Arsenal’s positive French record to be extended against Marseille

Marseille may have made a perfect start to this season’s Champions League, but the poorness of their domestic form, especially at home, means that Arsenal can take at least a point from their Group F encounter.

One win in their opening ten fixtures in Ligue 1 does not represent great form and Marseille are already 14 points behind domestic pace-setters Paris St-Germain.

However, they have won both of their Champions League games so far in the group and are 11/8 to make it nine points from nine by beating Arsenal.

Also in their favour is that they beat Chelsea at home in the competition last season and that Chelsea team was arguably far better than Arsene Wenger’s current squad.

Arsenal’s domestic form is arguably only marginally better than that of Marseille and they have lost six of their last eight European away games.

But they are unbeaten in their last seven trips to France and the pace they possess on the counter attack through Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will pose problems to any European defence.

Arsenal odds are 9/4 to beat Marseille and move to the head of Group F, with the draw looking like the best option at the same price.

The other clash in the group sees Olympiakos host Borussia Dortmund and based on the fact that the duo have managed just two goals between them in the competition thus far, a low-scoring game could be in the pipeline.

However, with both teams needing points and 25 goals being scored in total on the last five occasions that German teams have travelled to Olympiakos, it is the opposite that is perhaps most likely.

It is 5/6 in the Champions League odds that the clash features over 2.5 goals, with Olympiakos 14/5 to achieve victory and Dortmund 1/1 to triumph.