STAR PREVIEW: Arsenal v Olympiakos

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s a BT bonanza tonight with all eight Champions League games covered live on BT SPORT.

And it’s not a bad Tuesday night menu either…

Barcelona v Bayer Leverkusen BT Sport Extra 2
BATE Borisov v Roma BT Sport Extra 5
Bayern Munich v Dinamo Zagreb BT Sport Extra 3
Arsenal v Olympiakos BT Sport 2 / BT Sport 2 HD
Maccabi Tel-Aviv v Dynamo Kiev BT Sport Extra 1
FC Porto v Chelsea BT Sport Europe / BT Sport Europe HD
Lyon v Valencia BT Sport Extra 4
Zenit St Petersburg v KAA Gent BT Sport Extra 6

The Arsenal / Chelsea double will no doubt prove popular amongst punters and be the cornerstone legs of plenty of accas. It’s certainly a night of short priced favourites – none more so than Bayern Munich who are just about unbackable to beat Dinamo Zagreb.

I’m heading to the Emirates for the visit of Olympiakos and I wonder if the Greek champions are superstitious ? They might well need to latch onto the ’13th time lucky’ angle as they have been beaten in their 12 previous matches on English soil and face an Arsenal side who knocked five past Leicester in the Premier League on Saturday.

Interestingly though, they have met six times previously in the Champions League and on each time the home side has won.

Arsenal v Olympiakos
UEFA Champions League Group Stage
19:45 BT Sport 2 / BT Sport 2 HD

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
(Maximum 10 matches)
Dec 2012 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Olympiakos 2-1 Arsenal
Oct 2012 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Arsenal 3-1 Olympiakos
Dec 2011 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Olympiakos 3-1 Arsenal
Sep 2011 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos
Dec 2009 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Olympiakos 1-0 Arsenal
Sep 2009 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Arsenal 2-0 Olympiakos

Arsenal will be without midfielders Mathieu Flamini (hamstring) and Mikel Arteta (dead leg) whilst forward Olivier Giroud serves his one-match ban following the red card in Arsenal’s opening defeat at the hands of Dinamo Zagreb. Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck and Tomas Rosicky all remain out.

Olympiakos midfielder Luka Milivojevic is suspended and defender Manuel da Costa is also out with a knee injury.

Wenger is hoping that his sides Premier League form will transfer over to the Champions League: “You have to win your home games if you want to qualify from the group stage. It’s as simple as that. We can’t afford to drop points against anybody at home. We are in a position where we have to win our games and I am confident we will.”

Olympiakos are such bad travellers that Arsenal should gain the home win and I’m backing them to be in front at HT and FT at around 6/5 with Star Sports.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-50 points)

BACK ARSENAL to be winning at HT/FT at around 6/5 with Star Sports

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