So, after a 2-2 draw against Liverpool last night, it’s time to get our ratings on. Full disclosure: there is nothing to disclose. We were going to do a ‘most annoying cartoon character’ special but then we thought of Scrappy Doo and got the rage on. It’s too early in the day for rage.
Wojciech Szczesny: 5/10 – Good shot stopping, careless distribution, silly antics in his own box, must do better
Bacary Sagna: 5/10 – Unfortunate slip for the first, still looks a bit like he’s running through treacle at times
Per Mertesacker: 5/10 – Lazy ‘tackle’ led to their second, careless pass in the first half led to danger from a corner, but played ok apart from that
Thomas Vermaelen: 5/10 – Ridiculous non-clearance for their first goal, but like his partner was acceptable enough afterwards
Kieran Gibbs: 6/10 – Did fine, losing him for three weeks is a real blow
Aaron Ramsey: 7/10 – Worked very hard in a crowded, pressured midfield, make some good defensive tackles, stymied offensively though
Jack Wilshere: 6/10 – Drove forward well but needs to be more aware of his defensive duties when playing further back in the midfield
Santi Cazorla: 6/10 – You can never fault him for effort but looked a bit off the pace, suspect the knock he carried into the Brighton game isn’t healed
Lukas Podolski: 7.5/10 – Great delivery from the left again, Giroud and Walcott should probably have scored, shooting a touch wayward though. Knocked the wind out of Jamie Carragher for a bonus .5
Theo Walcott: 8/10 – Lively and decisive all night, should have scored a simple enough header but took his goal exceptionally well. Looks confident in front of goal.
Oliver Giroud: 8/10 – Had a good battle with Carragher and Agger, his goal was very good, his link-up play excellent and some of his touches are fantastic to keep the ball for us. Unlucky with the late chance.
Subs
Andre Santos: 5/10 – The misplaced pass at the end will colour people’s view of his performance, other than that it wasn’t really bad, but he’s a guy short on confidence and it shows. Makes you wonder if it’s gone past the point of no return – but with Gibbs out he’s our left back unless something is done in the transfer window today. Mindlessly abusing him on Twitter won’t help anyone.
Feel free to discuss and post your own ratings, but normal comment policy applies. If you’re not familiar with it, please read.
[…] Report – Player ratings – […]
sigh. the one word that sums up our season this year.
wanna say ”DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN”
about our transfer window.
sigh*
I don’t know about word, but this move from last nights game and video about sums up how I feel about the season!
http://gifsound.com/?gif=http%3A%2F%2Fballsdot.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2Fsuarez2.gif&sound=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZnHmskwqCCQ&start=10
something like this then yeah!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pwQoF105RO4
As much as I hate abusing our players, I just shudder at the thought of Santos vs Robben in the Champions League. Dear Gibbs, pls return from your injury asap. *fingers crossed*
think of it this way , Santos won’t have to mark robben ,It’s will be him who’ll have to be marked . After-all we are not bus parkers
Oh well. We could always go all out against Bayern. 5-4 anyone?
Andre Santos is a nightmare from which I’m trying to wake up – James Joyce
Wenger should try Koscielny at the LB position in the absence of Gibbs.
The truth is santos is a good footballer but a poor defender, at times coming forward he looked decent and confident but arsene bought him as a left back and in a defence as shakey as ours is at the best of times santos is liability.
This is spot on. Santos is actually quite decent as an offensive player. But his ‘awareness’ defensively is just not PL standard. Vermallen should play LB for the next three weeks assuming Kos and Mert stay fit.
playing vermaelen at LB would again weaken our offence, just like last season. still, better than playing santos there.
How about throwing Jenks at LB?
Could play Sagna at left back and Jenkinson at right back
Not to mention Santos’ shocking fitness!! The last 10mins you’d have thought he’d just played 120mins, twice, wearing an rucksack filled with rocks.
That is the problem. Santos is not a left back. Even in Turkey he played as a left winger. And for Brazil he plays as a left wing back. He is no specialist at it but he is what we have now.
Santos is Eboue all over again. A Midfielder Wenger insists playing at full back. Jenks @ RB, Bac @ LB is the answer. It works for me on FIFA 13 so it must work in real life.
Arsenals play requires overlapping fullbacks to gain width and get behind the opposition. Santos problem is that, even as an offensive player, he has a reluctance to reach the byline. He tends come inside which compresses and limits Arsenals attacks; this is where Gibbs really helps Arsenal stretch the pitch.
I think back over the last period when Arsenal lost Gibbs to injury; we really struggled to form a cohesive attacking unit as we couldn’t stretch teams.
I miss the one word ratings . Have your ran out of topics ?
No. We’ll do more.
Put theo as a CF and Bac will deliver some terrific crosses. When Giroud plays CF he always hits the defenders.Hard to explain
Knocked the wind out of Carragher +1
Missed his balls -0.5
Haha!
Get Leighton Baines!!! Much as we hate to admit it, the loss of Gael Clichy hurt a lot. Gibbs is great at defending and penetrating but his crossing/shooting/passing is not there yet – and he’s fragile. Andre Santos is beyond the point of “beyond the point of no return”. Leighton Baines is the best LB in England – even better than that c*nt at Chelski. We all know what Podolski is capable of, but just imagine if Poldi had a world-class LB partnering with him! Christiano Ronaldo would only be HALF the player he is if he had Gibbs/Santos parterning… Read more »
I agree with Baines being the best LB at the moment in EPL. Everton won’t sell him unless really crazy money which means……. stop dreaming.
I disagree with Santos being better at attacking. He tends to dribble more than pass and move tends to break down. Between Gibbs and Santos I would pick Gibbs as being more effective going forward.
although I agree Baines would be great we need players in other positions first – a right back, a centre back, and a striker. Arsene stop f**king about and buy David Villa at least today.
He will indeed play for Taggart next season unless the Toffees qualify for CL this season. But if they will, we won’t, so it’s a lose-loose situation.
What are you smoking????? ….Ronaldo would be half the player with GIbbs behind him. WTF, you on???
Gibbs is sound LB, if it wasn’t for the injuries, he would be up there!
You should stop playing fantasy football and smell the coffee. Appreciate the good players we have, before its too late.
On a side note, Santos isn’t great but he’s not the worst either. (have people forgotten Cygan, Silvestre, Stephanos)
Gervinho
Also Mertesacker has been very poor recently.Mertesacker has probably been our best CB this season but it also kinda shows how poor Vermaelen and Koscienly have been.Vermalen failing to clear the cross for the first goal was just embarassing.Not for the first time this season
Unfortunately Kos has not really got a look in this season, the only regular playing time he’s had has been alongside TV. He was one of our best performers last season but I think making TV captain means for less rotation, especially when you consider the fact he and Kos don’t work particularly well together.
mert was at fault all last last ,he was slow clearing up and caused panic within the defence because of this. He gave tha ball away to liverpool at least 10 times last night in dangerous positions ,he is a liability who needs to be droped ,his attitude for the 1st & 2nd goals was appalling, jogging back like a snail .
Seriously why torture yourself with talk of people like baines. It’s just never going to happen.
I have it on VERY good authority that we have identified two blokes, yes, two, to come in and shore up our defence.
The only question is which one we’ll go for. I reckon it’ll be Laurel, but William Hill’s have Hardy at Evens.
Kiss me, Hardy, for you must be better than Santos!
Cazorla only 6 when Ramsey gets 7? I thought he put in a very good showing, in the first half especially.
Look, just spending money won’t necessarily make your team a top team(Ask QPR). However, when you take a look at our squad, on paper at least, it looks like a squad that is like 90% there. We often lose/draw games by very tight margins(the same way Man Utd wins them…*sigh*). This is why buying one or two players of a high quality may make a massive difference. It worked for other teams before, it worked for us before, so why won’t it work now? Imagine a brilliant striker coming on in the last few minutes pressurizing pool’s defense and rotating… Read more »
Sorry to burst your bubble sir but this team aint 90percent there, indeed more like 90percent far from it. There are too many players we can drop, and we must drop, if we must become competitive again and not delude ourselves with the grandeur of 4th place. Just in the defence alone I’ll drop 3 straight up, out of this orbit, far from the Arsenal of our dreams. Am I talking BS, please be my guest. In Place of Schez give me a Vorm, Begovic and their likes, and thats just staying in EPL non-top ten teams. In place of… Read more »
@VVV wholeheartedly agree – we need leadership to step up on all three parts of the pitch to marshal the team to actually move coherently, which seems to be a bigger problem than individual ability. Too often our leaky defense is the result of miscues, individual error, or circus shows. I really believe that one signing will be sufficient – preferably left back. Santos will have to learn to defend or not play – we have too many players that are better than him at left winging anyway – at the very least, he could carve a niche as a… Read more »
That was arguably our best team we could put out until Gibbs went off and the bench, santos apart was as good as we have, so what’s the problem? And if we did sign say 2 players like most people seem to say we need who do we drop to make it better? Or are we more than just two first team players short? We can’t keep saying the squad isn’t good enough when our strongest first 11 continually fails to perform in so many games. We could get fourth but are miles away from a championship. So what do… Read more »
dropping is not the right word, i think. if we had 2-3 more decent options, we could rotate a bit. arteta is not a DM, we need a shield in front of the back four, someone strong and aggressive, wanyama for example. maybe that could lift their confidence, and we could rotate arteta, wilshere and cazorla (and occasionally ramsey) for the 2 more attacking midfielders. i’m shure cazorla would be much better if he wouldn’t have to play every game. by the end of march, wilshere will be the same as cazorla. and i don’t get it how arsene says… Read more »
How many games has our strongest 11 player and how many of them can you say that they were fresh and absolutely raring to go? And that’s missing the point anyways, we’re talking about how those 2 players can come on and give a boost to the team and rotate with them in the future to keep them fresh. Imagine by some miraculous chance we buy a competent forward. One game the forward will switch with pod. Then the next pod will rotate with giroud. So now we have a fresh forward three+a decent forward on the bench in case… Read more »
What still surprises me is, even though we didn’t score more goals, statistically just how well we seem to have done. 62% to 38% possession. 87% to 79% pass success. 55% to 45% aerial success. More shots, more shots on target, more corners … And, in the end, it was we who ran out of time, not them. It was we who didn’t play at our best – by a long way. And it was we who conceded ‘slapstick’ goals. I can’t help thinking that if only we could sort out our back five into something competent then we’ll be… Read more »
“I can’t help thinking that if only we could sort out our back five into something competent then we’ll be just fine.” We have been saying that for the last 7 years!!!!!
True, but every so often, for just brief moments, we really do think we’ve solved the problem. Arrivals like TV5, Koscielny, and Mertesacker. The ‘improvement’ of Szczesny and the departure of Almunia. The form of Sagna and his ‘understudy’ Jenkinson. The rise of Gibbs as a genuine left back in the mould of Cole and Clichy. The trumpeted elevation of Steve Bould ‘to sort out the defence’. In 2005-06 PL we conceded 31 goals (3rd best) goal difference: +37 (3rd) In 2006-07 PL we conceded 35 goals (4th best) goal difference: +28 (3rd) In 2007-08 PL we conceded 31 goals… Read more »
Did I say ‘mould’ … damn Sigmund Freud.
Verm & Mert should get a 2. “Can’t fault Santi for effort”?!?! He’s the most lazy player in the team. Giroud should have won the game for us but expecting him to finish from 5 yards is just wishful thinking.
Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Sagna and Gibbs ARE good defenders. Or at least, they COULD be. Even Santos could probably do a passable impression of a defender. But only if Wenger TRAINS his defence. Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Martin keown, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole were taught how to defend, how to work as a unit, how to organise themselves. They weren’t just magically made good defenders. The problem with our defence now, and throughout this whole trophy drought, is that Wenger has had to try and train on his own defence. No Adams, no Campbell, no Cole, no Keown nothing! to lead… Read more »
Two minutes before their second goal Santos was 5 yards off their area. His positioning is awful, and that coloured my view of his performance far more than one misplaced pass.
That, and the fact he didn’t make one tackle.
Losing Gibbs is such a big blow, he’s the first left back we’ve had that’s really looked anything like Cashley Cole’s standard. Shame he’s made of glass.
What a load of shite that was. I was watching the game in the middle east and they had Tony Adams on as analysist. He was saying that he had to tell Wenger how the defence should run and I am sure it was the same with Sol he bought in Bould and it has done fuck all, where is the consistency even the defenders seem to not want to tackle.
Bring in Moyes and get him to being Fellaini and Baines with him, I am sorry but Wenger should be allowed to retire up stairs.
Wilshere 6?Joking surely. Was our best player. Head and Shoulders above anyone on the pitch last night.
completly agree , jack i taught was man of the match ,he drove our team and everything good came through him, 6 is a joke ,just like mert 5 more like 2
Honestly, I think there will be activity today, but let’s not torture ourselves with wishing for people we cant have. I say we try and poach Luke Shaw from Southhampton (dunno if he’s signed that long term deal with them or not) and have him as Gibbs’ understudy. Then, we can promote (demote) Santos to midfield, and have Arsene tell him to NEVER track back or provide any kind of defensive cover. If we get Villa, we get him. I’ve always liked him, but I’m creaming my pants at the thought of us getting him. Abou is more box to… Read more »
Come back George Graham, all is forgiven!
Extremely poor ratings what match were you watching? Wilshere was imperious, drove us forward with dribbles and passing, while pickpocketing Liverpool on many occasions for possession. Sagna? 7 or 8 opportunities to cross, two touches later – blocked. Hideous on the ball and comical off it, no more than a 3/10. Best right back in the premiership for many of his Arsenal years, this was a nadir in his time at the Emirates. Vermaelen and Mert – 5 and 4 from 10 respectively. Santos? Not that bad? 3 poorly misplaced / intercepted passes in the 2nd half alone. Slipped twice,… Read more »
Agree with everything apart from your comment on Ramsey. Thought he played pretty well. Not a DM though, not sure what Wenger was thinking not signing someone while he had the chance
You make some valid points and observations – the only one I disagree on is Ramsey. I thought he played well last night, managed some long range passing, and not quite sure about your argument about him not willing to take players on – he had the most tackles of the team at Brighton (6) and also made several last night. He has done well at DM, especially considering this isn’t his ideal position.
Santos takes chances when defending, trying to tackle when he should just stay on his feet. Maybe he isn’t fit enough. Play Sagna at left and Jenks at right.
Enough of this rubbish yet?
Just read david post ahahaha he must be as blind as stevie wonder what a stupid deluded fan.
I think santo is getting picked on way to much. Sagna has been awful the last 3 weeks and nothing ever said and shez in goal has been shocken as well. The only way around it is if they defend as a team starting from the front back the second we lose the ball
Oh one more thing…. dream on if u think wenger going to bring any one in today ur wasteing ur time ahaha.
fuck off toby. Go spout your uneducated shite elsewhere
None of our defenders are good except for full backs. Kos and Verm are liabilities. Mert is good but not Real Madrid standard. We need a Sol Campbell Bastille pissed about Cahill, and Mata, and … oh fuck you Abramobitch.
Giving Santos 5 is too generous. While you’re probably right about the whole confidence thing you seem to have overlooked the fact that when someone gets past him he seems to think he’s a midfielder and that there’ll be a left back behind him to clean up after him. This just isn’t the case. The same happened in the Brighton game, players get past him and its then up to the central defenders to look after the left. This is all of course when he’s actually in position and not floating around somewhere in the central midfield. 3/10
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Bring on Kos, move vermalen over. Why he wants to bring on Santos is beyond me. He’s had his chance and he’s fucked it each time.
I’d rather take a chance in youth prospects because if they dont do as well at least they have an excuse and will learn from it. Santos is doing the same thing each time: getting caught on that side being slow and pushing forward centrally. Transfer listed please!
I just don’t get it. Putting aside the whole squad situation for now let’s first look at our first choice back 5 and include Koscielny in this as well. Mertesacker – Reputable German International, has been a captain before. Germany are the 2nd best team in the world right now in my opinion. Our best defender beginning of the season. We have been crying out for a sizeable center back for years. Vermaelen – Belgian international playing along side arguably the best CB in europe right now (Kompany). Also has been a captain. Was a hit with Arsenal since the… Read more »
Speaking my mind, i was not ready to see a draw, gibbs will be heavily missed wish him a speedy recovery , Because Andre santos is not only a poor attacker but his defensive ability is below the poverty level . He mostly gave away balls at attack or at best completed a back pass . vermaelen should play left back in the absence of gibbs .. or not i will have to arrange a sick bag while i watch santos play in my beloved team ! thumb down santos and your mamas p***y santos lovers, not me , in… Read more »
Anyone that’s feeling pissed off about our lack of deadline day activity, go to gunnerblog.com his les mis thing will bring a smile to even the most depressed gooner.
Haha I enjoyed that.
I just read the 2008 article that both announced arrival of Mickael Silvestre to mighty Arsenal and mentioned Shitty’s (who were really shitty back then) capture of certain promising Kompany. I would give a kidney to have Kompany with us now.
Wojciech is 22. I praise him very often. But he needs someone better than him to take his spot. It’ll only make him better. So by the time he hits 24-25, he’ll be world class. Sagna should have his contract extended by a year, an improved salary, but should receive less games and instead provide tough competition for Jenkinson who, in my opinion should take over. Then, sign up a new RB to provide constant competition. Mertesaker and Vermaelen are good defenders, but they’re way too prone to mistakes. Not just this season, but for the past few seasons (Mert… Read more »
The problem with Santos’ performance yesterday was not that he was defensively atrocious – he wasn’t – but that he got in the way of our offence. He doesn’t offer the width Gibbs does, so he drifts inside and gets in the way of the passing between Santi, Wilshere and Poldi. He was just an extra body crowding when he should’ve been making runs pulling his fullback out of space to create some for Poldi. He just doesn’t seem to fit in.
I dont know about u lot but im really worried about our defence now that gibbs is out. i mean we are one injury/ban away from saying HELLO squillaci!! Oh god i think im having that same dream as blogs regarding djourou….
The worst part of last night was having to listen to Craig Burley and Jon champion be critical of everything and anything Arsenal related, at one stage after Girouds ‘dive’, Burley told Wenger to sit down as ‘you can’t see anything from your level Pal’. Everything had a negative undergone from the ‘lumbering’ Mertersacker (Carragher however isn’t slow) to the attendance announcement, ‘this club announces tickets sold not the actual crowd figure’ (I know it annoying but many clubs do it now. You’d have thought Liverpool were battering us, the way I saw it they were dangerous on the break… Read more »
So mush focus on Santos… *scratches head*…
That first goal would have been hilarious had it happened to any other team. And that was our best back five.
Don’t get it twisted guys, we have major problems defense. It’s not one guy. Collectively we are prone to ridiculous switch-offs (Brighton first goal) or Keystone cops flailing (yesterday’s first).
While we do look better drilled in defense overall we have these crucial moments where it all just falls apart. I don’t know whether is coaching or discipline or panic or what.
If we don’t make a signing today the person I most feel for is Arseblog. It’s him that’s got to write a blog from now till the end of the season trying his best to keep things on the positive side so thousands of Arsenal fan’s don’t commit mass suicide. If you pull it off the your name must be in the New Years Honours list…
Priority still a cb.
Vermaelen can play lb while gibbs on the tt table.
Arsene – why do we keep sending both our centre backs for corners and set-pieces when we repeatedly fail to defend the counter attacks resulting from them? We hardly ever convert those to any sort of goalscoring opportunities anyway.
good ratings
-i like how you gave Santos a 5, he played as well/ as badly as the rest of our defenders (i do not rate him as a defender by the way i just dont like how every 2nd arsenal fan jump on the hate wagon)
-Ramsey a 7 was a bit generous considering how was part of that 1st goal horror show (as the game progressed he did play alot better
Jenks was immense when he was playing at the start of the season and sagna has been mediocre at best since his return. He’s made loads of stupid mistakes, gives the ball away a lot and his crossing’s been shite. What really pissed me off though was last night in the last min of injury time when we were looking for a winner he was just jockeying a liverpool player with the ball about 5 yards away, giving no pressure at all! Start jenks in the next game!
I read an article about Tony Adams recently and he said that he asked the professor about a role at the club. Why not get him in as a defensive coach? He’ll sort out the back four.
love the comments policy….has anyone read it? it’s fuckin awesome…