Bukayo Saka settles Arsenal nerves in win over Olympiacos

Bukayo Saka eased some increasingly frayed Arsenal nerves with a late strike to secure a 2-0 Champions League win over Olympiacos.

Gabriel Martinelli had opened the scoring with a 12th-minute tap-in on what looked set to be a routine evening at the Emirates Stadium.

But the Gunners missed chance after chance to bury the Greek champions, and for all their dominance they were indebted to a stunning one-handed save by David Raya from a point-blank volley from former Wolves forward Daniel Podence.

With the tension rising Saka was summoned from the bench, and the England winger had boss Mikel Arteta breathing a sigh of relief when he hit the second two minutes into stoppage time.

The Gunners, who also started without Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze, should have taken the lead with less than two minutes on the clock when Myles Lewis-Skelly’s cross found Martinelli unmarked, six yards out, but the Brazilian’s header flew wide.

Olympiacos briefly threatened when Raya held Ayoub El Kaabi’s header, but moments later Arsenal went ahead.

Martin Odegaard played through Viktor Gyokeres, who outmuscled two defenders as he bore down on goal.

Olympiacos keeper Kostas Tzolakis took the sting out of Gyokeres’ shot but it rolled against the foot of the post and Martinelli tapped in the rebound.

Then came Raya’s big moment as Podence got in front of his marker and perfectly caught a low cross on the volley, eight yards out, only for the Gunners keeper to instinctively leap to his left, fling out an arm and divert the ball over the crossbar.

The Gunners continued to press for a second before the interval but Gyokeres cut inside and fired over before Leandro Trossard skied another decent opportunity from Martinelli’s cross.

Arteta introduced Rice