Arsenal's sights now set on Olympiacos

Arsenal FC's first home game in last season's competition produced a 6-0 victory and Olympiacos FC will be on their guard on matchday two, especially as they have conceded plenty of goals in England.

• The Gunners were denied three matchday one points by a late Borussia Dortmund goal and had to settle for a 1-1 draw away to the German champions, while Olympiacos lost 1-0 at home to Olympique de Marseille.

Previous meetings
• The teams were also paired together in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League group stage. Two goals inside the final 12 minutes from Robin van Persie and Andrey Arshavin gave the Gunners a 2-0 victory at the Arsenal Stadium in the first meeting. The return fixture went the way of the Greek side thanks to Leonardo's lone strike early in the second half.

• The lineups for the meeting in north London on 29 September 2009 were:
Arsenal: Mannone, Eboué, Vermaelen, Gallas, Clichy, Diaby (Vela 77), Fàbregas, Rosický (Eduardo 66), Song, Arshavin, Van Persie (Ramsey 85).
Olympiacos: Nikopolidis, Mellberg, Diogo, Zairi (Stoltidis 46), Żewłakow, Raúl Bravo, Dudu, A Papadopoulos, Leonardo (Óscar González 83), Ledesma (Mitroglou 79), Torosidis.

• Arsenal are unbeaten at home against Greek opponents, winning five and drawing two. Overall they have lost just three of 12 fixtures with six wins and three draws.

• Olympiacos have lost all nine away games against English sides, conceding 29 times and scoring just once. That sole goal came at Anfield in a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool FC on matchday six of the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League.

• Olympiacos have won just three of 18 fixtures with English sides, losing 12.

Match background
• Arsenal – who finished fourth in last season's Premier League – owed their participation to a play-off victory, the fifth time in six seasons they have come through a qualifying round. Theo Walcott gave the London side a narrow home first-leg victory against Udinese Calcio. Although that was wiped out by Antonio Di Natale's first-half header at the Stadio Friuli, Van Persie restored Arsenal's aggregate advantage and, after Wojciech Szczęsny had brilliantly saved a Di Natale penalty, Walcott clinched progress.

• Last season Arsenal reached the round of 16 where they went down 4-3 on aggregate to eventual champions FC Barcelona. It was the 11th successive season they had made it through the group and the first time since 2006/07 they had failed to reach the quarter-finals or better.

• At home in the group stage Arsène Wenger's team embarked on a goal spree, following a 6-0 win against SC Braga with a 5-1 defeat of FC Shakhtar Donetsk. They finished by beating FK Partizan 3-1.

• Olympiacos are in their 13th participation in the UEFA Champions League having missed out last season. Between 1997 and 2008 they competed in 11 successive years.

• In 2009/10 the Greek champions finished second in their group, three points behind Arsenal. On their travels they failed to score a single goal, also going down 2-0 at R Standard de Liège before a 0-0 stalemate at AZ Alkmaar. In the knockout rounds, they lost 1-0 to FC Girondins de Bordeaux in Athens and 2-1 away, Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh scoring for Bordeaux in the second leg.

Team ties
• On 19 August 2006 Olof Mellberg, then with Aston Villa FC, became the first player to score a competitive goal at Arsenal's new stadium. The game ended 1-1, one of only two points Mellberg picked up in 11 Premier League meetings with the Gunners.

• Bacary Sagna and Rafik Djebbour were together at AJ Auxerre from 2000 to 2003; Abou Diaby joined them in 2002.

• Manuel Almunia and Pablo Orbaiz both started their career at CA Osasuna and played together in the Navarra club's B team in 1998/99.

• Sébastien Squillaci and François Modesto were team-mates at AS Monaco FC for two seasons (2004-06). Modesto was also there with Park Chu-Young from 2008 until 2010.

• Kevin Mirallas and Thomas Vermaelen play together with Belgium's national team.

• Jean Makoun and Alex Song do likewise with Cameroon.