The hurt tonight isn’t about what happened at the Stade Louis II, the 2-0 win was a very positive performance. However, it’s all about injury time in the first leg when that goal made it 3-1 to them. That was the killer.
Anyway, here’s how the players rated this evening.
Ozil was magnificent I thought. I just cannot understand the criticism.
Many people are morons.
At some point we have to look at the glaringly obvious. We lost the first leg of Bayern, Milan and now Monaco miserably and always end up trying to play catch-up in the 2nd leg,missing out by a goal. You don’t think Wenger has something to do with that? We’re the ‘almost’ team…almost do enough.
I doubt he tells the team to go out there and defend like idiots.
So he’s responsible when we win but not when we lose? and consistently lose in the same manner in the CL. It’s a lack of concentration, focus and disciplineby the team and who is responsible for that? The buck should stop with him. I’m not saying he’s a bad manager, he’s just not getting the results and there has to be a reason why.
But he doesn’t tell them to go out and defend well.
He can’t manage the game on the pitch, he coaches them to have the right reaction to the situations, so when they flooded forwards leaving us too open at the back he must take some criticism for, if nothing else, failing to drum it into them well enough. However, I don’t think it’s a basic coaching failure, players will make mistakes and hopefully a few more in the squad have now had it drumeed into them that doing stupid shit ends badly.
Only criticism I have for Ozil on the night, and in general is not finishing enough – his finishing needs to improve for someone who finds himself in goal scoring positions as much as he does. He is unfairly criticized for his defensive efforts – he has an overall languid demeanor, which primarily contributes to this perception – that said, he was the one chasing down Monaco the full length of the field in the final two minutes of extra-time to regain possession. He should spend his entire training sessions shooting.
The important aspect everyone leaves out when discussing Arsenal’s failures in the champions league for the last 5 years is that in 3 of those seasons we have played the best team in world football at that time Bayern twice and Barca in 2011. We were never expected to beat them and did better than expected in those ties, we messed up against AC Milan but the 4th we conceded against them was a penalty that shouldn’t have counted otherwise we would have went through. Against Monaco we could have been out of sight by half time in the first… Read more »
I agree, frankly I thought we were excellent all round with only bellerin and alexis slightly off, but still great. the ratings are meant to be for one game and it seems lots of fools have taken into account the previous leg.
Spouting that bollocks about Ospina’s kickin again,get over it.Wenger stuck a fork in Schez he’s done.
Stop getting so het up about this, it’s light-hearted. You can’t keep piggybacking on the top comment just because you’ve got an agenda.
I know, some of the twitter criticism makes you think they were watching a different game or don`t understand football.!
for those of you who follow cricket.
there s a new coq on the block.
thinks he s De Coq but stands no chance against our Coq.
quinton de kock for south africa.
DEEEE!!!! Coq for Arsenal
I hate to say it, but today’s football fan is a lot, lot dumber and it’s mainly localised to these islands whereby running around and doing fuck all for 90 minutes is easier to see for fans who have no concept of the game and it’s complexities than seeing a player who is constantly ghosting around the pitch to find space and recycle the ball, keeping it flowing and moving in the forward direction. I love Alexis, he was tremendous for us at the start of the season, but he will be given a free pass from some possibly warranted… Read more »
I love this comment
Mate, I cannot express in words how much I love this comment. The vitriol towards Ozil has just become Ridiculous these days.
Absolutely spot on! I would also add that a successfull team (and maybe life in general) is all about balance, you require players with different attributes to make that work.
Let’s talk about how he was much better for real Madrid, I wonder if that’s because they spend 80% of their games attacking against mostly far inferior teams… you think? Lol
I want this comment to be seen by the world. And if not the world then at the very least by Savage, Mills, Owen and any other of these baboons in suits that call themselves ‘experts’. Ozil’s stats don’t lie. He is world class.
Don’t ask me why I was on goal.com because it is drab, but they legit had a category at one point dedicated entirely to Ozil and all their articles bagging him. Forget the campaign against Chelsea, there has been a campaign/agenda against Ozil from the second he stepped onto the pitch in an Arsenal shirt. Your comment is brilliant mate. Couldn’t have said it better myself. I just wish more of our fans would open their eyes. If they did they’d see that we’re on the brink of building a tremendously talented and competitive team, and Ozil is at the… Read more »
Thank you!
I think the obvious reasoning behind the pundits’ disgusting laziness in failing to come up with a single new sentence is also because he’s not exactly ‘white.’ They have no problem with Mertesacker and Podolski is loved, but Ozil, of course, not white, Turkish descent, not British, etc. Of course he’s the lazy one, etc., there’s some obvious racial undertone in lots of British commentary I’ve noticed… Correct me if I’m being overly paranoid please, but I can’t help but feel that someone in the media has to start taking responsibility for the way they portray the game – a… Read more »
So how do you explain the free pass given to Walcott for 9 years? Let’s keep it sensible shall we
Because he’s British. Nationalism and racism are not mutually exclusive… Plus there’s a very tangible and real thing where people are averse to being racist towards black people due to social stigma, and yet Asians and ‘Middle Easterners’ are somewhat free targets.
But this is quickly derailing from football so, if the general opinion is that I am being paranoid/ridiculous/*insertexpletive* I shall be more than happy to do so, rather than miserably continuing to believe that my suspicions are reality.
Well said
I’m sorry but some of you ‘fans’ really need to take your Ozil tinted glasses off. He wasn’t bad tonight but he also wasn’t fantastic, he was mediocre and a record signing should be better than mediocre. My favourite bit from him was when he took a free kick with about 5 minutes left, the first defender cleared it back to him but he just stood still & let the Monaco player collect it & run towards our goal. Just because some one criticizes Ozil doesn’t mean they dont know football, it is a game based on opinions & some… Read more »
I love how you put ‘fans’ in your post to signal that we’re not fans, because we are supporting a player in our team against the detractors. As for mediocre tonight, he was well above average, his passing was smart, he created more chances than anyone else and he spent 90 minutes trying to find the right ball through a wall of 11 Monaco players. As you said, it’s a game based off opinions, if that’s the case, feel free to look at the stats and you’ll see that he has become vital to this team, significantly over the last… Read more »
I don’t know it all, but I’m pretty sure the game of football is not based on opinions.
Don’t you see? This is the exact problem with Ozil’s style of play; we simply do not understand it! It’s a point I’ve been trying to make for ages. Anyone who analyses him positively will often use reference the fact that he is “subtle” and that “people don’t understand how well he plays” because in truth they themselves aren’t 100% certain of it. Whereas those who say negative things about him almost always simply become that stereotypical fan who is ignorant of how well he plays. It’s like that article I think arseblog referenced a while back; we simply don’t… Read more »
Lost ya….. and your point is that you cannot tell if or when Ozil is playing well? But that says more about you, than him….. surely.
Probably 🙁 but with most players it’s pretty obvious whether or not they’ve had a good game or not. With Ozil there seems to be a lot more variables. My problem is probably that I rate Messi as the pinnacle of what a footballer can become, and players like Cazorla, Rosicky and Sanchez seem to have many more of Messi’s traits than Ozil does. But of course there are different ways in which a player can be effective – Ronaldo is the second best player in the world and he’s also very different to Messi. I really like that I… Read more »
Well, if you don’t understand the way he plays then any comment will be pretty much just arguing.
Neither can I. He was involved in almost every attack. Exquisite close control, held the ball while under pressure, and on the turn spraying a quick accurate pass… Especially in the last 10 mins and stoppage time where he played some dangerous balls into the box, and that run where he went on to weave between 3 or 4 players was incredible. It was a vintage performance from Ozil. Such a shame we have failed to progress at this stage once again. The better team went out of course but we were just incredibly naive to gift Monaco this tie… Read more »
While I love Alexis and he does not deserve too much criticism ‘in general’ after this match because he is quite clearly burning out due to being over-played, I think his rating for tonight particularly deserves to be lower..
it’s not a lack of effort. Actually, I think he was trying too hard at times to make something magical happen and gave the ball away cheaply. I’ll never blame him for anything because he simply carried this team through the first half of the season.
Think Alexis needs a rest before he gets injured, he deserves it although I would`t think he would want it!!
I mean deserves a rest!
Damn, I down voted you by accident. Damn s*rs fan must have been the other
He probably does need a rest. Fact is though, he’s a high-risk and high-reward style of player. He consistently charges into heavy defending, tries to make the risky pass work, and sometimes holds on to it too long. He did this even when he was carrying the team but his scoring was more consistent. When he’s on scoring and creating form it’s a worthwhile tradeoff for the most part, but I do think his big opportunity for improvement is in passing to maintain possession and pressure before he runs into a crowd of 3-4 defenders. Choosing his time to go… Read more »
Completely agree, if you don’t let him do those take on’s and dribbles then you will lose out on the times when they pay off massively, even last night when he wasn’t at his best, his touch and dribbling earned us freekicks in dangerous areas. Seems like as the season has gone on he is getting the ball in deeper areas and trying to force play a bit whereas at the start of the season he was getting the ball in dangerous areas, taking a few touches and unleashing a shot. I think with the abundance of quality we now… Read more »
if you want to talk about keeping the ball,and passing it around yeah the three midfielders did ok,if you want to talk about making significant impacts on the game, no they didn’t enough, in the end sanchez, got fouled a lot and fell over quite a bit, carzola, held onto the ball well, got out of a few tricky situations with his neat footwork,passed it well, but kept running into the opposition and losing it, ozil kept the ball moving a lot, mainly sideways and also got away from a few tackles, but gave the ball away several times, and… Read more »
Agreed, I love him to bits, he’s easily found his way into the favour of every Gunner with his first half of the season performances. I’d like to see him get a couple of weeks rest to get his energy levels back up as well as his focus, which seems to have gone a bit to the wayside lately. With the exit of Europe, we have Newcastle this weekend and then Liverpool on the 4th April. I’d rest him for the Newcastle game, let Welbeck start in that position and have Ramsey on the other flank, then start him against… Read more »
Alexis should have been taken off at half time. Welbeck was playing better, creating chances and enjoying more penetration. I have said it before but there could be an ongoing dilemma with Sanchez developing. Some weeks ago I made a point which some did not appreciate – that Sanchez did not appear to have been coached much since his arrival (some have since agreed) and now he has lost form it would be hard for the coach/manager to step in and ‘guide’ him back to form as they are essentially starting from zero. Perhaps they should not even try. I… Read more »
I have to disagree you don’t take off alexis in a game like tonight. He has the ability to get a goal from nothing, or beat a player and make a chance, he can even bang in free kicks… He didn’t play well but tonight was not the time to sub/rest him
It is a time to rest him. I believe he has now only scored once in the last 8 games.
If you use your argument you might as well apply it to any forward who has been in form through a period…they could all score at any time.
I can only recall one cross from Sanchez that created an oppotunity in the box yet Welbeck was consistently causing their defense problems.
If Real fans can call for Ronaldo to be subbed I think Sanchez can be rested.
Ozil was our best player. Again.
Upvoted because Ozil was fantastic, but IMO Koscielny was our MOTM, hardly put a foot wrong and had a fighting spirit till the end. Santi was a magician today as well, he had the most touches a player has had for an English club since 2009, gave away possession a bit at first but learned and improved during the game itself.
Agreed, Kos had another fine game tonight. Santi as usual, was terrific.
I hope Piers Morgan dies in a car crash.
Just delete him off Twitter and act like he did, fairly simple really.
His criticism is actually beneficial
Or, you know, you could just block him on twitter and move on with your life? Maybe turn off your phone every now and again? You’re not being forced to listen to him, so if he doesn’t fit your narrative that’s fine – leave him be.
That kind of comment isn’t welcome unless it’s about John Terry.
that really made me laugh out loud, could we include Jose?
Jose is already included by association. As are the rest of the Chelsea players and their mindless fans.
Even John Terry doesn’t deserve to die in a car crash. However, to be horribly embarrassed in a game–yes! As for Piers Morgan, he’s been fired by CNN and that satisfies my grudge against him.
well CNN is trash anyways
If that happened to John Terry, the LOL meter will be a lot less when we win the league in May.
There I have said it.
No way Ozil was that good. Ramsey deserves that spot.
you’ve made your point several times, we know what you think. Although I don’t really think that you think.
70+ thumbs down, clearly you’re wrong.
or this page is full of people with a certain opinion
I understand why Walcott was supposed to come on, but I can’t help but feel that Welbeck may have been more effective in the final 15 minutes given our strategy at that point in the game of lobbing the ball into their box. Oh well. Time to retain our cup and take 2nd in the league!
But then you’re left with the inevitable question of who to take off for Walcott (the most likely player to score) – Ozil, Giroud, Santi, Welbeck or Sanchez? In any other game I think Sanchez would have been off but we needed three goals. Welbeck – as good as he’s been recently – is the least likely to create/score a goal out of those options. It was almost an inevitable sacrifice. And please, please, please, please… let’s cut out the “time to retain the cup”/”at least we’ll win the FA cup” mentality right now. We nearly got buggered last year… Read more »
Are we asserting that a fans complasency has an impact on the psychological preparation of a professional athlete.
I want to see a correlation.
Where is @7amkickoff?
Gutted, so fucking close, yet so fucking far! Hopefully we have finally learnt our lesson this year. Time will tell….
The Ozil stuff is getting silly now, and i am glad blogs has pointed it out.
Santi, COq and Ozil were a great midfield spine tonight, the problems came out wide. People get annoyed when Ozil passes backwards and sideways…it’s because there is NO forward pass on. People are idiots.
Pretty stingy ratings, except for Walcott, remarkably. Thought mostly we were excellent tonight. With a few different decisions / more luck off the woodwork we might have made it through against the odds. Agree Ozil was impressive, though looked like his touch went off a little from tiredness or the desire to make something happen (lots of rapid fire balls in, which though good were less composed than he normally is).
No additional rating? Referee should get a 0/10.
I was quite impressed with him, that missed back pass aside. I don’t think Sanchez dived, just tripped over his own legs, but I can see why it could have looked like a dive.
Nah, the guy went into his side, there was enogh force to justify a penalty but might have been soft. Noone would bat an eyelid if it were given against us.
Away goals rule sucks!!!! No other sport has this nonsense. I’m from North America, but I would think that every neutral in the world thinks this game deserved extra time. They beat us by 2 goals, we beat them by 2 goals; what’s the difference? Argh!!!!! Well done to the Arsenal. You guys did all the fans proud. That silly 3rd goal in the first game…I knew it would be too much. FA Cup and a rush up the standings! Still a great season, especially considering all the injury nonsense. No one wanted to see that boring Monaco team going… Read more »
You know its okay to rate Alexis fairly when he has a bad game, and I think a 6 is pretty generous for him today. He’s not above the team and we don’t have rationalize anything when he has a bad game, as he did today…he’s played his heart out for us this season but he seems to be suffering from some burn out. That is the natural course of a player’s trajectory. I think he lost the ball way too much today and didn’t do much with it when he had it. He’s probably a 4.5-5 for me. Our… Read more »
I seriously don’t understand how Ozil can come in for any criticism, this was arguably one of his best games for us, in the 2nd half especially he gave absolutely everything and if he’s often getting judged for not taking games by the scruff of the neck, surely he done the opposite today! Other then than Bellerin and Coquelin are becoming a joy to watch and thoroughly deserve their places in the team and Cazorla was brilliant as usual but watching Kos absolutely go in for everything and put his body on the line time as time again was reminiscent… Read more »
Despite a couple of hiccups (Monaco at home, Spurs and Southampton at the start of the year), we’ve been playing at a different level, one that gives me great encouragement for our chance in the FA Cup. I also think that if Chelsea suffer another defeat or two between now and the end of the season (hopefully one of which is against us), I quietly see us making a bit of a late ‘out of nowhere’ challenge to the league. Admittedly, it’s a hopeful idea, but the way that our form in the league is and with them having a… Read more »
I totally agree with you. The team is finally beginning to play sumptuous football, reminiscent of Wenger teams of years past
Something to build on. I always get the sneaking suspicion that Wenger’s approach is to let the players manage themselves and then we get a poor first-leg result, he steps in to do some managing and we play a blinder….and fall just short.
I know I’m wrong about this, but it’s hard to feel differently. I’ll shake it off by the weekend. CO CO COYG
Agree with all but one of the ratings.
Sadly think Walcott was a non entity again and for me Welbeck should not have been taken off, so would have given him a 5.
Tearing my hair out re the Ozil comments tonight on TV. Actually think he should have buried the chance that he hit narrowly wide but otherwise thought he was excellent. Scholes has a bit of a vendetta for me with regards to Ozil.
Luckily the commentary I received overseas was Alan Smith… Its been a huge mistake to use this generation of players (Neville (Gary), Scholes and McManaman) as if the public has demanded it. They consistently remark about kicking players out of the game (Phil Nevelle seems to be the only one to take the crticism to heart and improve) and they appear to have a blatant personal agenda regarding certain players. With Ozil, I presume the issue for the likes of Scholes is jealously. He can obviously appreciate Ozil’s game (and will have endlessly pondered what it would have been like… Read more »
It’s not just you. Scholes has made up his mind what he’s going to say about Ozil regardless of the performance. Ozil would have been a prime candidate for one of ‘Scholesey’s Clumsy Tackles’ and he’s just bitter he didn’t get the chance.
But just look at what team all the divey cunts are on these days. I’d like someone to ask how he feels about that.
Really interesting to hear all the diverse commentary about Mesut. Personally, I think he’s the secret weapon that Arsenal have. He, by the virtue of his intelligent running (with the ball and without) and passing is the real groove to this team. He makes it tick. He makes his team mates that much better. I thought his relationship with Ramsey last year was telling, and I can see them picking up where they left off last year now that both are coming into form and match fit. There are others that come to mind etc. One thing that might appease… Read more »
I think it’s his improved strength that matters a lot more than the running around, he did use to get barged off the ball (generally legitmitate challenges, sometimes not) which tends to occupy people’s minds more than the intelligent movement and technique that got him there in the first place. That’s why he’s a better player now imo, anyway.
Scholes has an anti arsenal agenda full stop. How does a man who can barely spit out two coherent sentences get a job as a pundit?
I came here to give Walcott a zero because he had little to no impact. We were playing with a man less because he was hiding behind Giroud in the box instead of providing some needed width. Everyone else was fantastic. Maybe Alexis could’ve done better, but he was fouled every 2 minutes, so I can’t really fault him that much.
We fought gallantly. Once again we fall short. No hard feelings.
This team won’t finish below second in the league if we continue playing like this.
Win the FA cup and if wemake two good signings in the summer, watch this team challenge the football power-houses next season.
I don’t get what’s going on with Walcott, other than hitting the post he done nothing, did he even have more than 3 touches of the ball since coming on! We were practically down to 10 men! I just don’t think he’s good enough for us anymore, every single one of our players are good and comfortable on the ball… Walcotts never been that player! He’s fast, gets in between the lines and was generally a good finisher but even his finishing seems to have abandoned him this season! Id happily take what we can for him and cut our… Read more »
If Walcott can get back to his goalscoring form, I believe he will be a real asset for us. I just don’t see him getting a first place start and when his agent is telling him that he is worth more than £100,000 a week, I’m sure he’ll be telling him that he deserves a starting 11 spot week in and week out. I’d love to see him stay and fight, but he just doesn’t strike me as that sort of player and I can see him pushing for a move and us cashing in on him at the end… Read more »
Exactly as I predicted, we won 2-0 scoring a first half goal and another with 10 minutes to go. However, it does not take a genius to make this prediction. Anyone who has followed Arsenal for the past 3 years only would have made that prediction. In fact not only have we done this against Milan and Bayern but also this season against Stoke. 3-0 down at halftime, we needed 3 goals and guess what, we managed to score 2. It’s noteworthy that like tonight, the second was scored by Aaron Ramsey. Now I know that we were terrible in… Read more »
Guys can somebody please tell me why the fuck was gibbs put on, he did nothing but pass sideways or back.
Why not Gabriel, very good in the air and well able to handle the big defenders, plus taking off welbeck was fucking stupid. We needed tall lads for the last few minutes.
Gabriel is a central defender, how was he suppose to help attacking play.
The five attackers we had in the pitch were responsible for our forward play.
Gabriel really.
Why, because when he comes on , you have a choice of pushing mert, kos or gab upfront and using him like the orchs use crouch, thats why. We needed strong lads for the last 15 or so but instead we keep the ball out around the midfield passing with no end product. Why not lump the fucking thing into the box and see if theres a break maybe a knock down just MIGHT fall to one of ours for a fucking change.
Look maybe emotions are still too high to come on here and start talking about it.
Won’t be right for days after this.
Goodnight everyone.
Bonus 0/10 to the ever-infuriating Andy Bellend for saying at the beginning of the match that Özil shouldn’t have been in the starting line-up. I’d rather watch the game in pure silence than have that absolute Derek ramble on from one nonsensical bleat to the next.
Oh and Walcott was brought on upfront to play next to Giroud, quite clearly too.
But he is the scapegoat de jour ofc.
If the game lasted 90 minutes tonight we would have won. Thanks ref.
I marked Özil less than others as he still had that exasperating shrug when a pass goes astray and the lack of trying to get it back. In the second half he was the man we paid big money for, working with Santi and Rambo, some exquisite passing and the ball to Nacho sublime.
The Home Leg: The moment The Ox lost that ball at the Emirates after scoring he’s fabulous goal at 2:1, I tweeted, “the Ox gives and the Ox takes it away” that 3:1 scoreline will be the end of us, The Away Leg: And to be honest The Ox would have been the ideal player tonight with 15 minutes to go to dribble in the penalty box at The Monacians . The Monaco players were puffing and fatigue at 75 minutes. Theo bless him is low in confidence and his contibution was limited. I thought Santi was super I thought… Read more »
This was a game when we should have had Podolski, banging them goals in at 100mph, I’m serious when we dominate a game such as this, It’s always good to have a deadly shooter like him. I rather have Podolski than Walcott as a supersub.
Ozil is really a humble lovable guy but he is no word class football player. Maybe it’s time we let go all the conspiracy theories on how,somehow, Ozil controlled and dictate the game with a trace. His supposed( and really rare) excellent outings are average at best when compared what Cesc used to do when he was here. Besides, we are arsenal – we may not know much about Defenders but we could talk all day about creative midfielders and Ozil is just a decent no.10 whatever the stats may say. Am not saying he is a flop but he… Read more »
Sorry, you are entitled to your opinion but I can`t agree with you. Most of our positive play involves Ozil, did tonight and has done since he came back from injury. How can he be a flop?
Yes Cesc is a good player BUT he is struggling at the moment.. is he now a flop?
“Ozil is just a decent no.10 whatever the stats may say. Am not saying he is a flop but he is a flop. Let’s admit we overpaid for him”
Quite possibly the single most unintelligent thing I’ve read on this site today.
batman called. you’re fired.
Ozil and Cesc are different players. They play differently. They play different positions. They find spaces differently. One is left footed, the other is right footed. Ozil leads breakouts along the wings and floats laterally across the pitch in the attacking half. Cesc with that team is more a deeper lying playmaker while others do full AM duties. I don’t know what the hell he did with Barfa because that league bores me. Long story short, direct comparisons between ‘the good old days’ players and the ones we have now just do not make sense. The only people that looked… Read more »
I’d actually put that down as one of our best performances of the season, even though we’ve scored more in other games and ended up going out on the night. Really impressed with pretty much the entire team, we just gave ourselves too much to do in the first leg. Maybe we’ll learn that lesson next year (assuming we qualify, which I believe we can). Maybe. Ozil had a cracking game, but Bellerin impressed me the most, defended brilliantly (he dealt with that situation where he was the only defender between the attacker and the goalie perfectly, looked much more… Read more »
Personally felt Walcott was the sort of player who could grab us two quick goals early on first half. Let him do the business and then take him off. As the game wore on and us getting closer to a positive result, Monaco would only become more entrench and less likely to cede space. That said, we bit off more than we could chew because we were negligent first leg. Opportunity missed this time which is what is so galling. Still I do not feel this team is close to being able to go all the way in the CL… Read more »
Imho.there was too much overelaboration in the box.It was one pass too many.
Btw,some of the gunners were guilty of giving the ball away under pressure.
Against a swift counter attacking team like MU,it could have been curtains.
Anyway I am proud of the gunners performance and hopefully they can finish 2nd/3rd.
It was a valiant effort… again. It’s a shame it all felt so inevitable. Hopefully next year we’ll learn to keep it tight in the first leg if we’re behind.
We scored 2 goals against a really stingy defence so that’s a massive positive to take away from the game and bring in to the rest of the season. Just hope the heartache doesn’t effect the team too much and that it’s a lesson learned by all
Great team performance. Kos was immense. Was on my feet applauding for minutes after Ramsey’s goal. Annoyed we couldn’t vary our play with early whipped crosses and shots from OUTSIDE the box, but we systematically subdued them physically and technically. Alexis is battered from good ol’ 1st season syndrome (and he’s not the only player in the league who’s gone off the boil after a storming first half of a post-WC season). He’ll be monstrous next season. His style of play set a high standard for the rest of the team and we’ve been better for it. Newcastle will be… Read more »
Alas, here’s where a Podolski may have been useful to throw into the mix last 10 minutes.
Feel if we do lose (let go) of Walcott in the summer that we should add a quasi-striker/winger with some experience./creativity
Granted Akpom, and Campbell (depending on loan performance) may push for this role but if they are not ready, then maybe someone from market can be an unknown but with wicked skills and predatory finishing.
I#m keeping my fingers crossed for Reus, pie in the sky but it would be perfect.
Giroud is top class. His performance in this game cemented that. Wrestling Monaco’s muscle heads on top non stop the whole game & get his goal.
Ozil & Santi, wow, I don’t think they can feel their own legs after this game. Really gave their all to the team.
I’m sad that we’re out, but also proud of the display. As everybody has pointed out, the fault is in the first game. Not in this one.
Great effort from The Arsenal tonight. The first leg was very much the exception when considering our current form. In reality I doubt we would have had much chance of winning the Champions League even if we did pull it off tonight. I have no idea why Walcott was tucking in and standing on the defender when the game was begging to be stretched across the pitch. He offers little or no threat in the air and he was not making any clever or decisive runs in behind his marker. He did not look like a man desperate to make… Read more »
So close and had some good chances (Welbeck’s shot blocked by the defender,Ozil’s free kick, the Giroud/Sanchez blunder, etc.) and were unlucky in some respects, but also did ourselves in at times with too many overrunning the ball and then our turning it over, not being very effective with our crosses (not sending them far enough and also no runs to the front post in front of the defender) and a number of bad turnovers when easy passes were available (esp in our half by Sanchez and Carzola). Good effort though by everyone and it wasn’t for lack of trying.… Read more »
If we have to lose Walcott, we need a more creative player who can also play second striker.
Someone like Paulo Dybala comes to mind. Possibly Greizzman. Maybe Cabella rehabilitated but he is a little on the small side. A tricky player that can poach goals.
Played way too narrow towards the end. Ramsey ended up playing as a right winger for the last 10 minutes because there was no space in the middle. If Walcott sat on the right touchline and Sanchez on the left, then the goal would have inevitably came. Very good performance, but lacked mentality to finish the job. After the second goal, they were there for the taking.
Should have been 2-0 up by half-time with the Alexis penalty and Giroud’s pirouette goal. Every single time Alexis managed to shrug off a few minor fouls and hit the ground the referee would gesture to get up and I’d swear loudly. We didn’t deserve to through over two legs but I felt we did enough to get the 3-0 on another day. 7/10 times a game like today would have resulted in at least 3 maybe 4 goals. We didn’t turn on fully until 30 minutes into the first half and Monaco did the exact opposite at the start… Read more »
Scholes is a moron. “Ozil disappointing”. And that’s it, no reason why. Despite Mesut being a lynchpin in us controlling the midfield. Yeah great fucking punditry you worthless ginger cunt.
Quite amazing how Scholes, who is such a brilliant player, can sprout so much shite about Ozil.
Its an easy narrative for them to be honest and requires less effort than proper analysis.What I’d like to hear from Scholes, who was a top player, would be what Ozil might think about doing better etc.The level of TV punditry is sadly almost uniformly shit. He did the give the ball away at times but trying to pass through a forest of players is never easy. It really wasn’t a game for Walcott come the end to be fair but he does seem to be stationing himself too much at the edge of the box looking for that run… Read more »
He is a tedious bellend with no personality at all. Quite why he’s on TV spouting his nonsensical, ill-informed bollocks I’ll never know. My favourite comment was his outrage at Ozil swapping shirts at half time. Yeah, cause Mesut went up to Geoffrey fucking Kondogbia and said “‘scuse me mate, can I have your shirt, I’m a big fan”. Piss off, manc cunt.
Some of the criticism Ozil receives is completely unfair. He was absolutely brilliant! I know he probably couldn’t care less about what people like that ginger nut Paul Scholes have got to say about him but it really irks me!
Just wanna say Giroud was fantastic. He showed exceptional desire to win today. Never stopped running, never stopped trying, never gave up.
Na na na nanana na. Nanana na. GIROUD
Özil had a better game today. I feel his improvement rate is steadily and slowly improving. Rly hope Sanchez gets a rest, form is not so good now, but class is permanent form is temporary. Walcott isn’t involved in team play at the moment, would have podolski over Walcott. Just my thoughts.
Don’t know if I should call you (arseblog) lazy or smart but i must say i was a little annoyed about having to see you put the same ratings here on espn. I was really looking forward for a little variation when i came here.
Err… it was the same match.
Agree with most part just think it will be Coq, Ramsey and Cazorla in the middle, and front three of Giroud Ozil and Welbeck
Is it just me really feeling the Walcott hate? He had what, 20 minutes? Time and time again saw him in good positions (acres) with no one wanting to find him…
A lot of talk about Ozil’s ‘ghosting/positioning’ that your average fan can’t see. I agree his positioning is amazing, but you see his and not Walcott’s? Very strange for me Jeff
Apart from the obvious frustration that a really decent away win counts for nought because we simply didn’t turn up for the first leg, I have to say I am really impressed with the development of several key players. Bellerin & the Coq have come in for deserved praise but I’ve also been really impressed with Nacho Monreal lately. He’s progressed leaps and bounds compared to the often nervy and desperate defender he was last season. I complained about him last season but credit where it’s due. Kudos Nacho!
cant believe he has hardly been mentioned but how good is monreal? solid, old-school, well positioned fullback. santi and co trust him up front more than theo and some others. he’s become a very solid player
Arsenal did really good today as a whole. Great defending away from home and constant pressure on the home team, and we scored two goals, and kept the home team begging for the ref to blow the final whistle. What else can we ask for?? Although I teared up a bit at the end, I was more proud to be an Arsenal fan.
Obviously, if we’d played this way in the first game, the Monegasques would be the ones crying in their beer. But now we can concentrate on the FA Cup and on snagging 2nd place.