It’s time for part two of our Ratings of the Season pieces. After yesterday’s dissection of the defence, today we mull the midfield.
—
Abou Diaby – 4/10
Got a good pre-season under his belt, looked like he might just have cracked the whole fitness thing with 7 appearances before the end of September, and not only that, he was playing well. Then injured himself taking a shot against Chelsea and missed three months, before a stop-start return, and then a cruciate knee injury which will keep him out until 2014.
Highlight of the season: A performance at Liverpool which suggested he could be the perfect player to link the defensive and offensive parts of our midfield.
Lowlight of the season: The injuries. Plus ça change.
Season trivia: Even a trip to the US to visit renowned serious injury consultant Steve Austin couldn’t help him get through a season uninjured.
Next season: Like it or not he’s going to be around. We can’t simply ‘get rid’ of someone under contract and nobody is going to buy an injured player, but he’s been given enough chances, and it’s time for Arsene Wenger to accept we’re pissing in the wind with Diaby. It’s sad, but we must be pragmatic.
Mikel Arteta – 7.5/10
Mr Consistent at the base of Arsenal’s midfield, provided experience, leadership and quality from almost the first whistle until the last. Looked to fade a bit towards the end of the season, but given how much he played that’s understandable. Made more passes than any other player in the Premier League (and we think in any of the top leagues in Europe), and while some might scoff because they’re not 60 yard raking diagonals, keeping it simple is often the best tactic.
Highlight of the season: Holding his nerve time and again from the penalty spot.
Lowlight of the season: The one time he didn’t came late in the game against Fulham but it’s hard to blame him for the dropped points when Arsenal had turned a two goal lead into a one goal deficit before Giroud’s equaliser.
Season trivia: Lukasz Fabianski was set for a comeback in October but ruffled the skipper’s hair on a night out and snapped his wrist like a twig.
Next season: Clearly loves being at the club, might well be captain next season, and too often we’ve bemoaned the loss of players over 30. Might find his role somewhat lessened if signings are made but likely to be a very important part of the squad.
Aaron Ramsey – 7/10
A season of two halves for the Welshman. It’s fair to say the first wasn’t good. He struggled with form and being played out of position didn’t help, but it’s impossible to overlook his contribution to the run-in. He gave the team energy and hard work when it needed it, pitched in at full back a few times, and grew in confidence as time went on. Has definitely made progress.
Highlight of the season: Scored a brilliant early season goal in the Champions League but for me it was the 30 minutes at right back as we hung on against Sunderland which showed his selflessness and willingness to work for the team.
Lowlight of the season: The performances when deployed in the front three – while accepting that’s not his natural position, he could certainly have been better with the ball.
Season trivia: Always the first to training but the last to leave because people keep hiding his car.
Next season: From a point where he was being written off, he’s won people around, but needs to continue to develop. Every squad needs players like Ramsey, and if he can improve further then he’ll play a valuable role.
Francis Coquelin – 5/10
He’s tidy, efficient, combative, and energetic, but even with injuries to Wilshere and Diaby, wasn’t given a great deal of playing time by Arsene Wenger. From January to May, played just 60 minutes of Premier League football and rumours of his departure, in order to play more, seem credible.
Highlight of the season: Playing 120 enthralling minutes of the 7-5 Capital One Cup win over Reading.
Lowlight of the season: Not really to do with him, but being thrown on late in the game at Villa Park when Arsenal were drawing 0-0 provoked a negative reaction from fans. Especially as he replaced our only striker, Olivier Giroud.
Season trivia: Will spend the summer touring the nightspots of Greece with the DeBarge tribute band he plays in with his brothers Jaques and Long-Jean.
Next season: It’s hard to see how he can have a real future with us, especially if the talk of signing a player like Gonalons is accurate. This was the season for him to show he had it at this level, but didn’t catch the eye sufficiently. We suspect a transfer.
Tomas Rosicky: 7/10
Another long-term injury cast a shadow over the first half of Tomas Rosicky’s season but since starting the away game in Munich he’s battled back to some of his best form. He only made 7 Premier League starts in total but with six of those since the end of March he was an integral part of the midfield during the run in.
Highlight of the season: His match-winning brace in the 2-1 win at West Bromwich Albion.
Lowlight of the season: Getting less than 90 minutes playing time between August and the start of January due to injury.
Season trivia: Tomas is so injury prone he’s actually had his tonsils removed three times in the last 2 years.
Next season: Challenging for a weekly starting berth, mentoring the next generation of midfield starlets and trying to stay fit.
Jack Wilshere: 7/10
After an interminable 15-month wait, he was given a start out of the blue against QPR in November and went from strength to strength until his ankle injury started troubling him in early March. Promising tiki-taka relationship building between him, Cazorla and Arteta which should be revisited next season.
Highlight of the season: The clinical edge-of-the-box strike which capped a man-of-the-match performance against Swansea in the FA Cup.
Lowlight of the season: Rustiness played a part in sending off at Old Trafford but probably the pain in his ankle which requires surgery to remove a screw this summer.
Season trivia: If his son Archie makes an Arsenal debut at the same age (16) as him, Jack will still only be 35 thus throwing up fun possibility of a father-son double act. Now that’s Arsenal DNA.
Next season: To storm back to form following rehab after ‘minor’ summer surgery, then to lead Arsenal to the treble and England to World Cup glory in Brazil. No pressure.
Santi Cazorla: 8.5 /10
Having failed to sign Cazorla in the wake of Cesc Fabregas’ departure Arsene finally got his man in August and the little Spaniard hasn’t disappointed. With 49 appearances to his name he played more games than anyone else and was the only squad member to feature in every Premier League fixture. 11 assists and 12 goals (all in the league) pay testament to a very slick debut season. A gem of a signing and there’s not been a Gooner who hasn’t been impressed.
Highlight of the season: The strike at West Ham was fantastic as was his tidy finish in the 5-2 drubbing of Spurs, but hard to overlook the hat-trick against Reading.
Lowlight of the season: Playing the full 120 minutes of the defeat to Bradford.
Season trivia: Was the hump in Per Mertesacker’s camel costume at the Arsenal Christmas party.
Next season: Well he can’t play anymore games in the league so we’ll just settle for more goals and more assists.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: 6.5/10
Having impressed at the tail end of last season, and at Euro 2012, the young England midfielder seemed to struggle with expectations before Christmas but proved himself a trusty squad member in the final months. Three assists and one goal in 25 Premier League appearances can be improved upon but he’s still only 19 and he’ll take a lot from this year.
Highlight of the season: Lovely strike in the 7-3 win over Newcastle United and getting his first England goal versus San Marino at Wembley back in October.
Lowlight of the season: Being sacrificed against Manchester City after 11 minutes after Laurent Koscielny’s sending off.
Season trivia: Nearly quit international football in the middle of Euro 2012 after being forced to room with Stuart Downing.
Next season: He has the physicality and technical quality to be a regular starter at Arsenal. Needs to play without fear and take games by the scruff of the neck, should look to follow lead of Walcott.
—
Please note: Ratings as provided by Arseblog and the Arseblog News Hound are based on our overall feeling, rather than an aggregate of their scores in the post-match ratings articles.
Tomorrow: attack.
Pretty certain we beat spreading 7-5 not Everton!
I don’t think we should expect a transfer for le coq – he’s decent but not there yet, but he’s only young! Patience needed by him and the club.
Hoping for some big Ox impact next year
Oops. Reading.
Well they were pretty well spread open for the vast majority of the season.
Jacks son is named Archie, do your homework Blogs!
Hey Blogs! Correction on Coquelin’s, it was Reading not Everton we faced when we won 7-5 in the Capitol One Cup.
And his brother is Longues-Jean. He’s French godammit!
😉
Minor point but Arteta scored against QPR at home and that wasn’t a penalty
Arteta scored the winner against QPR at home, offside, but not a penalty.
Santi Cazorla statistics are wrong. Official league stats here from the league website. Assists are 13 not 11.
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/players/profile.statistics.html/santi-cazorla
Poldi 11 goals and 10 assists in the epl and he hardly plays.
Arteta had 5/6 penalty strikes. His first goal was from open-play (I think against QPR or something at home), when the players played a lot of pin-ball before he finally poked it in.
And I think Jacks’ son is called Archie.
Reading Abou’s rating almost made me cry. We either need to offer a live sacrifice to whatever God will fix him for good, or get a similar kind of player. If he exists of course. On a side note, Rosicky’s trivia cracked me up properly, what a fucking player. Can turn a defender like a Bishop in NW2, and has a burst of pace like me running from dogs. He’ll play a full season for us before he calls it quits, just watch.
Diaby went to see ‘Stone Cold Steve Austin’?
No. Steve Austin is the Bionic Man. Imagine Steve Williams in a jumpsuit.
Was a joke…
See above.
Does Steve Austin have the technology to fix Diaby?
We can rebuild him…we have the technology.
Corrections re: Arteta goals, Wilshere’s son’s name & COC result vs Reading all made. Apologies for confusion. Pat yourselves on the back.
Must be annoying putting up a new article to start meaningful conversation on the squad only for all the messages pointing out the mistakes you made, I just automatically substitute the wrong words in my head and gloss over, oh well.
The readers serve as gratis fact checkers 😀
Carzola! He’s fuckin’ excellent!
Cazorla’s better
It’s CAZORLA, not Carzola !!!
I’m sick of seeing people misspelling Cazorla’s name everywhere. How would you feel if I misspelled your own name?
A name is the most important asset to any random individuals. Hence, please show some respect, particularly to Cazorla, by taking serious his name. Cazorla has been around for a season, and he’s Arsenal startlet, the best midfielder by far, so if you can remember Sebastien Squillaci, remember Cazorla too !
Calm down Hand Ho
It was a typing error, Not a spelling mistake……. Subtle distinction but an important one…..
Wow genuinely surprised Cazorla hasn’t missed a single premier league game. For all his trickery and spell-binding control, the boy also has a alot of stamina. Good stuff Santi!
Yes he has a lot of stamina but towards the end of the season there were times when Santi seemed tired. Wasn’t always as great as in the beginning. Says something about the lack of depth that he had to play as much as he did.
Yes 48 games a season is too many. It shows how thin our midfield quality is. Girvinho’s lack of form Ashavins total lack of form, Ox’s failure to kick on and of course injurys to Diaby, Wilshire Rosicky and Podolski. We ended up being totally reliant on Cazorla Arteta Ramsey and Walcott and playing Podolski for 70 minutes and Wilshire despite his being unfit. All this goes back to the poor buying history which has plagued Arsenal for ten years. Thankfully we are led to believe we are going to buy quality now. Fingers crossed.
IMHO, Coquelin deserved more appearances. He has absolutely brilliant potential to grow in the CM cum CDM role because he has surprisingly a good vision and ball playing qualities. I would’ve like to see Ramsey given a rest and tried Coq in that role, sadly didn’t happen.
Will be a huge loss for the future imo if he is let go. Think Wilshere-Ramsey-Coquelin could be our future trio.
oooooooh somebody was drunk when writing this article..
Right me if I’m wrong but didn’t Arteta score the winning goal home against QPR on a header?
And not a hair moved.
off subject. looking at joining Arsenal ‘Red Level’ or whatever. really want to see us play next year. the prices they quote is something like £34. but is that per month or just a one off and then you just pay for tickets when they become available? thanks lads
yeah its a one off, you pay again for tickets,
they’ll make tickets available to red members for each game, although you have to be pretty quick off the mark to get tickets against the better teams. you also get access to arsenal player and a couple of shit freebies with your membership
by shit freebies do you mean arseblogs book?
No. By shirt freebies he means shirt freebies
Shit because it wasn’t the full book and you had to go out and buy it? 😉
I don’t know, the keyring and the pin have come in handy
Not all Arteta’s goals were penalties. He scored an offside goal against I think QPR (the winner in the late stages of the game)
Wasn’t offside
It was.
No it wasn’t. Some qpr plank was standing on(actually behind) the byline, hence he was onside.
Not sure why Ramsey and Wilshere has got the same rating.
Not once this season did Wilshere manage to put together a string of three 7/10 performances in a row. Ramsey on the other hand has been very consistent since January and he’s one of the main reasons we got 4th this year. Wilshere isn’t.
You’re just letting jack’s more recent performances cloud your view, he was excellent after he came back in november until january/febuary-ish after which he was obviously struggling with an injury, but before that i thought he was one of our best players and most consistent performers.
Fortunately for us Ramsey stepped up his performances and Rosicky came back from injury around the time Jack’s form dropped.
Ramsey stepped up his performances because, imagine this, he was played in his preferred and most suited position which resulted in him excelling 😉 But yeah I agree Jacky boy was excellent when he came back into the squad but then dipped in form, but I suppose the point was that Jack kept his consistency for about 2-2.5 month from November to January/February, whereas Ramsey was consistent from pretty much late January (West Ham at the Emirates) through May. Either way the two will be play huge parts of our 2013-2014 season so why bicker over subjective player ratings. I… Read more »
Are u joking
Superb trivia blogs. All of them cracked me up. Except for diaby, obviously
I’m a bit disappointed that Coquelin didn’t get more of a chance. I can’t remember the last time he played a bad game. Chances are that next season, he will spend a lot of time on the bench or move on to another club, which is quite upsetting.
Pretty sure I remember seeing Arteta score an offside bundler from 1 yard against QPR, so he did score something other than a pelanty.
Oh yeah whoops I forgot I opened this page over an hour ago :p
Off topic i know, but how embarrassing was that Song gaff? Wow he is a complete numpty at barca, he could have been a legend with us, now all of us are shit stained whenever he cocks up so sad 🙁
Nah, we’re not. Only Alex Song is “shit stained” when he cocks up. Couldn’t give a hoot about him now. He doesn’t play for us. He’s not a legend so it doesn’t matter.
A legend with us? He’s no way near good enough for that and obviously not intelligent enough. I’m glad he’s gone.
You don’t have to be a great player to be a legend, being a good player who gives their all but plays 300 games will earn you that status. Song probably had a similar ability to Parlour, unfortunately he didn’t have the character/drive of the Romford Pele.
Song was good enough to be wanted by a champion side like Barcelona. Arsenal had not won anything like forever so he accepted the challenge. Good on him. Would welcome him back any time.
You know, it’s almost getting to the point where I automatically thumb down any of davonewzealand’s pessimistic, often bile-driven contributions. I can’t think of a single thing he’s said that I agree with.
Welcome Song back? No thanks. It’s easy to remember the good things he did, easy to forget the number of times his passes went astray and he was out of position. But it was the character that did for him — he thought he was a star and he wasn’t. He just wasn’t Arsenal. Sorry.
Song wanted to stay with us, he said wenger was like a dad to him, but he was advised to leave….. FACT
By whom?
His two best friends, his ego and wallet.
Blahblahblah… followed by the word “FACT” in capital letters. I’ve always wondered, how does that make an argument any more convincing than it already is?
“Spurs are better than Arsenal… FACT” nope still wrong
Wenger was roundly criticised by some for letting Song go last summer. Think his judgement proved pretty sound on this one. Another section of the stadium paid for and an asshole gone from the club. Nice work Arsene.
If Arsene had not bought Ashavin, Squilacci, Park Santos, Bendtner Denilson, Girvinho, Chamak and kept paying an injury croc like Diaby we could have paid off the stadium by now. At least Song played. And he played damn well and was often the fans favourite player.
Try adding facts to your opinion every now and then.
Take the words kettle, black and pot, rearrange for a fact regarding what you just said. 😉
Proves my point. What a load of rubbish. Arshavin was my player of the season his first year at Arsenal. Bendtner’s problem was his ego, not his ability. Gervinho and Chamakh at least deserve to have their names spelled right. Both promised much but Chamakh couldn’t lift his level and faded badly, while Gervinho has a talent I love but when his confidence was dented he suffered badly. Not every signing works out. Not even Le Prof gets it right every time, but he does better than most. I couldn’t find a single ‘fact’ in your post, except “Song played”.… Read more »
Diaby didn’t play enough minutes to get a rating.
Just listened to The Times podcast, I generally disagree with most of what they say, however someone points out the our team doesn’t have any bad players , but they’re all 7 out of ten players, and this summer we need to add two or three 9/10 players to push us on. These ratings tend to agree with that assesment. Hopefully next season Wilshere and Santi can be 9/10 and if we can get a real powerhouse midfielder to play where Arteta did thus allowing him to be more attack minded we should see improvement.
I’m leaning toward getting a powerful deep-lying mid too, with Arteta as quality cover all over. I don’t think we’d need to use our summer resources on any other kind of midfielder. Better footy analysts than me have suggested Jack and Santi tend to get in each others way, but I wonder if that’s at least partly due to playing narrow (lack of consistent width). After all they’re both bright, mobile players, we’re not talking Gerrard and Lampard here.
I assume Arsene will admit that Diabys career with us is sadly over so will look to replace him, I don’t know much about Gonalons but he seems to be a target.
is this trivia TRUE? just being curious 🙂
yes, all of it. In an alternate dimension.
Ok this is going to be long i think.. Just wanna bring my opinion/s across. This run-in form was amazing really. Team showed grit and steal to grind out some results. Yeah might not be beautiful to watch sometimes but looking at a team like united.. They start off games with the mentality of not losing and that works for them. Because hard to swallow but they have the quality to take their chances. So yeah if we keep this up. Defend first and take our chances we can be up there. That brings me to re-inforcements. World class striker..… Read more »
Boilk?
Please give Walcott a rating based on his season and not 4/10
He will, when it’s the forwards’ turn tomorrow.
So 2/10 then…
Goat
I predict Walcott will receive an 7.5
Off topic a bit but the net is going crazy with Arsenal transfer stories today and I hope what I read has some truth in it
It’s going to be a long long summer
Yes “Crazy” is the key word 🙂
Every time I read that Coq might leave, I become so sad and feel like not to read articles mentioning his name anymore. I’ve watched many young stars play worse than he ever did (e.g. Ramsey). I honestly have no idea what Wenger thinks of the boy, whether he has a plan for him or something. I always blame the limited oportunities for young stars on the weakness of senior players in the squad. Imagine if we were dominating a bit of more games, leading some 4-0, 3-1 or so, Ox, Jenk, Coq. Could have had more games. Remember, Rambo… Read more »
To be honest it probably boils down to what they offer to the team and end result as a whole, and there’s no denying what Ramsey has done to the team since he became a regular starter. In fact he’s been doing it since January when he was returned to the central midfield.
BUT that said I do want Coquelin to stay, I think he has what it takes to make it at Arsenal. Keep at it Francis!
i’d say if ramsey keeps up this hard work ethic and stays out of the front 3 he will be as important to arsenal as wilshere, cant overstate the importance of pressing for every ball
Yeah it’d be interesting to see what his pressing has done for us, not only in games like the ones against Everton and Man United that kept us in the game, but what it has won for us…Just off the top of my head it was the FK he won at Tottenham that gave us our one goal, the corner against Norwich that gave us the penalty, the FK at Fulham that gave us the win there etc etc.
LMFAO Pulis has got the boot and now he knows what it feels like to get kicked by a bunch of cunts!! Just like his team did to every other prem team hahahaha
I will say that on the whole the Ox had a pretty mediocre sophomore season with us but oddly enough what was the highlight for me was his last game for us against Newcastle. He was surprisingly good at the center of the park, his direct running was helpful, and he put in a well disciplined performance. Though I’m still partial to him on the wings, here’s to the Ox cementing his place next season. Santi has been a godsend and I actually think its best when he plays wide because it clears space for another creative player in the… Read more »
I hope coquelin stays as he is young and talented and can offer a lot to arsenal in cdm and cm as hes can tackle pass shoot dribble do through balls and has really good stamina. Whats the point of buying a young player like gonalons when we have couquelin
Ramsey Ramsey Ramsey that’s all ye talk about, I think we have way better players, yes he runs like a headless chicken for 90 mins, but if u look at what he does bad just as much as he does good, just saying?????
Well with a name like yours, what’s the point in taking your comment seriously, amirite? 😀
No
Eh well you’re wrong. There you go. I would go into details and stats because there’s so much to back my point up, but I’m afraid it would be lost on you.
Can we pause and take a moment to note that when Wenger took over managing Arsenal,
Jack Wilshere was 4 years old
Aaron Ramsey was 5 years old
Alex Oxlade Chambo was 3 years old
Santi Cazorla was 11 years old
Mikel Arteta was 15 years old
Abou Diaby was 10 years old
Francis Coquelin was 5 years old
Tomas Rosicky was 15 years old.
The man has transcended a generation.
Arsene has been Arsenal manager for 17 years, a long time indeed. He was successfull in the firsts nine years but has not won a decent trophy in almost ten years. To transcend one must rise above . Only Sir Alex can be described as having risen above for a generation, 26 years and a mountain of trophies is indeed a transcendent achievement. How many premierships have those you listede won?
Davonewzealand , your Alex Ferguson love finally reveals which team you support. I often wondered.
No I just am able to acknowledge all clubs achievements rather than blindly saying Arsenals is best when the facts do not support such a statement.
Comparing Fergie with AW’s reign is too simplistic Davo. In the last 8 yrs Arsene has a net spend of 9m, so to keep us fairly competitive and paying of 2/3’s of a stadium is an acheivement that I’m not sure any other manager could pull off. IMO ferguson and Wengers achievements are both admirable for different reasons.
I agree Corporal comparing Arsenals achievements against other clubs achievements is a real challenge. United have completely rebuilt their stadium during Sir Alex’s reign too. Yet they continued to dominate English football. The 9m net spend is spuriouis because we have spent millions on very poor players who have cost us many more millions in deadwood wages. I totally agree that both managers deserve credit for their individual achievements but the last nine years has seen Manure so wipe the floor while Arsenal are now losing to Blackburn and Bradford. In the last nine years Manure has won 15 trophies… Read more »
I’ve done it! I’ve managed to throw the ring into the fire of mount wotnot!
We’re a bit cut off here , any news of Stoke?
I read the following on the Guardian comments section about Diaby by poster Claudelvan. “Diaby I’m always bemused when people (including our own fans), call on the club to get rid of him because he has (how dare he?) the temerity to be injured all the time. Some were saying the same about Van Persie three years ago. Clubs have a duty of care to their employees. Diaby got badly injured on the job, and has nevr recovered from his injuries. There isn’t a cost too great for club to keep him on the staff and the wage bill. They… Read more »
Would have to disagree with the OX highlight. It surely has to be when he came off the bench to get us 3 points with his assist Vs Norwich
[…] have a look at the ones on Arseblog News, they’re here in parts 1 – defence, 2 – midfield and 3 – attack. Ratings are, of course, subjective and not meant to be definitive. Argue, […]
Just wondering what exactly are your ratings based on. Diaby gets 4/10 because he started the season brightly and made us have the best defensive record at the time until he went missing at which point we went flat. Rosicky had a good end to the season but was not available for the start. Wilshere was in and out and to be honest, still trying to see how exactly we played better (whether offensively, defensively or all round). Not hating on our players, just felt those ratings are just emotionally based on who you like but not so much on… Read more »
I tend to agree. Especially about Diaby’s rating. What did he do wrong except be injured?
when we talk about Sagna leaving and needing a new centre back – isn’t the answerr to play Sagna at CB? outstanding in the sir, awesome agauinst sunderland at CB and no longer the same player at right back – can’t deliver crosses or beat a player… he’s like to stay and has an obvious role?
[…] Arseblog continues his end-of-season reports […]
I disagree with Arteta’s rating and i think I’m in the minority of Arsenal supporters who believe Arteta is woefully overrated, especially by our own fans. He is clearly out of position and not suited for his role. Arteta was made to look better than he was by Ramsey’s consistent energy and running. Ramsey’s constant pressure on the ball led to many misplaced passes and Arteta interception statistics. But in all I thought Arteta had a poor season and a big step back. To be fair, when we have the ball, i think Arteta is a perfectly acceptable player. He’s… Read more »
I could not agree more. He has been played out of position all season. Hopeless without the ball. Lacks physicality and just gives away free kicks constantly. Wish he was just a squad player….somehow he never attracts scrutiny. How he gets higher marks than rosicky baffles me even though it is all about opinions……
Good job with the rating Blogger, although I would have given Ramsey and Wilshire a 6.5 but we all know Blogs has a soft spot for both of these players. My justification for a slightly lower rating for both of these players is because Ramsey was god awful in the first half of the season and Jack really did little of note since coming back from his latest set back. A rating of 7 means they had good to better than average seasons. I think both of these players as well as the Ox can get much better as they… Read more »
[…] 来源：[Arseblog News] […]