It may be a dead rubber, but this is certainly one of the more intruiging matches of its kind as Arsenal travel to Athens to duke it out with Olympiakos.

Injuries, or the fear of, have meant that Arsene Wenger has kept 99.5% of his first teamers wrapped up in cotton wool in London, and has ushered in a dozen or more changes to the starting line-up. The full team can be found here.

Among them are the well known types of Carlos Vela, Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Mikael Silvestre, Alex Song and Lukasz Fabianski. Youthful colts Fran Merida, Mark Randall and Francis Coquelin also feature, but the remainder of the side is as raw and untried as it gets.

You have the likes of Kyle Bartley, Luke Ayling, and the superbly named Thomas Cruise, raring to go. The latter is getting all the attention, and could very well slot in at left back tonight.

What an opportunity it presents to some of these players, though. Let’s be frank – it would probably be best, as spectators, to go into this match expecting nothing from the game, and go from there. Arseblogger rightly points out that there’s absolutely no point in slating these players should they not come home with the goods from Athens.

Memories of our past encounter with this side may conjure up feelings of divine superiority, but the way we ripped them to shreds was from our first choice players making the opposition look bad. That won’t happen tonight, talented bunch these players may be.

Still, no point in discounting their chances too much – but I’ll big them up at the end of the article.

Let’s have a gander at the team selection now, and I’m backing Vela, Walcott and Ramsey to be the central figures of this side as the understudies fall into line around them.

It will be essential that Walcott’s pace be used down the flanks as a major weapon to draw players to the flank, allowing the likes of Ramsey, Vela and Wilshere to find space on the edge of the box.

That’s assuming Walcott starts, of course – he may only factor a few minutes as a late sub; a choice which has its own wisdom – but as for who else could fall in there requires a bit of rotation and square pegs in round holes.

I’m backing Francis Coquelin to get the defensive midfield role over Craig Eastmond after the latter’s ineffective showing against Man City. However, after everyone backed Coquelin to play against Liverpool in the Carling Cup only to lose his place to the Englishman, it’s really a guessing game. These things are totally down to how they’ve been performing in training, behind closed doors.

Silvestre, Alex Song and Fabianski should marshall the defence, while Kerrea Gilbert reacquaints himself with the right flank.

Then, there’s Thomas Cruise. What kind of hype will be expected around him? There hasn’t been too much stirring generated from the likes of YoungGuns compared to other players in the past – all we have to go on is his Hollywood name.

On paper, this is Olympiakos’ match to win. But maybe, just maybe, Arsenal have their own ‘Minority Report’, an alternate future, where a really entertaining, ballsy performance can be conjured in an atmospheric Karaiskakis stadium.

Win, lose or draw, back the kids and look for the positives. The real football is on the weekend. For now, we’re in for a fascinating experiment with Wenger’s up-and-comers.

Which young upstart are you most looking forward to seeing against Olympiakos? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Filed under: Arsenal, Champions League