Arsenal secured three vital points in the group stage of the Champions League as they registered a 2-1 victory over Olympiacos, at the Emirates Stadium.

Speaking after the game, assistant manager Pat Rice explained that the Gunners did well in the first 25 minutes of the game but “lost their way” after taking a two-goal cushion allowing Ernesto Valverde’s men to build confidence and create chances with the Northern Irish adding that his players were unfortunate not to score a third.

Asked about the conceded goal, Rice declared that the defensive department had an overall solid game but admitted that it was a soft goal to concede as the Greeks were given plenty of freedom to quickly take a corner out of which they pulled one back.

Rice concluded by saying that the players will now relax and will then immediately shift their focus to Sunday’s North London derby, a tough away fixture against Tottenham Hotspur that the Gunners simply cannot afford to lose.

After the game, Rice said:

I think in the first 20-25 minutes we were really in it well. After that for about 15-20 minutes we maybe lost our way and they came back into it.

Second half we had to knuckle in, fight and get our shape right which I thought we did better in the second half.

[Our goals?] It is unfortunate we didn’t get the third but we also had opportunities on breakaways in the second half. They came, they waited for us, they broke us up in the middle of the park and in fairness they did well.

You can’t turn around and say we had all of the game because that would be unfair. Needless to say I think we will be very, very happy with the three points.

[The defensive performance?] I thought that in general they battled very hard. I think that as we went into the second half we were tighter in the second half than we were in the last 20 minutes of the first half.

People can have the ball right and left but it wasn’t really causing us too many problems. They have actually got a lot of the ball but in actual terms of what Szczesny has had to save I don’t think there was all that many chances.

[But the goal conceded] was soft, yes. From a defender’s point of view it was really poor.

[Tottenham?] That is a completely different ball game at Tottenham The most important thing for us was to win, because it takes us closer to qualifying.

We will think more about the Tottenham game when we all get together again on Friday. I am losing track of time – when you get older, that is what happens to you!