Preview:Arsenal vs Olympiacos - prediction, team news, lineups

Two teams who scored 96th-minute winners at the weekend collide in midweek, as Arsenal host Olympiacos on Wednesday night in their second Champions League game of the season.

The Gunners ran out 2-0 victors over Athletic Bilbao in their 2025-26 league-phase opener, while the Greek giants had to settle for a goalless draw with tournament debutants Pafos.

Match preview

The rousing replacements are already stealing the show for Arsenal in the early stages of the current campaign, as in each of the Gunners' last four games across all competitions, Mikel Arteta has called on the cavalry to devastating effect.

The hosts' super-sub streak began in European action a fortnight ago, as following 70 scrappy, scoreless minutes against Athletic in San Mames, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli both assisted one another off the bench in the closing stages.

The left-wing duo were up to the same tricks against Manchester City and Port Vale in the Premier League and EFL Cup respectively, before Mikel Merino started and Gabriel Magalhaes completed a tremendous turnaround in Sunday's 2-1 top-flight win over Newcastle United.

Making the most of Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur all dropping points in gameweek six, Arteta's side have moved to within just two points of the reigning English champions after ending their St James' Park hoodoo, and who knows just how big a win that may prove to be come the spring.

Still harbouring dreams of a Premier League and Champions League double, recent history suggests Arsenal have no reason to fret on Wednesday; they have won each of their last 13 group stage/league phase home games in Europe, including 10 in a row without conceding a single goal.

Such statistics make for incredibly bleak reading for Olympiacos, especially in the wake of their opening Champions League clash at home to European minnows Pafos, who defied two early setbacks to walk away from Piraeus unharmed.

The Cypriot side had right-back Bruno sent off in the 26th minute and lost ex-Arsenal defender David Luiz to injury in the 33rd, but Jose Luis Mendilibar's team just could not knock down the Pafos walls as their 69% possession and 18 shots counted for nought.

Olympiacos' goalless draw on matchday one contributed to a particularly disheartening European sequence for the Greek giants, who have now managed just two victories from their last 21 Champions League league phase/group-stage games, losing 16 of them.

Furthermore, the Piraeus outfit are on an appalling streak of 10 consecutive away losses at this stage of Europe's premier competition - it has been almost exactly 10 years since they last won a Champions League league phase/group-stage match on the road, doing so against Dinamo Zagreb in October 2015.

Mendilibar's men at least maintained their unbeaten start to the 2025-26 season on Saturday, edging out Levadiakos 3-2 in Greek Super League action - coincidentally thanks to their own 96th-minute winner from Chiquinho - to stay top of the table, above AEK Athens on goal difference.

Olympiacos also boast an eye-catching 50% success rate from previous competitive clashes with Arsenal, winning six of their 12 head-to-heads and - rather unbelievably - each of their last three encounters at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal Champions League form:

Arsenal form (all competitions):

Olympiacos Champions League form:

Olympiacos form (all competitions):

Team News

Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard joined the Gunners' super-sub club on Sunday - setting up Gabriel's winner from a corner after returning from a shoulder injury - and the captain's comeback means that Arteta has four players left in the infirmary.

Kai Havertz, Noni Madueke and Gabriel Jesus will not return from their severe knee injuries before the winter, while Piero Hincapie's "minor" groin problem is still giving him grief, and the Ecuadorian is set to miss out too.

Enduring his worst 45 minutes in an Arsenal shirt so far on Sunday - giving away the corner that led to Newcastle's opener before being taken off for William Saliba - Cristhian Mosquera should make way for the returning Frenchman as Arteta considers a couple of alterations.

On Olympiacos' end, experienced Ukrainian striker Roman Yaremchuk (unspecified) and right-back Rodinei (unspecified) are Mendilibar's only two known injury concerns at present.

However, the visiting boss will not be able to call on two notable playmakers in Remy Cabella and Yusuf Yazici - the latter a 2020-21 Ligue 1 title winner with Lille - as neither were included in Olympiacos' league-phase squad.

Regardless, there was little chance of Chiquinho losing his place in the number 10 role after the 30-year-old's heroic brace at the weekend - including that last-gasp winner - while ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Daniel Podence should line up on the left.

Arsenal possible starting lineup:

Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Odegaard, Zubimendi, Merino; Saka, Gyokeres, Martinelli

Olympiacos possible starting lineup:

Paschalakis; Costinha, Retsos, Pirola, Ortega; Garcia, Hezze; Strefezza, Chiquinho, Podence; El Kaabi

We say: Arsenal 3-0 Olympiacos

Olympiacos' recent stronghold over Arsenal at the Emirates is something to behold, but the visitors' North London luck will surely run out on Wednesday evening.

After being stunted against 10-man Pafos, Mendilibar's men should not have a hope of breaking down one of the best defences on the continent, and Arsenal's embarrassment of riches up front can work their magic to make it two for two in the Champions League.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.