Mikel Arteta admitted Arsenal were “nowhere near the levels” he expects after surviving a major scare in the Europa League.
Olympiacos striker Youssef El-Arabi scored at the Emirates but the Greek side could not find another goal to make it really interesting while Arsenal wasted a host of chances to make life difficult for themselves.
Eventually, Arsenal were probably grateful just to go through to the quarter finals having crashed out to Olympiacos at the same stage last season as that nightmare threatened to come back to haunt them.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did not look himself having been axed at the weekend for reporting up late and did little to make amends as he was the worst culprit when it came to missed chances.
Gunners boss Arteta said: “I hope the weekend isn’t still on his mind. We moved on, he started and we expect when he does play he performs at the level he can.
“We had a tough opponent, we knew that, we knew that they weren't going to give up, so happy to be through but at the same time we have to be fair with ourselves and today we were nowhere near the levels that we have to set ourselves.
“It has been a really demanding week but I don't think we have to use any excuses we have refreshed the team, we have players that they were fresh, and we know the importance of the competition.”
Arsenal’s win in Athens last week made it look impossible even for them to shoot themselves in the foot like last year - but they still managed to give it a good go.
Arsenal were dreadful all over the pitch - particularly in midfield with Dani Ceballos horribly off the pace - while Aubameyang turned up late on Sunday and, at times, it felt like he had not bothered to turn up at all this time.
Olympiacos grew in confidence and were also helped by their vast entourage of staff and substitutes sat behind the dug-out who made an incredible noise throughout the game and even rose together to sarcastically slow clap the referee towards the end.
It was El-Arabi who suddenly made Arsenal twitchy as his 51st minute shot deflected in off Gabriel’s backside to make it a nervous finish for Arteta’s men.
But Olympiacos’s chance went when Ousseynou Ba was rather comically sent off in the dying stages. Ba scythed down Gabriel Martinelli, was shown a yellow card and then another immediately afterwards for throwing the ball away in disgust.
There was just enough time for Aubameyang to miss another chance as his first effort was saved by Olympiacos keeper Jose Sa and somehow hooked the rebound over from point blank range.
Aubameyang was clearly not himself, neither were Arsenal but they just about got themselves over the line and into the quarter final draw.
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