Victory in the south of France marked Arsenal’s tenth consecutive win on the road since the defeat of Bayern Munich in mid-March, here’s how the players rated…
Wojciech Szczesny: 7/10 – By and large he dealt with everything thrown at him. Got down well to make a number of saves, albeit a couple of them going wide, but couldn’t do much about the well-taken penalty.
Bacary Sagna: 7/10 – Back on the right-side of the defence he got up and down the wing very well and provided one particularly good deep cross which Wilshere nearly converted.
Per Mertesacker: 6/10 – Largely solid on his return to the starting line-up he loses a point for the wild swing of his Teutonic leg which looped the ball over Szczesny and nearly resulted in Marseille taking the lead.
Laurent Koscielny: 7/10 – Solid for the most part. Will be gutted Ramsey had the balls to take his crown as king penalty-giver-awayer.
Kieran Gibbs: 9/10 – One of his best games in an Arsenal shirt, he charged up and down the left, prevented a BFG OG, nearly scored following tidy interplay with Ozil and provided the cross from which Walcott despatched the opener.
Jack Wilshere: 7/10 – Seemed a little lost in the first half shunted out on the left, he was much more influential in the second period as the game opened up. Good on the ball if not spectacular.
Mathieu Flamini: 7/10 – He’s so good at what he does he’s almost Gilberto-esque as an invisible-wall. Great to have such a motivated and energetic performer in the centre of the park and his positional discipline allows Ramsey to express himself.
Aaron Ramsey: 8/10 – Another swashbuckling showing from the Welshman with a sixth goal of the season capping a fine performance which included a couple of very eye-catching tackles. One in the second half was nigh-on perfect and resulted in a great Arsenal break. Harshly treated on penalty, thankfully not costly.
Mesut Ozil: 7/10 – Not quite as influential as he was against Sunderland, he still showed flashes of his class as the midfield congestion eased in the second half – one back-heel to set-up Gibbs was particularly glorious.
Theo Walcott: 7/10 – Picked up where he left off at the Stadium of Light by missing a couple of early half-chances but took his goal superbly with the sweetest of volleys. His runs behind the defence were always dangerous and he’d should now take confidence from bagging his first goal of the season.
Olivier Giroud: 7/10 – No goal for the Frenchman, but his hold-up play against very physical defenders was impressive. His interplay in and around the final third bodes well for the future.
Subs:
Nacho Monreal: 6/10 – On for Walcott with 12 minutes remaining, he slipped into the left-side of midfield ahead of Gibbs and helped sure things up
Thomas Vermaelen: n/a Nice to have him back, he’ll be looking to WBA in the COC for his first real action of the season.
Ryo: n/a Only on the pitch a matter of seconds.
Bonus rating:
Bloke with megaphone: 0/100 Fuck off you annoying prick.
I know this might be a bit premature but I think the player Ramsey has come to replace or rather reinstate in wenger’s is VIERA. the stamina, the goalscoring knack, the bossing of midfield areas, the tackling,I mean, fingers crossed , the boy is doing outstandingly well, hope he has the same impact viera had on our team..
UTA
He doesn’t seem as much of an enforcer as Viera, but he has taken up the runner role. I think hes more similar to the typical british box to box midfielders like Gerrard and Lampard but with a lot more technical ability, I recon he can do this the whole season.
whatever he is doing, he’s doing it bloody
brilliantly!!
#oneaaronramsey
Come on lads he’s an Arsenal legend, let’s at least do him the honour of spelling his name correctly – Patrick VIEIRA.
sorry Mr. blogs, it’s Patrick vieira and nothing else from now on..thanks for correcting
With a capital V
But then a year ago he didn’t seem much of a goalscorer. He said he always got into the right positions but now he is converting them whilst still doing amazingly well in midfield. It will be a real treat watching him grow into whatever mutated midfield role he is taking on and having someone like Wenger nurturing we know it will end up in tears… of joy! In seasons past when we the squad has been begging for players to step up and kick on, this season looks like it is finally happening with Ramsey leading the way, Oxlade… Read more »
He came to Kenya and we gave him a few pointers on how to run all night long like a marathoner
At least he’s not just going hapa haputo…
Premature. It’s always the same with fans. Some bad days at the office and “Ramsey should break his leg”, some good one and he is the next Vieira. Just support him and cheer him all the time.
I think the Vieira character is Flamini actually. And I fucking hope he doesn’t fuck off on a free again. He unleashed Fabregas. And now he’s unleashing Ramsey.
Fabregas and Vieira, by Wenger’s own admission, couldn’t play together, which is why he sold Vieira. Gilberto (and then Flamini) were the Flaminis for Fabregas.
And Ramsey is defensively superb, whereas Cesc had no defensive responsibilities at all. Ramsey is almost unique. He’s better defensively than Gerrard or Lampard, he’s more involved in general play than Vidal (who makes about half as many passes per match, because Juve have Pogba and Pirlo). The only one comparable at the moment is Roy Keane in his early days at United.
*I don’t mean comparable in quality, just style of play. Ramsey needs to consistently boss midfields containing world class players before he joins that kind of company.
If I was famous I would be shitting myself about now. With his track record Rambo liable to take out half of Hollywood this season
Can anyone explain how we’ve given away 4 pens in just 7 games! That must be a new record
Really? Wow.
Sugar daddy clubs like City and spurs, and conflict-of-interest clubs like United, are getting scared of us and are paying referees…? It’s been such an encouraging start for us, much better than the last two seasons, even against the backdrop of our injury problems (which are worse than the last two seasons- on a par with the tail end of 09/10). We create clear cut chances even in moves that don’t involve Ozil- his signing has signalled to the players that we want to play in the “world class” direction, whereas if we signed Fellaini for example, the players would… Read more »
Oh wow and I just noticed, what a brilliant deceptive run by Giroud to create space for Ramsey’s second goal!! I really, really enjoy watching and learning from that sort of move…
It’s an FA rule…
17.a For every penalty Man United should concede but don’t, a penalty must be awarded against Arsenal in their next game
And all dubious
I didnt realise we had ten consecutive away wins. That is truly astounding.
Oh and Mourinho out!
WHAT?! Surely you want to keep Mourinho in if it causes Chelsea problems…
Yeah, cause changing the manager after a month will help them a lot, especially if they were putting all their hopes into this one.
HFB looking a bit tiired, hope he’s fresh enough to shrug those rugby team off this weekend.
He worked so bloody hard last night, he looked shattered on about 75 mins but kept going right till the end!
Cashley who??
Remember the name….. Aaron Ramsey… what a player!!!! You see him and then you see the likes of Bendtner who had talent but wasted it away… Ramsey always had talent but for that cunt shawcross to stall his career. Even before that horror tackle, he was breaking into the Arsenal team and such was the faith of manager, that he started him in that match against stoke. And now he is showing up what he I s made of.. If he goes on like this, he is going to become a lesson in human spirit.. God bless that lad… and… Read more »
Another look at that Gibbs clearance: http://arsenalist.com/f/marseille-vs-arsenal/awesome-goal-line-clearance.html
I just can’t stop watching that goal-line official’s crabby movements. Mesmerising.
heh i saw that too. Strange isn’t is? There must be more than a few missing frames – he seems to teleport.
They are shit. Why didn’t he see the BFG get kicked in the face? Waste of space!
And the look Chezzer gave the BFG afterwards – priceless!
The backheel to Gibbs wasn’t Ozil, it was Giroud. You made the same mistake in today’s blog.
please dont start it
specsavers mate
Okay yeah, it was Ozil. I just saw this gif. My bad guys, sorry.
keep calm next time.
Serious question- what’s a ‘Giff’? I’m 41 and have no idea.
I just assume it’s a frozen video frame. not a picture!
Granny I fabously fucked!!
Back heel to Gibbs was definitely by Ozil. A little early to be smoking that stuff y’know.
It’s 4pm, where I’m from 😛
Are you davefromnewzealand in disguise?
Harsh penalty decision, from the referees angle it looks like Ramsey cynically tripped the player but the replay showed he poked the ball, then the player fell over.
The ref didn’t need to give it, but Aaron created the danger by taking a touch rather than hoofing it out first time. Although I’m delighted he’s shoved it down the throats of the destructively fickle, I suspect it’s the same kind now fawning. Good luck to Vermaelen.
whatever he is doing, he’s doing it bloody brilliantly!!
#oneaaronramsey
I can’t be the only one laughing at Rod Fanni’s name. I giggled every time the commenter said it.
i guffaw’d and chortled too
Fun fact of the day: he’s my back-up RB for Sagna in Fifa 10 (still playing it, no need to upgrade). Solid player with an enormous throw-in.
That was real fun
How ramsey is bossing it at the moment is beyond comprensible. Is there any other complete Midfielder in europe at the moment? doubt it.
We miss Cazorla. he sees those tiny spaces and finds a pass. if theres a way him, Ozil and rosicky can be on the pitch at the same time, i want!
*comprehensible*. Where on earth do people learn their grammar? Blogs should consider blocking comments that are full of grammatical errors. Ok, now back to my hideout.
Grammar nazi on the loose….
and blocking is abit extreme don’t you think?
Not everyone here speaks English as a first language bud…
Someone like Vidal is a pretty incredible complete midfielder, but Aaron’s definitely getting there. His form has been simply stunning.
Ramsey is a G and deserves a lot of credit for stepping up. I’m hoping this inspires other players in the squad to pick up their game too!
#chiefRamsey
what kind of team photo is that…haha
I like the fact that it looks like Özil has turned up late and just stuck himself into the photo wherever there was space
And no Flamini doeasn’t look like he’s taking a shit.
AHA!
Attacking wise the whole team should be docked points for sloppy, misplaced passes and heavy touches. But the work they did to defend their goal throughout the game made up for the lapses in concentration. Not the prettiest of games but perhaps a good reminder to the lads of the competition in Europe.
well, we didnt outplay them, but we got the result. and Im really happy for this, saying we’re in the toughest group this year. Cheers!
btw, so happy for Aaron. keep on boy!!!
Metesacker a 6!!! Have to disagree big time with this, stopped many attacks and helped Szessa out on countless occasions.
With displays as this we can barely remember we have a lot of players out wit Injury… No matter who plays even wen we have players back, Ramsey should be the 1st name on the Team Sheet, doing otherwise will be counterproductive…. Cheers to Our 10th consecutive Away Win #COYG
the form of flamini and ramsey has given serious food for thought to wenger in terms of selection. when arteta, rosicky and cazorla come back, what would the midfield look like is interesting. in my view, the automatic front 4 will be gioud. walcott, cazorla and ozil. it is the two spots behind them that looks interesting.
based on current form. flamini and ramsey should occupy them. but then where does that leave wilshere and arteta and rosicky. but i don’t worry because we’d inevitably have to rotate, specially with matches flying thick and fast in the coming months.
Jack Wilshere needs to emulate Rambo and add goals to his game. For a start he should try this…..
When in a shooting position_SHOOT.
I can’t wait for the return of Cazorla, Rosicky, Arteta, Podolski, And Chambo…………. Fit again Captain will make us a strong and capable of winning trophies
Think that should be “SHORE” things up and not “SURE” things up 🙂 Sorry! Couldn’t resist.
We need Arteta and Cazorla most this time………… It seems all Arsenal fans have forgotten Diaby ……. Thanks God for enough options in the midfield and I will advice Diaby sooner and sign another player to replace him
Typo.
It’s ‘shore’ things up, not sure.
Wait, our last road loss wasn’t too Bayern because we were the team that beat them in their house last year. That isn’t correct blogs.
He says “defeat OF Bayern,” not “defeat TO Bayern.” It started our away run.
The ratings are a bit biased, I’d lower them all by a point. While not being great, the team managed to snatch a win which is all I asked for.
Also, I know the megaphone can be annoying at times but it is a very good way to make thousands of people sing together. The Velodrome has one of the best supporters in Europe and they definitely know how to build an atmosphere (wish I could say the same about the Emirates).
Full agreement. Home support at the Emirates is awful, I wish we had the Velodrome atmosphere at our ground. Even if it includes having a bloke with a megaphone yell his heart out even if his team is trailing 2-0.
Why no love for the bloke with the megaphone? I’d be bloody happy if we had a guy like that at the Emirates. There’s a good reason why the team plays better away than at home and the bad atmosphere at the Emirates definitely plays a part in it. Unless we are talking big European nights or some sort of derby, the Emirates has probably one of the worst home supports in the league. I wish the AST would try to help with that.
IAWT.
I think marseille are alot better than people think.. In some ways i think they possess a different kind of threat to napoli and dortmund. They are half decent on the ball, but they also possess alot of physical and athletic players, Alot of them where simply bigger and faster than our players. It showed our lack of power but also the guts of little guys like ramsey, wilshere and flamini to keep battlling and getting stuck in against players who were physically stronger. Despite our lack of power and apparent need for a big strong DM im liking the… Read more »
Wilshere is a very enjoyable player to watch. I like the way he traps passes coming to him and his low to the ground kind of dribbling. It all looks very grippy and smooth. I don’t know how to describe it.
Velodrome. Always like that name, sounds epic.
Non sequitur have we got a chant for ozil yet?
How about to rudimental’s feel the love:
Yes he knows true
He feels the love
Coz he’s join arsenal
Mesut Ozil
Mesut Ozil
*joined
what can be better than us having 10 unbeaten away games, chelsea losing and tottenham players watching from the sidelines…. we just might win a treble this season.
If Wenger is anything, he is faithful. It’s what he’s shown with Ramsey despite the harsh criticism he’s received the past couple of years. A lot of people complained that Wenger played Ramsey in the wrong positions, and technically, he did but the reason Ramsey was deployed on the wing was to improve his ability to work in tighter spaces and at full back to improve his defending. It was frustrating to watch, I know, but it seems obvious that Wenger had a lot of trust in Ramsey to overcome his physical and psychological problems. Anyway, I’ve always thought that… Read more »
5 months without losing away