Steve Bould hailed Arsenal's 3-1 win over Olympiakos as a 'fantastic' result after conceding the weekend defeat by Chelsea may have impacted on the first-half performance.

For large periods of the first half, Arsenal were sloppy in possession and defensively, and saw Gervinho's opener cancelled out by Kostas Mitroglou just before the break.

Second-half goals from Lukas Podolski and Aaron Ramsey secured consecutive UEFA Champions League wins for the Gunners to leave assistant boss Bould in a happy mood.

"It was tough," Bould told Sky Sports. "They made it really tough for us and I thought they defended really well.

"We kicked the game off not too badly, but then we looked a little nervous. Maybe the result from the weekend drained us a little bit and we lost a bit of confidence, but overall it was just a fantastic result."

Bould also praised Olympiakos, adding: "They're a good side, technically very sound and they made it really hard.

"We've watched tapes and we knew they were very good technically and they set the 4-1-4-1 with the big fella sat in front of the back four.

"Santi [Cazorla] couldn't get on the ball in the first half and we tried to correct that at half-time, and I thought we improved."

Gervinho was deployed as the main striker by Arsenal and, after opening the scoring on 42 minutes, created Podolski's goal which restored the lead early in the second half.

The Ivorian has scored five goals in his last five appearances and Bould hailed Gervinho's growing influence following an inconsistent debut season at Emirates Stadium.

The former Arsenal defender continued: "I think good players can play anywhere, wherever they want to play, whether it's left wing, right wing, centre-forward, it doesn't really matter.

"He is scoring goals so he's playing with a lot of confidence. I don't think he's played up there an awful lot, but he has improved with every weekend."