Gabriel Martinelli came with another essential Champions League goal when Arsenal passed Olympiacos 2-0 in their first home game of the competition phase.
Martinelli came from the bank to score one and to make the other in the opening profit of the Gunners through the same score in Athletic Bilbao, and he was again the hero for Bukayo Saka’s Late second victory on Wednesday.
This time the Brazilian winger was mentioned in the starting XI and wasted little time in making an impact, whereby the opener was gained after 12 minutes.
Martinelli had already led a very presentable opportunity in the second minute when he missed a header, but he was present to tap when Viktor Gyokees wriggled under the keeper but hit the foot of the left pole.
Mikel Arteta would have hoped that a strike could initiate a comfortable evening at the Emirates Stadium, but this proved anything but, and David Raya soon made a sublime stop of Daniel Podrence when his teammates made and missed further opportunities.
A similar miraculous Konstantinos Tzolakis Save denied Martin Odegaard eight minutes from time, but the Arsenal captain then became provider for Saka, whose low shot crawled along the Olympiacos keeper.
DIY done.
Saka is holding on to the wonderful balls of Odegaard before shooting home
2-0 (90+2) pic.twitter.com/n2vxuxpftr
– Arsenal (@ARSENAL) October 1, 2025
Data Debrief: Martinelli makes his mark
It was a largely dominant version of the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium, with 2.73 expected goals (XG) from 16 shots to 0.51 from Olympiacos of 10 attempts.
Martinelli responded exactly as Arteta would have hoped, with his contributions in Bilbao followed by a precious equalizer against Manchester City. It means that no other Arsenal player now has more target contributions than are four this season (three goals, one assist).
This is the first time that Martinelli scored in successive Champions League matches, but he and Arteta will hope that more will come. Martinelli scored exactly twice in each of his three Champions League campaigns.
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