Arsenal assistant: Chelsea defeat contributed to poor first half against Olympiakos

Wednesday, October 3, 2012
10:04 PM

Arsenal assistant manager Steve Bould admitted that Olympiakos made things tough for the Gunners and felt that this was as a result of the Chelsea defeat.

Gervinho gave the Gunners the lead before Kostas Mitroglou levelled just before the break.

However, the north Londoners came out and Lukas Podolski and Aaron Ramsey found the target to claim the victory.

“It was tough,” Bould told Sky Sports. “They made it really tough for us.

“They defended really well. We looked a little bit nervous. The result against Chelsea drained us a little bit.

“We’ll have a look at the errors and try and correct it. Olympiakos played quite well.”

Bould was impressed with the way the Greek side set themselves up and in the opening 45 minutes, they stopped star man Santi Cazorla from making an impact on the game.

“We’ve won the game,” he added. “They’re technically very sound.

“They weren’t better than we anticipated and the 4-1-4-1 made it difficult. Santi couldn’t get on the ball in the first half.”

Gervinho continued his good form this season, scoring his fifth goal in six games and the assistant manager believes more is to come from him.

“I think good players play anywhere,” Bould explained. “Wherever they play it doesn’t matter. He’s scoring goals and I think there is more to come from him.”

The result leaves Arsenal in charge of their group with six points out of six but Bould was keen to keep his feet on the ground.

“I believe the other game was a draw but it’s early days,” he added. “There’s still a lot of work still to do.”