possession but they did get significant numbers forward when they sniffed a chance. It meant that on ten minutes, and then again soon after, they were opened up by Sanchez who played in Oxlade-Chamberlain and then Walcott. Neither could finish the job.

After that Olympiakos tightened up and tried to stay focused as their opponents attempted to weave a way through from the edge of the area. These are the serial Greek champions with 17 titles in the last 19 seasons of their nation’s Super League. They have won five games out of five in their league this season and although they lack the high quality of some of Arsenal’s squad they made the most of their set-pieces.

The first Olympiakos goal was a very skilfully worked corner that found the Colombian winger Felipe Pardo on the edge of the area where he hit his right foot shot first time. Oxlade-Chamberlain turned away, critically, and the ball clipped his heel and wrong-footed Ospina in the Arsenal goal.

It would get worse for Ospina. First came Arsenal’s equaliser within minutes of the Olympiakos goal. Sanchez worked the ball past two opponents on the left side and played in Walcott who allowed the ball to run across him and angled his body to take his shot on his right foot.

With the momentum behind them, it was set for Arsenal to take advantage but then came Ospina’s moment of catastrophe. A corner from Kostas Fortounis, right footed from the left side, caught him in two minds and the Arsenal goalkeeper failed to take it mid-air. Instead, he landed back in his goal and brought the ball down and backwards with him - and over the line.

It was a tight decision and with no goal-line technology in the Champions League it became the call of the Dutch additional assistant referee on the goal-line. He got it right and judged that the ball had crossed the line. For Ospina, and for Wenger, it was a dreadful moment.

The Arsenal manager rates his Colombian goalkeeper highly and with that old dogged loyalty that Wenger has displayed over the years he feels duty-bound to play him in spite of Cech’s obvious superiority. A steep price had been paid for that and Wenger’s players were on the back foot again.

Yet even that could not have prepared the home fans for the agony that was to follow. They started the second half with a point to prove and Santi Cazorla had a good shot headed off the line by Omar Elabdellaoui. The equaliser, on 65 minutes, was a fine move that sent Walcott down the right and he picked out Sanchez to head the ball in.

By then Arsenal had lost Laurent Koscielny to what looked like a muscle problem in his thigh and Per Mertesacker was on in his place. Nevertheless, nothing could explain the shambolic defending that followed the Arsenal equaliser which allowed Olympiakos to take the lead with their third goal of the night.

With an Arsenal defence that was wide open, and one shot blocked already, Cambiasso worked the ball wide to Pardo who crossed for the half-time substitute, Alfred Finnboghason, an Icelandic striker. He got a subtle touch on the ball to steer it well beyond Ospina and into the far corner.

Wenger sent on Aaron Ramsey before the hour and his influence in midfield had an effect but ultimately Arsenal needed a moment of brilliance from Sanchez or Cazorla to save the draw and it never came. At the final whistle, the home crowd erupted with boos. They qualify for this competition every year, as Wenger never tires of saying, but at this rate they will be out before Christmas.

Bayern come to north London on 20 October, a daunting challenge for an Arsenal team that looks short of confidence. First up are Manchester United at home on Sunday against whom things can get much worse for Wenger before they get better.

Arsenal (4-3-3): Ospina; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs; Ozil, Coquelin, Cazorla; Sanchez, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Subs: Mertesacker/Koscielny 56, Ramsey/Coquelin 59, Campbell/Bellerin 85

Olympiakos (4-2-3-1): Roberto; Elabdellaoui, Botia, Siovas, Leandro Salino; Kasami, Cambiasso; Pardo, Fortounis, Seba; Ideye.

Subs: Finnbogason/Brown ht, Hernani/Seba 72, Vouros/Fortounis 87

Referee: B Nijhuis (Netherlands).

Booked: Arsenal Sanchez, Gabriel, Ozil Olympiakos Roberto, Finnbogason, Cambiasso, Fortounis

Man of the match: Cambiasso

Rating: 7