How Mikel Arteta's Arsenal underlined strength in depth during Champions League win over Olympiacos 

Five Key Champions League Takeaways after Arsenal beat Olympiacos 

Here's the Gooner Fanzine's print columnist Charlie Ashmore with his take on Arsenal's Champions League performance during the 2-0 win over Greek champions Olympiacos 

1 - Team selection shows progress

A major criticism of Mikel Arteta over the last couple of seasons has been his refusal to tap into the squad to the extent he should have done, being over reliant on the same player sand wearing them out. 

Last night’s selection showed me two things.  One the bleeding obvious, is just how strong the squad is now.  And two, Arteta has learned that you need to share game time around particularly in this early phase of the season. 

I feared he would go full strength to maximise early points.  I was delighted he didn’t.

This is not our biggest game of the week. West Ham is. 

Arteta’s selection recognised this, while, with the luxury of the squad strength, still picking a team that was plenty good enough. 

2 - Competition for places drives better performance

It is surely no coincidence that Gabi Martinelli is our most productive player so far this season.

He had a choice. He could sulk and agitate for a move recognising that his place in the pecking order was very much under threat or he could redouble his efforts to earn that place. To his credit he has done the latter. 

Everywhere across the squad there has to be a recognition that nobody will play every match and that when you do play, you have to be at your best because you have a top-class competitor for your position.

The complacency of latter era Arsene Wenger when players knew they could dial in a performance and still get picked because there was no accountability has long since left the building.

3 - Odegaard is back

It still staggers me that last season there were people who thought Martin Odegaard was our problem. 

There is no doubt he had a poor season by the standards he had set but there’s a reason the cliché “form is temporary, class is permanent” exists in sport. 

Last season he was caught in a perfect storm – injury, family circumstances, injuries to his key foils in the team. 

The signs were there at Old Trafford of him flickering back to form but his performance for the first hour at least last night was an indication of a player coming fully back to form. 

He controlled the tempo of the game and was involved in pretty much everything we did. 

Welcome back, skip.

4 - If you don’t kill a team off at this level, they all have the ability to bite you

That we were the better team was never in doubt. 

But our failure to put them to bed, due in part to poor finishing and in part to excellent goalkeeping and defending, meant we were always in jeopardy. 

That made it a surprisingly exciting game to watch but it was  a valuable lesson reinforced. 

Nobody at this level – Premier League or Champions League, is a pushover. They all have the ability to hurt you which means you have to stay 100% focussed throughout and we absolutely have to be better at killing games off.  A second goal I the first half would have done that.  Instead we gave Olympiacos hope and they were impressive in that they continued to play their game, looking patiently but skilfully for that equaliser and on another day could have got it.

5 - A word (again) for Raya

Once again he made a couple of world class saves to preserve our lead.  The role of a goalkeeper has changed.  Very much now part sweeper, part goalkeeper, Raya is a rarity in being excellent at both. 

His reading of the game is excellent, his quality with the ball at his feet is as good as any goalkeeper but, and this is the crucial bit, he remains an absolutely outstanding goalkeeper. 

Good goalkeepers save the shots they should save and let in ones you tend to say “he could do nothing about that”. 

Great goalkeepers stop some of the latter. 

Raya is in that category. 

His concentration maintenance is superb, his positioning is excellent and his reactions are in my view as good as any goalkeeper in the world right now. 

I loved Aaron Ramsdale (and still do).

I couldn’t see why we signed Raya. I am a convert.