We moved 4 points clear at the top of the table after a 2-0 win over stubborn Southampton, but how did the players rate?
Here’s how.
Wojciech Szczesny: 8/10 – Made good saves, dominated his area from Southampton’s dangerous set-pieces. The form keeper in the Premier League right now.
Bacary Sagna: 8/10 – All we hear is, Bacary Sagna, Bacary Sagna, Bacary Sanga. Bacary, someone still loves you!
Per Mertesacker: 8/10 – Fantastic reaction to winning the penalty, drag backs, quality defending all day.
Laurent Koscielny: 8/10 – Je t’aime.
Kieran Gibbs: 8/10 – Got forward well, shackled their wide players well. Another fine display.
Mikel Arteta: 6/10 – Got caught a couple of times in the first half, but when he, worryingly, went off injured, the space he left in the midfield was obvious.
Jack Wikshere: 7/10 – So unlucky not to score with a deft right footed chip early on, but put in a good shift for the full 90.
Aaron Ramsey: 7/10 – Like Wilshere unlucky not to score with his audacious back flick, fantastic energy and work.
Santi Cazorla: 6/10 – Still trying to find the form of last season.
Mesut Ozil: 7/10 – Still feels a bit like he’s playing within himself, but shackled well by a good defensive side.
Olivier Giroud: 8/10 – The first goal will go down as a keeper mistake, but Giroud forced that error. Solid penalty too to top off a day when he again showed the improvement in his all round game.
Subs
Theo Walcott: 6/10 – One decent shot aside, a bit quiet, but not unexpected when he’s been out so long.
Tomas Rosicky: 7/10 – Almost the perfect substitute in those circumstances, brought some energy and slideyness to the final 15 minutes.
Nacho Monreal: 6/10 – Another solid cameo. Probably frustrating for him, but very effective for us.
Bonus rating
Artur Borus: LOL/10 – that’s some quality footwork, fella.
Feel free to debate and discuss in the comments, but please read the comment policy first and don’t get angry with each other, or me, about imaginary points.
Boruc was trying to do the Cha-Cha slide. What a chump.
Monreal deserves credit. Not sure how many we’ve conceded after bringing him on, but I would say very very few. Actua
Just about none, isn’t it?
Boruc is a gooner 10/10
That’d be all the Polish goalies in the bag for us
Just came back from the game. The atmosphere this season is a lot better than recent seasons. Man, it feels good being at the top.
That’s because of the 15 min delay and everyone was getting drunk, we still have an opera crowd at the Emirates
PERFECT RESPONSE TO THE RESULT AT OLD TRAFFORD. ANOTHER ACCOMPLISHED PERFORMANCE FROM THE ARSENAL BACK LINE. KEEP IT UP GUYS. COYG
I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH YOU. But go easy on the caps yeah?
hahaha
HAHAHAHAhahahahahaha!!!!
Ozil was a little quiet, he’ll find his second wind though!scary to think we beat an in form team 2-0 with two of our best attackers having quiet games and another one benched. Not to mention Poldi and Ox. Nice Scary though. Like a first Boner.
Ozil – The louder the music, the more noticeable when it stops. He’s turning in decent team performances in second gear. Just wait until he finds top gear.
absolutely agree matter of time/finding his feet in new league even with all that he’s still putting together some great play just lacking a little bit the end product!
plus, if that flick of Rambo went in, he’d have yet another assist. and a beautiful one, such a precise ball.
plus, if that flick of Rambo went in, he’d have yet another assist. and a beautiful one, such a precise ball.
Mate my first boner was fucking wicked.
I think 7/10 for Ozil is generous, yes he was marked well but sort of got increased expectation for the £40m man…giroud ‘just’ MOTM but our two centre half’s were immense.
Keep the good results coming!
Bonus Rating: Crystal Palace 0/10 – For hiring that awful, awful wretch of a man.
And so, a dark cloud grew over Selhurst Park…
Winter has come
Summer would have been Thomas Brolin…
Cunts … cunts in the deep.
although, if they get relegated it’ll be quite amusing to watch
Reports coming in suggest Boruc is still suffering from the blinding handsomeness he saw running towards him.
i though wilshere was very good early on in the first half and late on in the second half, but for the hour or so in between, he kept getting caught in possession just too many times.
LOL/10!! Classic!
lol! Thank u Artur Boruc, we are so grateful! :-D:-P. LOL/10
“Like a first boner” , hahaha.
I remember my first boner….it was way back in 19….actually you probably don’t really wanna know the story, but it involved Moiria Stewart, the newsreader.
Agreed with all but Santi, who I thought grew into the match and was worth a 7. Think Ozil is still getting used to the EPL, which is normal. A few times each match he gets tackles he thinks are fouls.
Another match where we were happy to cede possession in non-threatening areas and then quickly slip into gear upon regaining. Unlucky not to score at least 1 or 2 more. Very organized apart from those times when the midfield (Arteta, primarily) gave the ball away.
Must say I was impressed with Wanyama.
Anyone else get the hump when people call the League The EPL
Man, I’m old……
Personally, I thought Wanyama was too aggressive. He was much quieter once he was cautioned.
As for Ozil – I too have noticed how he reacts to tackles. I’ve screamed at the TV numerous times this season, “This isn’t Spain, you knob! Get up!” haha I mean it with love of course.
Incidently, I had the same look on my face as Per did after winning the penalty today ; )
Saints fans – 0/10.
How dare they nick the tune to ‘Oh when the spuds’.
At least try and come up with your own song Saints fans, like our good friends down the road did.
heh
Top of the league, spuds, chel$ea, the red toffees still to play, cmmooooonnnn!!!!!
Bac was great today…very solid at the back and kept coming forward.
Good to see the team still top after this long month of big games, the defence today held well the saints players played quick pers, kos sagna & gibbs scz 2 held well, i will watch the replay on skysports1 8.00 pm hammers lost to chavs coyg
10/10 banter from Boruc. At the beginning of the second half, North Bank clapped him overly enthusiastically, but he took it well and bowed to us and egged us on.
4 points clear:)
I’m currently listening to “Fancy Footwork” and watching Boruc’s assist. Someone make a mashup.
I agree with the ratings today. Shame Ramsey and Jack didn’t score on any of the chances, and I felt warm inside when Walcott got on the pitch, as that’s one less injury to worry about.
I want to see Nacho play a full 90 minutes
He’s not seeing the pitch at left back the way Gibbs is playing. . . he had a fire burning today, what a tremendous effort.Looked a step quicker than everyone on the pitch until this #14 character came on for us. . . Thomas Walton was it?
Both Wilshere and Ramsey deserve a rating of at most 5. Apart from their chances in the 1st half, they didn’t impress at all. Wenger has to drop one of them and start playing Rosicky. Arsenal needs his directness and sense of urgency.
a pretty dumb idea to criticise after an all-round dominant win against an in-form team.
wilshere 7/10
but kind of worrying he keeps running into stationary opponents when a simple pass is on.
Good shit.
Giroud deserved more than an 8, he’s. Overall play was exceptional, for me our stand out player! No one’s mentioned a couple of important defensive headers in the first half. Don’t understand some of comments about Jack, one of his better performances today I thought.
Its the good humour he brings as well. The fella is always having a good old time out there.
He/we need back up in the Jan transfer window though. Bendtner is not a realistic option for a Prem/CL winning side. Having Mesut as a supply line should help attract some big names.
Meantime, whatever happened to “Showboating Danny and the Big Spenders”? How to piss away £100m in one easy lesson. And no monkey to patch over the cracks. What a joke of a club they are.
Generally speaking, top class players don’t leave their clubs in Jan. And that’s especially true in a World Cup year.
Benteke is a more realistic option. And Ba (if Mou wasn’t such an ass!).
Not sure how you get your rating Sir but whatever you give Ramsey and Wilshere, Santi needs to be given one more imo. He really grew into the game in the second half and when he was substituted we couldn’t string 5 passes together. He orchestrates our midfield!
Not good enough! We should have scored at least five, instead we struggled against a weak side.
Wenger must go now!
oh not you again….
You obviously haven’t been watching much of Southampton this season, they had the best defensive record in the league up until today, beat Liverpool at anfield and were unlucky not to beet Man u at OT, they are far from a weak side. It was a great win, enjoy it.
I’m pretty sure this is sarcasm, guys.
Its not sarcasm, its Fatgooner
hahahaha
Who’s the knobhead who keeps flagging down perfectly reasonable posts?!
Is it ok to state that I dont like fatgooner?
Just find his statements have an entertaining daftness about them.
In all honesty I think Fatgooner is messing. I’m sure he’s messing. Any Arsenal fan has got to be happy after today.
I first saw The Arsenal live on the opening day of the 1978-79 season, came over from Ireland…I was 12 nearly 13….it ended up 2.2 with Brady scoring a gem…..Best treat I ever had…today I brought my 13 year daughter to see the game…great atmospher and brought to the game by a top top Arsenal cabbie…….great day great experience……had to laugh after Walcott came on my daughter says “where Theo?” Lag next to us says ” there’s 60,000 waiting for that answer…..great 3 points……..
I think it should be recognised what a great job Nacho Monreal does when asked to solid up a winning position with ten minutes to go. The is is a very useful player to have in such circumstance. I really like his aggression and skill. Underrated I feel!
Unfortunate rather than underrated Gibbs BFG Kos Sagna just look awesome this season. Just can’t drop any of them at the moment.
As they like to say so often, you make your own luck.
We may have been fortunate with the goals but we were also unfortunate that Jack and Ramsey were denied by the goal.
Nothing lucky IMO about beating Southampton.
A solid 4 point gap fir us. enjoy City versus Spurs.;)
Ramsey still made more passes than anyone else, 88% pass accuracy, four tackles, almost scored, covered loads of ground. Well worth 7/10.
Good solid performance by the lads. Reminds me of many United performances over the years when they kept on getting solid victories without playing well.
Boruc!!!!
Once a Gunner?
BFG in contract talks supposedly. Hope to hear news of Sagna’s new contract, too! Absolute professional.
6 for Arteta? Generous.
Happy with another solid display from our keeper kos and per
Have to agree re Wilshere. He tries the difficult option when a simple and space-winning pass is available. Tries to force form to much, it will come to him if he plays simple and direct. He is supposed to be able to beat his marker, but his decision-making is off at the moment, so would be better off going back to basics a bit. That said this was an encouraging performance, but still a ways from what has come to be expected of him. Indeed I think Rosicky has to get more time, as he drives the ball with more… Read more »
Do not have to say much about the game just to say keep playing like this the football is fantastic think this team will be as giood as the invincables could also be our year to win the European Cup I know some of you may be laughing but believe me just wait and see Should have been 5-0 today without a dought and when we buy Suares in January Just watch how many goals he scores I think he is the new Jimmy Grieves fantastic goalscorer and will play well with Girood and Osil I think we should pay… Read more »
Great game and the team played for each other. Our recovery rate is fast whenever we loose the ball
Is LOL laughing out loud or lots of love?Either way its funnier than seeing a one-legged man at an arse kicking competition