Arsenal Poised to Pose a Major Threat in the Champions League Knockout Stage

Arsenal travelled to Olympiakos knowing they needed a very specific type of result to qualify for the next round of the Champions League.

It needed to be a win that wasn’t 1-0 or 2-1. If it seemed a daunting task at a ground where the Gunners historically have a poor record, they needn’t have worried too much. Arsene Wenger’s men ran out 3-0 winners as they leapfrogged the Greek side to reach the last 16 of Europe’s premiere competition.

It’s a tremendous feat—arguably one of the greatest European nights of Wenger’s 19-year reign. When Arsenal lost the first two games of the group stage, they seemed destined for elimination at the first hurdle. However, they fought back superbly, beating Bayern Munich along the way, to earn their place in Monday’s draw for the next round.

Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press

Having made it through to this stage, Arsenal will be a major threat in this competition. Their confidence will be boosted by the result in Greece, and over a two-legged affair, they will fancy their chances against all but the very best teams. 

Speaking to the club's website, Wenger downplayed talk of advancing to the latter stages:

"

We’ll see. At the moment I haven’t even looked at who we could get. We were so nearly out that I put all my focus into staying in this competition. The kind of performance tonight, in a very heated atmosphere, showed that we have great character. These games make the team stronger and this one certainly will.

"

However, he’ll accept it’s impossible to discount Arsenal after what they produced in Greece.

This was a superb team performance. The Arsenal squad has been ravaged by injury and is essential down to the bare bones, which makes the quality of their display all the more remarkable. 

Amid the collective excellence, there were some notable individual performances. Mesut Ozil was typically influential, slicing open the Greek defence with a beautiful bisecting pass to create the first goal. Joel Campbell was a more surprising star, bewitching the defence of the club with whom he once spent a season on loan with trickery and quick feet.

However, the undoubted hero of the night was Olivier Giroud. The Frenchman claimed his first hat-trick for the club to ensure Arsenal got the requisite number of goals to go through.

The scale of his achievement should not be underestimated. Only two players have ever scored away hat-tricks for Arsenal in the Champions League: Thierry Henry and now Giroud. This terrific treble means he has scored 13 goals this season, with 10 coming in his last 12 matches. Doubts persist about his quality, but there can not be too many supposedly substandard strikers with that kind of record.

Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press

Giroud’s performance was made all the more impressive by the fact he was on the receiving end of some very physical defending. In the past, he has been guilty of being a bit of a soft touch. In Greece, he stood up to the challenge in every respect. In 2014/15, Giroud endured a personal nightmare as Arsenal were eliminated against Monaco in the round of 16. This season, he has played a huge part in keeping the Gunners in the competition.

The Frenchman and his team-mates can look forward to the possibility of rectifying the Monaco debacle as they look to advance further in the competition. The list of potential teams they could face in the next round—Real Madrid, Barcelona, Wolfsburg, Atletico Madrid and Zenit Saint Petersburg—is certainly daunting. However, those kinds of glamour ties are the reason Arsenal fought so hard to stay in this competition.

After overcoming the odds against Olympiakos, Arsenal will feel ready to go toe-to-toe with anyone.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and is following the club from a London base throughout 2015/16. Follow him on Twitter here.