Gooner Talk

Olympiakos manager Ernesto Valverde has heaped praise on Arsenal ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash between the two sides.

The Spaniard admits the task awaiting him is a difficult one, but says that the current Greek champions ‘won’t be going to the Emirates Stadium to lose’.

Piraeus-based club Olympiakos only played their first game of the season just over a week ago, due to the recent match-fixing controversies surrounding Greek football.

Speaking to Greek news outlet Contra, Valverde said:

“Arsenal is the best team in our group, one of the best teams in Europe and the favourite to take first place in the group. That says a lot about how difficult our task is.

“We won’t go to the Emirates to lose. Our goal is to play our best and get the best possible result. We’ll try to compete with them [Arsenal] and see whether we can do it [get a positive result].”

Erythrolefki have been boosted with the news that highly-rated summer signing Ljubomir Fejsa will be fit for Wednesday’s match after recovering from his respective injury.

I will be previewing the game for Mirror Football tomorrow, focusing on Olympiakos’ key men, tactics and much more.

Follow us on Twitter for all the latest Arsenal news and views.

Arsenal captain Robin van Persie scored twice and netted his 100th goal for the club, as the Gunners secured all three points against Bolton.

Dutch striker van Persie put in a superb performance and became the 17th player in Arsenal’s history to reach the century mark.

The result could have been different after Wojciech Szczesny’s first-half stop from Darren Pratley prevented Owen Coyle’s side scoring an early goal.

However, the turning point came when van Persie bagged his 99th Arsenal goal just 40 seconds after the restart, before David Wheater was shown red for tugging Theo Walcott back.

Alex Song’s brilliant finish confirmed the result, although the win came at a cost with Walcott limping off injured in the last 10 minutes.

Arsenal’s XI: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Ramsey, Song, Arteta (Rosicky 81), Walcott, van Persie (Chamakh 85), Gervinho (Arshavin 78).

Subs: Fabianski (GK), Santos, Frimpong, Rosicky, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arshavin, Chamakh.

Arsenal’s reward for Tuesday’s 3-1 win against Shrewsbury is a fourth round clash with Bolton Wanderers at Emirates Stadium next month.

The Gunners’ will face a repeat of today’s fixture against Owen Coyle’s side, although it’s expected that Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will continue his policy of fielding a mixture of fringe and first team players in the cup competition.

Fellow Premier League powerhouses Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea are all still in the competition following their respective third-round victories.

Gooner Talk will bring you all the latest news ahead of next month’s game with Bolton, which is set to be played on the week week commencing October 24.

Carling Cup fourth round draw:

Wolves v Manchester City
Cardiff v Burnley
Blackburn v Newcastle United
Arsenal v Bolton
Stoke v Liverpool
Aldershot v Manchester United
Crystal Palace v Southampton
Everton v Chelsea

If you someone told you at the start of the campaign that Arsenal’s game against Bolton would have more to do with the bottom of the table rather than the top you would have thought they were stark raving mad.

But the worst start since the 1953-54 season means that the Gunners currently sit in 17th position the in Premiership league table, and this clash has become a must win game.

Arsene Wenger will be eager to get the Gunners back on track and playing with confidence, and this looks a gilt edge opportunity for them to bag a vital three points.

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Arsenal new-boy Andre Santos has not been included in the Brazil squad for their upcoming international friendlies against Costa Rica and Mexico.

The 28-year-old, who made his full debut in Arsenal’s 4-3 defeat at Blackburn last week, has recently fallen out of favour with Brazil boss Mano Menezes, prompting Bayern Munich’s Luiz Gustavo and Man United’s Fabio to be included in the squads instead.

Under-fire Menezes announced a separate list for the upcoming match against Argentina which only included players from Brazilian teams, while the international friendlies squad was dominated by footballers plying their trade abroad.

Five-time world champions Brazil are under pressure to improve their inconsistent form following a slip down the FIFA World Rankings to 7th from 3rd.

Santos is in contention to face Bolton at Emirates Stadium tomorrow afternoon.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain marked his first start in an Arsenal shirt with a goal, as the Gunners recovered from a goal down to beat League 2 side Shrewsbury Town.

Almost 47,000 were inside Emirates Stadium to watch a nervy first half display, and those nerves were emphasised when James Collins buried a 16th-minute header past ‘keeper Lukasz Fabianski.

Despite a dominant spell from Shrewsbury, Arsenal’s class finally showed 10 minutes before half-time after Carl Jenkinson found fellow defender Kieran Gibbs who nodded in at the far post.

Arsenal controlled the second half and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s bullet shot made it 3-1 after the break.

Highly-rated Dutch youngster Oguzhan Ozyakup was brought off the substitutes bench and made an immediate impact finding Yossi Benayoun, who secured Arsenal’s passage into the Carling Cup Fourth Round with a calm finish.

Man of the Match: Francis Coquelin – Fantastic performance from the young Frenchman. Broke up play and created opportunites for the strikers. Top stuff.

Arsène Wenger has confirmed both Ryo Miyaichi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will make their full Arsenal debuts in tomorrow’s Carling Cup clash against Shrewsbury Town.

The Gunners boss looks set to field a mix of youth and experience in hope of guiding Arsenal to back-to-back Wembley finals.

“You will see the likes of Ryo and Oxlade-Chamberlain. You should be excited about Oxlade-Chamberlain because he is a great talent. My target is to develop him so he confirms the expectation I have for him”, Wenger said.

18-year-old Chamberlain made his Arsenal debut coming off the substitutes bench in the 8-2 mauling at Manchester United, but impressed while on international duty with the U21′s, as well as in the club’s reserve fixtures.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of being able to watch Ryo and Oxlade-Chamberlain in action, check out these superb compilations from CWDailyGooner below.