ARSENAL progressed in the Europa League despite Olympiacos winning 1-0 at the Emirates on Thursday evening.

Mikel Arteta’s side reached the quarter-finals of Europe’s second tier competition after winning 3-2 on aggregate against the Greek champions.

While the defeat via Youssef El-Arabi’s second half goal in north London was unwelcome, the Gunners had done enough to win through over two legs after a 3-1 victory in Piraeus last week.

On a night when Spurs and Rangers bowed out, Arsenal and Manchester United eased into the last eight of a tournament — with the pair now favourites to lift the trophy.

Captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was recalled after he was left out of Sunday’s north London derby win over Tottenham for breach of “pre-match protocol” and could have had a hat-trick — but it was Olympiacos forward El-Arabi who got on the scoresheet, becoming only the fourth player to score in three consecutive matches against Arsenal in major European competition, after Lionel Messi, Arjen Robben and Robert Lewandowski.

Fears of a repeat of last season’s debacle — when Olympiacos triumphed at the Emirates in the final minute of extra time — were raised when El-Arabi’s shot found the net via a deflection off Gabriel to give the Greek champions hope. 

However, they failed to come close to netting the two further goals required to ensure progress — with all ambition dashed when Ousseynou Ba received a red card for dissent late on.

Arsenal have now made it to the quarter-finals for the fourth time in their last five Europa League/Uefa Cup campaigns, after failing to reach that stage in each of their first five attempts.

Analysing the victory, Arteta said after the match: “We are really happy to be through. Sometimes we have to be fair with ourselves, we were nowhere near the levels we could be.

“We were unstable with the ball and we gave it away. It’s impossible when you give the ball away to have any structure. We created enough chances to win but were nowhere near the levels in which we can perform.

“We can’t use any excuses. We had fresh players in the side. We started the game really well but then we had a lack of stability. We need to keep the ball and play some passes together and not just keep giving the ball away in transitions.

“We’ll get better. When it comes to decision-making and execution, it’s a little bit more difficult.”