Arsene Wenger has gambled massively on the fitness of Theo Walcott as Arsenal seek to rescue their Champions League campaign at Olympiakos.
The Gunners are in dire straits heading into their final group game, and essentially face a straight shootout with the Greek giants for a place in the Last 16.
Dire early results look like costing Arsenal, who will definitely drop out of Europe’s elite competition if they fail to beat Olympiakos away.
Even a victory might not be enough, with the Athens heavyweights having won 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium, and the Gunners must better that scoreline to advance.
As he looks to secure the required result, Wenger has made a surprise inclusion to his starting XI, drafting Walcott back into his side despite the England forward only just making his comeback from a month on the sidelines.
Walcott is part of an attacking unit containing Mesut Ozil, Joel Campbell and Olivier Giroud.
CONFIRMED @Arsenal XI vs. @olympiacos_org – can this team get the win? How big a risk is Walcott? @AllArsenalnews pic.twitter.com/II4AmJWsa4
— CaughtOffside (@caughtoffside) December 9, 2015
Wenger has resisted the temptation to include Calum Chambers as a central midfielder, instead employing Mathieu Flamini and Aaron Ramsey in the middle of the park.
A first-choice defence of Hector Bellerin, Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal and Petr Cech will be charged with keeping the Greeks at bay.
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