Bukayo Saka settles Arsenal nerves in win over Olympiacos

By Andy Sims, PA

Bukayo Saka eased some increasingly frayed Arsenal nerves with a late strike to secure a 2-0 Champions League win over Olympiacos.

Gabriel Martinelli had opened the scoring with a 12th-minute tap-in on what looked set to be a routine evening at the Emirates Stadium.

But the Gunners missed chance after chance to bury the Greek champions, and for all their dominance they were indebted to a stunning one-handed save by David Raya from a point-blank volley from former Wolves forward Daniel Podence.

With the tension rising Saka was summoned from the bench, and the England winger had boss Mikel Arteta breathing a sigh of relief when he hit the second two minutes into stoppage time.

The Gunners, who also started without Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze, should have taken the lead with less than two minutes on the clock when Myles Lewis-Skelly’s cross found Martinelli unmarked, six yards out, but the Brazilian’s header flew wide.

Olympiacos briefly threatened when Raya held Ayoub El Kaabi’s header, but moments later Arsenal went ahead.

Martin Odegaard played through Viktor Gyokeres, who outmuscled two defenders as he bore down on goal.

Olympiacos keeper Kostas Tzolakis took the sting out of Gyokeres’ shot but it rolled against the foot of the post and Martinelli tapped in the rebound.

Then came Raya’s big moment as Podence got in front of his marker and perfectly caught a low cross on the volley, eight yards out, only for the Gunners keeper to instinctively leap to his left, fling out an arm and divert the ball over the crossbar.

The Gunners continued to press for a second before the interval but Gyokeres cut inside and fired over before Leandro Trossard skied another decent opportunity from Martinelli’s cross.

Arteta introduced Rice on the hour and the increase in tempo provided by the former West Ham midfielder almost had an instant impact.

Rice won the ball on the left, held off a defender and fizzed a low pass to Odegaard, who in turn found Trossard only for the Belgian to be denied by Tzolakis.

Arsenal had another let-off moments later after Raya saved El Kaabi’s header and Chiquinho prodded in the rebound, with an offside trap bailing them out.

The Gunners needed to finish the job and so Arteta threw on Saka and Eze, although the growing tension around the Emirates was not helped by the loss of defender Gabriel Magalhaes after he collided with Raya.

Odegaard had two bites at the cherry when he ran on to a Saka cross but Tzolakis saved his first and Panagiotis Retsos somehow blocked the second on the line.

But when Odegaard found Saka in the box he needed no second invitation, rifling the ball through the legs of Tzolakis to make it two wins out of two for Arsenal in Europe this season.