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Arsenal grabbed a crucial 3-1 victory away to Olympiakos in the first leg of their Round of 16 UEFA Europa League tie on Thursday.
The hosts appeared to have the Gunners on the ropes, but two late goals ensured that Mikel Arteta's men travelled back to North London with a sizeable lead ahead of the second leg.
Arsenal dominated proceedings right from the start, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hitting the crossbar in the opening exchanges. The Gunners fashioned multiple dangerous situations only to fluff their lines.
Martin Odegaard decided he'd had enough of the pretty patterns and thwacked a wickedly swerving shot into the net from distance to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute. The London giants nearly conceded after David Luiz gave the ball away in the box, but Giorgos Masouras blasted high and wide.
The second half began in a similar pattern with Mikel Arteta's side in control of proceedings. As has become the norm for the Gunners, they gifted Olympiakos a way back into the tie - with Dani Ceballos's error resulting in Youssef El Arabi scoring past Bernd Leno on the hour mark.
Arsenal looked increasingly nervous with the scores tied but found redemption from the unlikeliest of sources. First, Gabriel powered a wonderful lopping header past Jose Sa in the 79th minute to give the Gunners the lead. It was followed by Mohamed Elneny powering in a long-range effort six minutes later, as the game ended 3-1 in favour of Arsenal.
On that note, here are five major talking points from the game:
#1 Martin Odegaard finally breaks his Arsenal duck
It was a strange night for Martin Odegaard. Right until he scored his goal, the Norwegian midfielder was having his worst game in an Arsenal shirt. An error-strewn performance saw him misplace plenty of passes, struggling to be in sync with the rest of his teammates and even conceding a chance to Olympiakos.
So, when the ball rested at his feet outside the box in the 34th minute, it was as if Odegaard had released all his bottled-up frustration and unleashed an absolute howitzer.
The first-ever Norwegian to score for Arsenal, Odegaard looked a different player after his goal, picking out passes and taking the initiative to dribble past a few players as Olympiakos packed the box.
Ahead of the game, Mikel Arteta had spoken about how pleased he was with the 22-year-old's performances so far. He'll be glad to know that the Real Madrid loanee can contribute tellingly even when he's not having the best of nights. There's more to come from Martine Odegaard, so Arsenal fans better be ready.
#2 Olympiakos fluffed their chances
You wouldn't expect a side sitting 16 points clear at the top of the table to be generous, but Olympiakos will look back on this game as a huge missed opportunity.
Pedro Martins is dealing with an injury crisis in defence to be fair to him. However, having watched his side be gifted a route back into this game, he ought to be rightly upset.
The Greek side had Arsenal under the cosh for a good 10-minute spell after equalising but were unable to punish a fair number of misplaced passes, much like the first half.
As it turned out, Olympiakos conceded two fairly preventable goals late on and have now handed Arsenal quite the advantage.
However, the Greek champions lost their home leg to Arsenal last season as well and produced an incredible comeback at the Emirates - where they have as many wins as Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. It may be a two-goal advantage, but the tie isn't over yet.
#3 Arsenal cannot afford to shoot themselves in the foot again
It was Granit Xhaka over the weekend. David Luiz a few games ago. Dani Ceballos tonight.
Arsenal's ability to commit errors that lead to an easy goal for the opposition thankfully didn't come back to haunt them tonight.
No player has made more errors leading to goals in the UEFA Europa League than Dani Ceballos, a record the Spaniard will be keen to compensate for.
Tottenham Hotspur are Arsenal's next opponents after this, and the likes of Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son will not be as generous as Olympiakos' players when it comes to punishing Arsenal's errors.
Mikel Arteta had spoken ahead of the game about balancing risk vs reward while playing out from the back, but it seems his players haven't got the memo yet.
#4 Willian quietly puts in another accomplished performance
Willian might not have grabbed the headlines tonight, but he is slowly but surely working his way into Arteta's first-choice XI. The Brazilian winger turned in yet another steady performance, excelling creatively as well as putting in the hard yards in defence.
For all the brickbats aimed at him by his own fanbase, the former Chelsea star now leads the assists chart for the Gunners, which is saying something given Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe's exploits this season.
He now has an assist in each of his last four games for Arsenal, a streak of form that surely augurs well ahead of the North London Derby. If he puts in a good performance in that game, the narrative around his contribution to Arsenal may very well change.
#5 Mikel Arteta has plenty of work ahead of the North London Derby
Mikel Arteta has been steadfast in his belief that if Arsenal continue to turn in good performances, the results will follow. That has certainly been the case in this edition of Arsenal's UEFA Europa League campaign, with the Gunners a formidable prospect for any of the sides left in the competition.
However, while the result may have been favourable tonight, the performance was less so. Despite controlling proceedings for much of the game, Arsenal kept conceding chances with eerie regularity. Granit Xhaka's error against Burnley was an aberration, but Dani Ceballos' mistake was in keeping with many of his teammates as well.
The Gunners boss continues to tweak things around with his personnel. As he faces two games that could decide the season in the coming days, he'll have to be at his very best.
