- The clubs have been paired together four times in the UEFA Champions League group stage, and on every occasion Arsenal have staged the home fixture on Matchday 2 and Olympiacos the return game on Matchday 6.
- The first six matches between them – in 2009/10, 2011/12 and 2012/13 – all ended in home wins, but last time out, in 2015/16, the roles were reversed, Olympiacos winning 3-2 in north London only to succumb to a 0-3 defeat at home. Olivier Giroud's hat-trick enabled Arsenal to pip their hosts to the runners-up spot in the group on the head-to-head rule and therefore secure a 16th successive appearances in the UEFA Champions League knockout phase.
- Olympiacos's record at home to English visitors is W7 D4 L4, one of the drawn matches having taken place earlier this season when they came from behind to hold Arsenal's local rivals Tottenham 2-2 on Matchday 1 of the UEFA Champions League thanks to goals from Daniel Podence and Matthieu Valbuena, a penalty. Their last knockout phase tie against English opposition, in the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League round of 16, yielded a first-leg 2-0 win in Piraeus against Manchester United, only for ex-Gunner Robin van Persie to score a hat-trick as United won the return 3-0 at Old Trafford.
• Arsenal have won only three of their nine previous UEFA competition encounters in Greece, losing five. That 3-0 victory in Piraeus four seasons ago ended a five-game winless run in the country (D1 L4).
Team News
Arsenal: Chambers, Tierney, Soares out; Saka doubt
Olympiacos:
Vassiliki Papantonopoulou, Olympiacos reporter: Olympiacos' preparations suffered a setback when Hilal Soudani was ruled out for the rest of the season at the start of the month. The 32-year old Algerian forward was expected to feature heavily, having previously been left out of their UEFA Champions League squad, and made the cut ahead of Emre Mor and Ahmed Hassan. With just one List A forward now available (Youssef El-Arabi), Martins will need to drop his plans for two forwards and focus again on the 4-5-1 (4-3-3 when attacking) he used against Tottenham and Bayern in the autumn.