Hurrah, a win. A clean sheet. A goal for Yaya Sanogo. Defensive caution and common sense. A good night overall for us – and it feels nice.
Here’s how the players rated on our sparkling new ratings system which people might appreciate more after a good win.
nice one
some players are just born to play football. One of them is ” Alexis Sanchez”.
Or as he’s named above, “Alexis Alexis”;-)
Can we just commission the statue now and save a few quid…. This man is the second coming of Bergkamp….
Luke 21:27 “at that time they will see the son of Denis coming in a cloud with power and great glory”
Never thought I would say this but Is Jack the new “Elephant in the room”
with the current squad?
Good game lads.
That’s a beautiful set of numbers!
Would be interesting to see how many times Szcezzers got a rating above 6 after a clean sheet and many match winning saves while Martinez gets 8 after one important save.
Besiktas, Besiktas, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Burnley, were games with clean sheets.
Ratings were: 7.48, 7.13, 7.15, 4.92 and 6.09.
What an exiting life I lead…
Sorry if you get spammed with this comment (never shows up when I post it), but the fan ratings for matches with clean sheets (not sure about match winning saves though): Besiktas – 7.48, Besiktas – 7.13, Aston Villa – 7.15, Sunderland – 4.92, Burnley – 6.09. Problem is – we’re not keeping clean sheets!
Thanks for the research =-), I was actually commenting on the site’s ratings, not the fans ratings, but I had a look myself and I might have been a little over board with the 6.
The fact that he stopped every shot, and didn’t have a single wtf-were-you-thinking-Sczcezny moment probably helped
I was about to type the same thing probably using the same words. take the thumbs up
It’s really hard for a goalkeeper to have a wtf-were-you-thinking-Szczesny moment when he’s not named Szczesny.
I’ll take a wtf-were-you-thinking-szczesny moment over a standard-almunia moment any day.
He made 2 very important saves nearing the end of both halves
It would also be interesting to see how often Szczesny has made “many match winning saves” in a game, or how many he has actually made in his entire Arsenal career, I don’t remember that many.
Szcz hasn’t had a single performance this season like Martinez had last night. Plus, if he’s so great, why didn’t Wenger start him in the FA Cup Final?
Szcz is a bottle job, just like Almunia.
Obviously you don’t have much of a memory. He was a machine last season.
Let’s just ignore the fact he was joint golden glove winner with Cech last season.
Szczesny rescued our entire season when he saved that Di Natale penalty in the CL qualifier against Udinese a few seasons ago. Not to mention that he’s been steady as a rock when he’s been able to have a decent defence in front of him.
I agree with you completely about the great penalty save against Udinese, but van Fuck-Face was still playing for us then, so it’s hardly recent. I seriously can’t think of a single game since where afterwards I thought that he alone rescued either a point or a victory for us. I can still remember Seaman and Lehmann pulling off top draw saves from 10 years ago, but most of the memories I have of Szcz are him giving away penalties, flapping at crosses and charging out of his goal like Almunia did. As for the Golden Glove win, well frankly,… Read more »
Ah, so we should berate and blame individuals, but not praise them for good work. That’s pretty thankless.
I count 2 important saves. One from Mkhitaryan with his legs and one in injury time coming from the Kagawa handball.
Can we not just play like this for the rest of the season? That would be brilliant. A revert back to the 4-2-3-1 and having a big target man saw us put in the best complete performance of the season. Think this system brings the best out of the players that we have and I think it kinda helped that we didn’t go gung-ho on attack. Thought Nacho, Santi, The Ox and Gibbs were particularly outstanding tonight. And although he won’t get that many plaudits tonight, thought Ramsey had a very decent performance. Saw him making tackles, making simple passes… Read more »
Well said on Ramsey. Thought there was a big improvement in his game tonight. Coincidence that it happens when Jack isn’t in the team?
As with Santi’s performance tonight?
The Ox was a pleasure to watch yet again, I can’t help but wonder if Alexis has rubbed off on him a little.
…Giggidy?
Copied from another user’s comment. this was from about a month ago… Jack Wilshere: This player has appeared in 12 of Arsenal’s 13 games in all comps this season with 10 starts and 2 sub appearances. In terms of playing time, he has been on the pitch for 826 of the 1170 minutes Arsenal have played this year – 71%. Arsenal has a record of W2 D5 L3 when this player starts. Arsenal is W2 D1 L0 when this player does not start. As a team, Arsenal has scored 19 goals, conceded 16 this season (+3). Arsenal have scored 11,… Read more »
Hi Arseblog-Mania.
Can we now see the same analysis for the rest of the players. By those numbers, Mert (and every other single player bar Alexis) has the same crappy numbers and is also the reason for our losses.
Singling out Jack as a scape-goat for our shitty performance this season, and worse, the cause of almost all our losses is just pathetic. Quit it.
Ramsey played far better than he has been tonihght. However, he was still charging forward at every opportunity when we were 1-0 and 2-0 up. It makes no sense for him to do this. At 2-0 we could win the game if he never leaves our half.
Luckily it never cost us. Onwards and upwards.
The ref deserves a nod too. He’s one of the very best, consistently. Not perfect but about as good as you’ll find.
Makes our lot look like the crap they are most of the time. Wish we could import some refs to the PL to go with all the players.
Doubt you would say that, after you’ve learned that this is the same ref, who refereed our losses against Braga (2 – 0), Napoli (2 – 0) and AC Milan (4 – 0). I don’t personally recall thinking that any of these losses were particularly because of the referee, but I was quite scared when I heard that Viktor would be refereeing our game, because the statistics clearly indicate a certain tendency.
correlation vs causation.
You forgot the golden rule: all refs are cunts.
This! We go back to last year’s shape, with a holding midfielder, a box to box midfielder next to him, a proper number 10, a big guy up front, and two versatile players on the wings, and suddenly the team works again. I really hope we keep playing like this. Alexis is excellent wherever he plays, but the team seems to work so much better with one of Ozil and Cazorla (or Rosicky) in the middle. Much as I like Wilshere, I really hope the cramming him and Ramsey into the same midfield role at the same time thing is… Read more »
Arsenal have now won every official game that Sanogo has scored in… Long may it continue
haha, nice one!
We have a new king folks. Long live Alexis I
For a moment there I thought you were talking about Yaya.
Are the reader rating working blogs? I voted but it’s still displaying 0 for all. As does the season average.
The new system looks good though!
Starting to get more and more excited about the Ox..
Same here. Can you imagine the cheers he’d have received had that lob gone in? Great shame it didn’t.
I don’t know if I would have cheered if that volley had gone in. I’d have been too busy picking up my jaw from the floor.
Exactly the type of game we needed to get our entire season back on track. Both the team and the manager responded well from the criticism of the last few games and hopefully this newfound form will continue for many games to come!
In the post-match interviews you could see a world of ‘hurt’ remained in Wenger’s eyes. Almost as if he’d recently learnt his best mate had stabbed him in the back and was still getting to grips with it. So far Dortmund are arguably struggling even more than Arsenal this season, but their fans never fail to maintain a good spirit throughout the 90 minutes, and afterwards at the Emirates queued up enthusiastically to shake the players hands. Personally I have HUGE issues with Wenger’s ‘fast tracking’ of Jack Wilshere into the first 11 despite his maturity not yet being anywhere… Read more »
I think you’re right, and I think it’s related to the way the club, and most other professional football clubs, is run. There’s been a written quite a lot on Arseblog and many others about how the fans seems to be viewed as a necessary evil by the club. I think that is true. Definately how I feel and, perhaps why I’m losing interest. Dortmund, on the other hand, are (partly) owned by the fans. Pros and cons but, it might be a factor to why they are patient, loyal, etc.
The first goal was beneficial to arsenal, we did not have to go all guns blazing, really happy for sanogo, pity with the injury, hope it was cramps and not a pull muscle. all we have to do now is carry the same attitude to the league and we will be ok until january
I suppose it will have settled them down but let’s not forget we had the first goal vs Swansea and the first 3 vs Anderlecht and didn’t win either of those games. I think it was more of a determined performance all round and that’s why we won.
Now shut up you Sanogo-haters! Get behind your players or go look for another team to support!
Dont want to restrict anyone to express their opinion but I hate mocking your own players and Yaya is definitely trying hard and it wont work out with him if no one gets behind him.
And I believe he has everything to become a really good forward
And in addition to that, he’s a nice, funny and humble guy
That’s it, nothing left to say. Good night everyone
#COYG #Wengerin #Leaveityeah #Dench #aha
Man, I agree with you 100%. Am just impressed you are having a successful monologue too! Cheers!
I saw someone in a Leave it Yeah t-shirt the other day. Never fails to make me smile! 🙂
DONT BUM HIM!!
Not sure how humble he is, but I love me some cocky football players!
Well, it looks like Mr Blogs is a Yaya hater, didn’t even recognise his goal (the ball next to his name) up top there. He waits a year to get a goal for his club and it’s not even noticed by some!
Monreal’s reading of the game was brilliant today. He was very good today. He was always ahead of the play, knew where the danger was coming from before it came and positioned himself accordingly. If he was a few inches taller, he’ll had made a very good CB
He’s been playing well this season. As have other individuals. The team as a whole? -Not so much.
His major weakness is strength in the air. That’s where he’s given up goals this season playing CB. And you can’t even really fault him for that, it’s not his fault he isn’t 3 inches taller and 20 pounds heavier than he is.
Other than that he’s a solid defender whether it’s at CB or LB.
When Wilshere stops playing, we started winning…
Not seen Sanogo’s close ball control mentioned any where yet. He can look like a big gangly fool but in the lead up to his goal he shows some nice skill and a sneaky backheel to Carzorla that is representative of his general play. There’s something about him that I really like, he certainly tries hard, and if things click right he might just turn into a decent striker in the niche strong-skillful-and-good-at-link-up-play mold that seems to be Wenger’s preference in recent years.
He’s an interesting player, nice little touch in the lead up to his goal, but then he became a complete lolloping mess a few minutes later.
Perhaps it’s just a touch of nerves? Perhaps he is just a bit of a gangle monster?
Either way, good goal and well in!
Consolidate with any kind of win (ugly if necessary) on Saturday to keep the confidence building.
Need Flamini to find a bit of form as he’ll likely anchor over much of the Xmas period. What Arteta lacks in physicality is often made up for with his ability to retain the ball when under pressure in deeper positions. Maybe Jack would be more like-for-like (deployed in his ‘England role’) when we can get him fit again?
Unfortunately it’s not looking like we will know for a while. But with Flamini at DM I do know another midfielder needs to be back there as the outlet and structure.
1) Sanogo. He can’t score goals. Wenger is mad to start him. 2) Alexis. What a player. Why can’t Wenger spend proper money on players like him? 3) Ox. We should buy more midfielders because players never improve. No one will elevate their play this season to come close to assisting Alexis. Why can’t Wenger buy Alexis? 4) Santi. Wenger OUT! Why would he start Santi over Podolski? I mean he is industrious, creative, runs all over the pitch and contributes with assists but he can’t score FFS, not with the Puma kit on anyway. 5) We need a Big… Read more »
You pretty much know fuck all about the current state of affairs at Arsenal. Please stop commenting. At least until you learn a little more about football, Arsenal, injuries, substitutions and commenting. The fact that you mentioned that Santi and Poldi are interchangeable players stamps down the fact that you need to do your homework. COYG.
I think you’re missing the obvious satire here mate…
Yep. He must think irony is something you use to press your shirt.
Vik, the next time the point of a post flies over your head, at least wave as it goes past.
The two alex’s were awesome tonight. I think The Ox is on his way to becoming that gareth bale sort of player.potential match winner this lad.
It was nice to have a hold up man at striker today. there are a lot of things I like about Welbeck, but I still think that Giroud will be our best striker this season. Just imagine him winning first balls and making passes to Alexis and Walcott/AOC moving in behind.
Would be interesting to see if wenger would play Nacho as holding mid when Kos comes back. He’s a full back with loads of energy who reads the game pretty well (for me anyway) and he could slot in for Gibbs when he goes forward. Just look at Philipp Lahm. If Wenger was to play with two holding (closing out a game) it would really help us if it were the Flame and Nacho, Flame covers right and Nacho covers left when our two fullbacks go forward. Just my thoughts on what i think we need at the moment. What… Read more »
Kinda agree with you – he could do well as DM.
didnt think he would be any good at centre half but ive been surprised over the last few months – certainly has not been our weak link in defense for the majority of games ands like someone said if he was 6 foot or over he would have been a very good centre half
Could be called the FlamingNachos axis
while Arteta is out
This is what we want to see! Nice performance overall.
But what’s with Özil? Invisible again…
All the player’s rating are fair. Finally we didn’t give up the lead. Great defensive effort and world class goal (Alexis the Sanchez)
Great performance all round and weirdly enough Gibbs is my MOTM. Easily our most consistent defender and surely England’s future left back. I thought Ramsey was good but then again I thought he was ok against United as well. I think some fans have over reacted over his “bad form” because he isn’t performing miracles like last season. He’s not actually playing badly at all. Ox was excellent as well, has been for a while now, and he’s really going to give Wenger a headache when Walcott is fully fit because he’s simply undropable atm. I’d be tempted to move… Read more »
Nothing at all weird about it. Gibbs was outstanding today, both defensively and going forward. He was positionally aware, strong in the tackle, and consistently made the right decision. Best player on the pitch – and that’s saying a lot, because there were many very good performances out there today.
@loose cannon
I agree with you, Ox is simply in fantastic form right now and should continue in the starting lineup, But I don’t think he should be moved into the middle, he should stay exactly where he is. Walcott can wait his turn like everyone else has to.
For my money the Ox will be a much better overall player than Walcott.
Not sure on Ox becoming a MUCH better player than Walcott. I think Ox’s future will be in the middle (and Walcott may still become a CF) and their playing styles will diverge, making the question of “who is better” moot. But as far as RW is concerned, Ox has a long way to go before he can match Walcott’s goal and assist contribution.
Fair points, Wenger has said a few times that he sees Ox in the middle too, which as you rightly point out, will leave it moot.
But for now, while the Ox is plying his trade on the wing, I would take him over Theo.
He has a long way to go to match his goals and assists, but that can only come from being played regularly.
For me he just shows much more promise and natural talent.
I still don’t think we’ve seen the best of Walcott though. What’s interesting about him is that, over the last few seasons, he’s taken up a few of Ox’s attributes. He’s now more confident in his dribbling and shooting from range. So taking into account the off the ball runs he makes, I’d take him over Ox. Saying that, Ox has really improved his crossing and just needs to be a little more clinical in front of goal. You can tell that he’s learning from Sanchez too. And you’re right about playing regularly, if Ox had an extended run he… Read more »
I haven’t been Theo’s biggest fan during the theatrics related to his contract talks, but maybe you are forgetting how good he really was after that. He finally started to score, and he scored a lot, worked hard, from nothing he regularly created situations leading to big chances/goals, he actually defended. The injury was a great shame, who knows how good he would have been by this time, perhaps on the Aguero’s level.
Nacho had more help in front of him tonight. Rambo and Mik were good – I think having the balance & threat of pace of both Ox and Alexis in thee wide areas helped alot – when its just one side our overload play is alot more predictable
This game is another nail in the coffin for Wilshere and Ramsey to play together.
Nice to see a good performance that yielded a victory after so much misfortune ( united) and stupidity ( anderlecht). I’m hoping wenger can sort us out in the coming month with so many fixtures piling up . It’s time we got into a rhythm and showed some consistency . People say chelsea are gonna win the league but the trophy will be given out only in may. we have time all we need is the confidence and belief
The only team in any sort of position to challenge Chelsea for the league are City. But Chelsea already have a big points advantage, and are currently untouchable in terms of form. I’d be very surprised if they don’t win it. We have already dropped more points than Chelsea look like dropping over the course of the whole season. I expect Chelsea to win with a decent margin to City, who in turn will have a decent margin to third. That third place is up for grabs though, and I reckon we should be able to get there if we… Read more »
Alexis Sanchez scores goals like it’s his job. So fun to watch him do his thing. Nice to see the rest of the team step up and play like Alexis and Alex.
Alexis does crazy things! That goal was crazy! How did he do that?
Scoring goals IS his job.
Why do you only give Monreal a 7.5 if you say he’s had an excellent game, and the best he played as CB? I thought these ratings are per game, not for the overall season. I too thought he played really well, clearly deserving of a higher grade.
Also, how come there’s no little ball near Yaya (as there is for Alexis)? I know he scored from an offside position, but the goal still counted and he played a good game.
Sanogo was tremendous!
It was Sanogo that gave us the impetus in the FA CUP to come back from behind. He’s a good player.
If it was Ronaldo last night, back heel, makes the run. Finishes through the keeper. The commentators and fans would be jizzing everywhere.
He had some fantastic touches!
Alexis Alexis!
I am really upset on Wenger. What have Rosicky, Podolski and Campbell done that they deserve that? I mean Klopp showed yesterday when you do subs. Wenger doesn’t change before 74′ and I don’t know why but it is wrong. Sanogo didnt play since August and Wenger wanted him to play for whole 90 minutes, Ramsey was invisible last 20 minutes as Chamberlain, Alexis is tired and needs rest especially in the last 20 minutes when the injuries come. Arteta as I am impressed with his performances this year I am afraid he isn’t capable to play more then one… Read more »
Yeah, Klopps changes had one hell of an effect!
Looks like 2 of Campbell, podolski and rosicky will leave in January…it looks like sanogo has cemented the position of backup to the HFB for the time being….Welbeck has well much to worry about unless he plays on the wing…
@grannydanger as much he score a goal yesterday {happy for him}, the fact is he get many injuries and he isnt very regular in the scoring chart when giving the chance i doubt he has cemented his place.
considerate his age this is a worry, i would like him to go on loan where he can play more regular to see if he can actually cope with high demand of top fly football .
Why does Worky O’Toole have the legs of a child!?
Poor deformed Worky… :p
Now that we’ve won I really can appreciate the new ratings system.
Thought it a great match to get back on the horse for the team. Looks like the team is starting to gell. And hell….in the first half did you see Alexis faking his defender out of his socks before turning and speeding off? Man!!
Sanogo the real YaYa
Wonder if there print I was there when sanogo scored t shirts ? Just like when John Jensen scored back in the day
Why you got thumbs down is a mystery!!
I bloody loved it when John Jensen scored 😀
Good to see santi “happy feet” back in form. At one point in the match, he showed his dancing feet to tap dance the ball away from a few opposition players. Now get your scoring touch back santi. What better time than against west brom.
My worry is that when Arteta plays we normally have a control we lack without him. Ok the ManU game went against this but we actually played well on the whole in that game.
I’m not his biggest fan at all but he was class against United in the first half. Seemed to lose his cool like everyone else when we conceded though
I thought Gibbs was outstanding last night. A couple of really important tracking back moments in the first half and was solid overall but it didn’t negate his attacking instinct. Thought it was the perfect balance and if he can continue like that I’ll be very happy
1.great performance.
2. Sanchez is a beast
3. Why can’t we play like that more often?
5.what is the point of putting Joel Campbell on for a few minutes?
4. Hopefully, it will kickstart our season so we can get our usual Top 4 position spot
What happened to the bonus ratings? I missed that!
I think Gibbs is turning into a very high quality LB. He is strong defensively, has the pace to recover when he makes the occassional mistake and is really strong going forward. He got low ratings vs Manu shite, but i thought he even did ok in that game. Last night he showed his real qualities again.
Positives : 1) Beating Dortmund. detractors claim they are lying in 16th with no thing to play for in the CL. I would think there is plenty to play for when your form is abject (Imagine us at 16th spot) and topping the group with that form in mind is not forgone (Considering we have closed the gap to 2) When they beat us in dortmund (same score line), they were brilliant, and we could not live with them. When we beat them, its because their key players are out neglecting of course the fact that we had a few… Read more »