Here are your Arsenal evening headlines for Wednesday, October 10.
Mislinat reveals reasons for leaving
Sven Mislintat revealed that he left Arsenal when he was overlooked for the vacant technical director role at the club following the restructuring of the management process after Ivan Gazidis departed in 2018.
Mislintat was brought to the club during Arsene Wenger's final season in north London. Wenger left at the end of the 2017/18 season. Gazidis left by the end of the year, and after Mislintat was passed over for more responsibility, he too exited.
"I joined Arsenal to work with Arsene and to prove myself in the best competitions, the Premier League," he said in an interview with The Athletic.
"My plan was to learn from one of the best managers in football history, support and challenge him to win as many games as possible and the day he would stop his career as a manager, maybe watch him change to the board level to preserve the values and philosophy of Arsenal and his work, ambition and legacy.
"Arsene left after the end of the season of course and a few months later Ivan Gazidis left to become CEO at Milan. At that point, Arsenal restructured its leadership.
"I applied for the newly-created technical director role and Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham, who succeeded Ivan in a co-leadership role at Arsenal, decided to go for someone else.
"We then agreed in a very respectful way that I would leave, all entirely amicable."
Sokratis' exclusive interview
Sokratis gave an exclusive interview to football.london ahead of the Europa League tie between Arsenal and Olympiacos.
The Greek defender was released by the Gunners in January. He then signed with Olympiacos, who knocked Arsenal out of the Europa League at the Round of 32 stage last year.
Ahead of the tie, he says that he is looking forward to facing his former team and many of his friends.
"It was a little bit strange because a couple of months ago I was with them," Sokratis said. "I still speak a lot with the people at Arsenal because I was there for two and a half years.
"I'm in touch with the players. I spoke with them and they are excited that we play against each other. I'm close to a lot of them: David [Luiz], Granit [Xhaka], [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang, Laca [Lacazette], Hector Bellerin and also Cedric Soares - these are the players I speak a lot with.
"I spoke with them and of course it's strange [to be facing Arsenal] but I want to win - I want to go to the next round with Olympiacos. Friendship is one thing but qualification is another."
You can read Sokratis' full interview with football.london here.
Smith Rowe injury update
Mikel Arteta has issued an update on the availability of Emile Smith Rowe, who missed the weekend's draw against Burnley after being substituted in the 3-1 win over Leicester City after he felt some discomfort in his hip.
Ahead of Thursday's Europa League Last 16 first leg contest against Olympiacos, Arteta said that Smith Rowe will have a full training session to see if he can feature at all.
"He is close to returning," said the Arsenal boss. "He is going to have a full session today to see if he can be involved for tomorrow's game. After training, we will know exactly where we are with him."
