A 1-0 win gave us very welcome three points, but as a performance it wasn’t one to assuage any of the fears we might have about the way this season is unfolding.
Here’s how the players rated.
News
Monday, December 23, 2024
A 1-0 win gave us very welcome three points, but as a performance it wasn’t one to assuage any of the fears we might have about the way this season is unfolding.
Here’s how the players rated.
That OG looks a quality signing.
To be fair, Wenger did ask for a few more goals from different players, this season.
I think it’s nice that other teams are offering to help out . . .
haha, great one!
i still think we should have started with Giroud against a back 2 he has bullied in the past.
Giroud has never played against a center back pairing of Collocini – Mbemba. Mbemba signed for them this year from Anderlecht.
Giroud couldnt bully his way out of a paper bag. But to be fair we dont play to his strength which is converting crosses not pretty triangles through the middle
Same with theo early ball through or over not patient side to side tippy tappy. Come on wenger sort it out.
Alexis for striker
This is so wrong it’s amazing.
Giroud’s strength IS triangles around the box. He does it better than any CF in his mold in the world.
For a big guy he is both surprisingly adept at the flicks and triangles and surprisingly bad at putting himself about the way big CFs usually do.
May i suggest you watch all of his goals including his last top scoring season in france. Then enjoy eating your words.GOALS.
And his only goal this season v palace from a cross….
Chippy’s Chip, those triangles in/around the box relate more to link-up and team play so wouldn’t turn up on highlights of goals scored. See that Wilshere goal against Norwich, then the similar one Giroud set up for Rosicky a few games later. His short passing and one-touch awareness are not far off that of Ozil and Wilshere, which for a striker is freakish. And his strong history of bullying defenders can be seen in the ways he got those 4 in 2 against Newcastle last season. He has his deficiencies but you’ve managed to pick on the exact two aspects… Read more »
That is the way wenger wants to play and yes he can join in with fliks and one touch passes BUT he is a striker who scores goals from crosses or if it sounds better to you passes from flanks. Check his goals.
I am not knocking giroud just think we need some variation in build up play earlier longer balls to forwards or getting some bloody width.
I hate to be the spelling nit-picker guy, but the chap who’s leading them team in scoring is:
Owen Gohal.
It’s only pronounced like “Own Goal”. Don’t fall into the trap of getting our new scoring machine mixed up with the statistic the type of goal scored. He’s due his stats and his weekly wage!
we need a striker ….. dont know where from or the cost , but its clear to everyone with a football brain that Aguero , lukaku , rooney . benteke etc would go a long way to winning us the league
Rooney, did you say?
Arsenal need a striker is a fact because both Giroud and Walcott should have scored
If Walcott’s three chances had fallen to Giroud, he would have scored at least one. Thought Giroud did more work in the 20 mins he pkayed than Forest Gump did in 70. Sign da ting? Rather wish he hadn’t.
They both aren’t showing promises yet, seeing that OG is scoring more goals. Not Olivier Giroud by the way.
He’s done it again…. Wenger has unearthed yet another gem -. Own Goal – already our top scorer…
TGSTEL is quaking in his boots fearing for his legacy.
Wow. That was easily the most depressing performance I’ve ever seen. Atrocious stuff. Mid way I was praying the match ends quickly coz I was having a headache watching us do nothing against ten men.
Hopefully this is the last time I have see Walcott play striker for us. Shocking performance
Ps: OG feels like a new signing for us 😀
First of all. Heathrow has some ‘airport policy’ against showing football. What a #### of Shit. Secondly, my mobile stream looked like 11 red pixels vs. 10 dirty blobs, so it’s difficult to rate played individually.
What can we learn from this? Heathrow terminal five sucks and we got three points on the board. Onwards and upwards (and please sign a striker).
What a what of shit i’m dying to know
A Tottenham of shit. What else!
I think onwards and upwards is your day’s itinerary and not Arsenal’s trajectory.
Nacho and Gabriel were the shit today.
Hope people see the the
The The? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-32AAp418V4
Fucking brilliant band. Matt Johnson is anti EVERYTHING.
Monreals half volley back to Alexis after a skewed corner deserved to be an assist. Channeling his inner Ozil.
That was great
nacho yes. gabriel no
i mean macho was hopeless and gabriel was good
I mean lollo was hopeless and Gabriel and Nacho were good.
Kozza was quality too, even going over half way and playing good passes into the box, did it on like 2 or 3 occasions including the goal, not sure why he wasn’t told to do it more because every time he did it opened up space and Newcastle didn’t know how to deal with it. Adams used to do it a lot, then Keown, Vermaelen as well, something we really need to use more when playing against teams sitting so deep, especially against 10 men, Coquelin just slots in, simple way to create space through the middle which we are… Read more »
Gabriel was my BOG tbh. Not as involved as say Monreal but he dealt with every single thing that came his way perfectly.
BOG?
Özil silent as always.
Yeah he had a really quiet game. Is that what we get for 42 million?
The difference when Arteta came on was noticeable. We look so much more coherent when he plays, and his calmness from deep seems to flow through the team. We desperately need someone to replace him who can play 40 games this season, much more than a striker.
I’d like to see a coquelin-arteta midfield some point (CoqArt?). I know I might get some stick for it, but Arteta is surely still our best player at controlling the ball from deep, possibly cazorla not withstanding. Midfield doesn’t really seem such an issue though, either way, surely the problems are much higher up than that? If Walcott and Giroud had buried their respective chances we’d be looking at a 4-0. We can’t keep relying on Owen Gole to perform at this level for the rest of the season.
MOTM? The clock, maybe? It did its job very well.
Andre Marriner for refusing to let Newcastle bully us to drop points.
I know the BT Sport people said it a lot, but he really was excellent today, penalty notwithstanding. Credit where it’s due.
Interesting because I was listening on 5 Live and they made out that he had a real “day to forget”. Then again the two commentators were so anti arsenal it was barely listenable… Constantly taking about tippy tappy football, having a moan about coquelin going down injured too much (after by all other accounts being kicked senseless all game), and worst of all hearing the joyful emotion in their voice when talking about the 4-4. Really put me in a bad mood, Danny Murphy has gone high up my list of insufferable cunts.
It wasn’t Danny Murphy (who is only a minor vagina but DANNY FUCKIN MILLS WHO IS A MAJOR CUNT!!!
Give MOTM to Krul. He deserves it.
Good news is, we got the week-end match out of the way early so we can concentrate on transfers. There’s not much time left to bring in a goal scorer.
I would have liked to see our performance without the man advantage. On the other hand for a while it looked like we might get a 2 man advantage. Which would have been tasty.
As people on here know, I’m a big Walcott fan. But there’s no getting round it, he’s been poor and he needs to sort it out. On a complete different wavelength from the rest of the team. At the same time our midfield aren’t even trying to feed him, Giroud gets a lot more support
As people on here know… Do they? Who are you?
Criticizing a differing opinion is one thing, but that’s just plain trollish.
Usually he makes good runs but every time I saw him today he was standing still. Not good enough.
That’s on the whole team, though. Everyone seems like they are on a different wavelength.
don’t you know, he is consistent in patches. some of these are goalscoring patches, some of them are patches of shit.
the most unconvincing player on the team, now that Gibbs is on the bench where he deserves to be. Tries to be like Henry with his leg stabs, but like we saw today, shins or otherwise misdirects. Love how he sometimes slowly comes in from the wing like he is a crouching tiger. We see you theo! and so does the opposition.
I’m not sure that the midfield are to blame for Walcott not receiving enough service. Giroud is much better at getting involved and finding space to receive the pass and initiate one-twos, but at the moment not much else. Watching Walcott constantly try run between the lines in a deep-lying defense is for sure infuriating, and he seems to expect the midfield to thread the needle every single time he makes a run (which maybe Ozil and Wilshere are the most adept at doing). But even when Walcott was dropping deep to get more touches on the ball, his positioning… Read more »
You must be watching different game and team to me. You always seem to big up Ramsey. I and two friends who all watched seperately then texted how poor he was. Slow, trying his silly fucking flicks and that simple pass to ox early on was awful. He don’t stop running about I’ll give you that but then so did Brian Talbot
Perhaps there’s an element of seeing what you want to see – and I don’t mean just you. If a player isn’t a favourite we all tend to look at the negatives rather than the positives. I wasn’t even bigging him up, he didn’t get the highest mark or anything, and he was more likely than most to make something happen.
But yeah, I agree he could be more efficient on the ball at times.
I agree as well. But to be fair he was also awarded MOTM by who ever gives that Barclays MOTM award
They had to give it to somebody, and I suppose he did more than most.
Savage and that fool Hoddle awarded man of match. I wouldn’t take much notice. The back was not troubled so only candidate I think was coq. Just for debate sake, the Ramsey was very good and exceptional in some games, he was also shite in a few more but popped up with winner and everyone walked away laughing and couldn’t believe this player that most if not all were slating the year before kept scoring and getting assists. He is a good player though not good enough
Ramsey wasn’t at his best but if as an AM you create 5 chances for teammates, the most on the pitch, I’d say he wasn’t “shit” but actually rather effective. Missing one pass but making a fair few others a shit game does not make. It seems to me you don’t really like Ramsey to begin with which is fine, but I don’t think you can say he was “shit” for this game. He was better than most, but probably not the best on the pitch – MoTM for me goes undoubtedly to Nacho Monreal, the perennially underrated one. Oh… Read more »
Ramsey is unquestionably one of the best midfielders in the league off the ball. There’s also clearly room for him to improve on it.
While people criticise our midfield for all being too similar, he provides genuine variation. We’re all frustrated when it doesn’t work, but I don’t see anyone else battering down the door as a better option right now.
Ramsey wasn’t at his best, but even when he’s not, he creates so much and looks like scoring. When he gets to full match fitness he will be our most important player again. You can’t judge him on one poor pass in first 2 minutes of game.
Maybe if you didn’t focus on the negative you would realise all the positive stuff he did in the game. If he was poor, then Alexis was worse. But, nobody criticises him though.
Admit it, Ramsey has become the scapegoat of all our troubles upfront.
That’s Giroud. I just hate how undisciplined Ramsey is. He really should work on that.
I disagree – undisciplined is lashing a shot from no angle into the roof when you had playable options. Undisciplined is standing around the back defense, watching balls being slowly moved around you while you do nothing to press them. Ramsey might be adventurous at times, but he’s also a prolific player in terms of actions on the pitch, more often than not doing things by-the-book. It’s like people are eager to punish him every few chances he takes, and on the occasion he does turn over the ball, it’s not usually in a dangerous area. I don’t understand –… Read more »
You are just another Giroud hater but he does some important things in that team. Maybe he is not that efficient but he is our best striker and one of the best all round strikers in the world. But with that hate from fans in his back are just making him worse. If you had that kind of confidence in Giroud, Ozil, Monreal, Mertesacker than you have in Ramsey, Alexis… would be nice. It is not Giroud’s fault we are not scoring. And how can you say Ramsey is disciplined and Giroud not? Discipline means that you are doing things… Read more »
I love Giroud, I think he’s an excellent CF, but when he’s off his game he’s undisciplined, just like when many footballers struggle to impact a game. Ramsey attempts things to go forward – you call it undisciplined because you think he has 0 chance to pull it off. We saw him pull many things off in ’13-’14. Also please show me in the games where Ramsey’s runs forward left the midfield so poorly exposed that he should have never run forward in the first place. you’re just a Damsey hater… maybe? I don’t really know what’s the point of… Read more »
And Ozil.
A bit of a triumvirate of goats.
Created most of our chances today. Certainly didn’t turn water into wine but neither did the Ollie & Wally Co.
“then texted how poor he was” ….shoulda texted “1-0 to the Arsenal”
Good result but our performance is concerning again. I don’t know whether it comes down to arrogance or naivety but we look so lethargic around the oppositions box. Always looking for that extra touch instead of trying to shoot. We may of got the result today but there is no focal point to our attack which unless we sign a top striker will be our downfall. On the plus side our defence looked solid. I really hope Gabriel establishes himself in the team now, as he allows us to push higher forward and put more pressure on the opposition.
What a load of turd. We need a striker but more importantly some frigging width.
First time in ages we started with 2 widemen and they fanny about going through the middle
Agree. Really strange match from the Ox. He had been doing so well before this one, staying wide and then giving the fullback hell. This match he was popping up in the middle where he seems much less effective. It’s hard to know whether the team was sticking to the previous tactics – getting Bellerin up the line – or if Ox just doesn’t recognize his own strengths.
He played exactly the same way against West Ham, about 10 yards too deep and 10 yards to narrow. I’d actually like to see Walcott play wide as at least he sticks to the touchline. At the moment the team is looking to be playing far to off the cuff, indisciplined and without shape.
Please…the Ox’s positioning was dubious but then so was Sanchez. Both pacey attacking wingers drifted into center the entire game. Either it was tactics ( deliberate) or a lack of tactics (happenstance) but in either case there seemed to be no attempt to address the problem.
One good thing, Ramsey letting one and all know ‘being busy’ does not make an Ozil. We have serious issues and no apparent leadership or direction to resolve them. Thank god for the international break…with any luck we’ll stumble into good form once we return.
And yet he created the most chances of anyone on the pitch today. Playing as an AM, sounds pretty damn busy to me DFS, doesn’t it?
Absolutely, Sanchez is also not sticking to his position either, thats what i meant when i said the whole team is playing without shape and indisciplined. With of course Ramsey being by far the worst culprit. I can only assume its the manager who wants them to play that way as there never appears to be instruction from the touchline to do otherwise or change style. I think Wenger wants this fluid 3 behind the striker but at the moment it’s just a complete mess, mainly because i don’t think our players are technically good enough or have the brain… Read more »
Loved the bonus rating. 🙂
Gabriel really impressing even though he didn’t have much to do today. Coquelin continues bossing the midfield and Ramsey was good today. not a great performance, but we looked very assured defensively and dangerous going forward (better finishing needed obviously).
Well summarized
Really do not follow the rationale regarding Ramsey. Ramsey was busy as always, okay. However, Ramsey led the attack as a No 10 and this was one of the most stultifying matches we’ve watched in a long time, Arsenal literally had no ideas. Regardless of whatever uninspired pre-game talk the players received, we needed (need) a take charge player anywhere in attacking midfield to drive forward play (in the manner Coquelin bosses midfield and I am beginning to believe Gabriel can in defense). Ramsey has energy to burn, can score a cracking goal but I’m sorry to say, lacks football… Read more »
What the hell are you going on about, I’ll say this AGAIN as I just saw your other ludicrous comment above but Ramsey created the most chances at St James’ Park and as an AM that’s what you want from them. Since “that” season he hasn’t done any goal scoring or assisting? How the hell is a CM then our 3rd top scorer and 3rd top assister despite missing about 3 months combined last season!? Listen Ramsey has his flaws as does everyone, but he is an effective player. You might not like him and that’s fine but at least… Read more »
Walcott is not a striker
Giroud is not good enough
Welbeck can’t finish
title winners they said
Our new shiny strikers: Belief and Faith, are not world class at all. Maybe we should get them exchanged while the T-window’s still open or perhaps send them on a loan. Thank the Lord we managed one goal..(or not).
Oh Bendtner… Why did you leave… We really need a clone of TGSTEL
At this point, I’d happily see three second-tier strikers come in and see who floats, rather than fixate on one unobtainable player like Benzema, because if it gets to Wednesday and the boss says we tried, then I cannot support that logic.
But what kind of logic suggests 3 second tier strikers coming in?!
Yeah thats not logical when we already have them.
Isn’t that the very thinking that has landed us in the situation we’re right now?
Wenger bought Podolski, Giroud and Welbeck since RvP left to try and replace him. All a level below, none able to.
What did we win with RVP?
Glad we got the win, but man, all this possession and passing and only one goal, obvious signs we need a striker. Theo just is’t looking threatening in the center.
Bonus rating -10/10: Robbie Savage.
Came in and played the Michael Owen role to perfection this afternoon.
Walcott predictably is not a striker
Some People/critics got there wish today. No Ozil, Ramsey in the middle and Theo and Ox starting…. Not much difference.. Infact we were probably worse going forward than against liverpool.
Walcott and Giroud have personally taken it upon themselves to convince Wegner to buy a striker
To be fair, I think we were unlucky a bit with the team selection. You don’t expect Newcastle to sit so deep at home – even before the sending off. Really missed Özil in a game like that.
Then the sending off, and we’ve got Theo in instead of Giroud – really doesn’t suit Theo’s game. With the benefit of hindsight, I think Wenger would’ve started Giroud.
Ramsey is a great player, but he is no Messi. He should stop trying to do impossible things. Yes, he has scored some wonder goals for Arsenal, but I would take 10 regular goals over 3 wonder goals.
In a nutshell.
Alexis shouldn’t play the first game till september. He isn’t ready yet imo. I think that he was pushed so quickly back won’t do any good to him even though he looked good in training but he needs rest since last year.
That’s all panic man management by our gaffer.
I have a very bad feeling it runs a little deeper than that. I think Sanchez is looking around asking himself what the hell is going on….?
Does anyone else think Gabriel should keep his first team place? He looks class….Gabrielny all the way!
Played a beauty of a long diagonal up to Alexis at one point, and he looks like he’ll win some headers on attacking corners and set pieces.
He is so quick aswell and that affords Koscienly abit of security to bombard forward (play a good pass or two..like today) Knowing unlike Mert, Gabriel would be speeding for cover.
Agree, i think when Gabriel polish his English, Gabriel – Kos will be better then Per – Kos
You have brought out a very important point missed by many from the last 2 games: the fact that the CBs (and thus the team in the other half) can and have played high up the pitch against ‘Pool and Newcastle – largely bcoz Mert, for all his pluses, tends to push the whole team back against even poor opponents.. Yesterday, even against a 10-man Newcastle, we could clearly see all the problems of our MF and attack and for once, not harp on the defenders.. There are big worries here apart from Coq, who, if he keeps up this… Read more »
The contract extension to Theo is gonna cause us long term problems.
Since neither of our striker can do the job on their own here’s a new idea(sarcasm) for our manager,play the both together.
Quite disheartening to see the amount of praise today for AOC, good to see sanity prevail here. BBC, BT etc are fawning over him like he was Messi. With 4 dispossession and multiple (6?) times losing control of the ball (unforced) and again causing us to lose impetus AND fall victim to another anti-AOC counter attack… very frustrating.
Just as some have joked that OG signed for us, who is AOC secretly playing for?
Them going to 10 meant it was not going to be set up for Theo as they parked it. The attack made noticeably more sense with Giroud’s introduction despite the sitter, but that’s the running narrative, so I guess that’s the story of the day.
Once again Arteta’s cameo proves how much he composes deep midfield control and he will continue to prove how important he is to the squad.
Hahahahaha cya chelshit
Not really satisfied when we win, but really happy to see Chelsea and Mourinho loose
Coquelin 6.5? I understand that DMs are hard to pinpoint in terms of their direct positive influence on a game, but surely he deserves more than that. I’d be interested to see the By The Numbers, but he seemed to win a lot of turnovers, intercepted, won tackles, and drew goodness knows how many fouls. Other than his off-game on the opening day, he has been such a consistently solid presence in front of the defense this season, and if we are to have any chance of challenging for the title, it’s performances like today that will contribute immensely. All… Read more »
Sell Theo and get some class in asap
Couldn’t agree more…Walcott just not progressing into the player (Henry) I hoped he’d become. Heard somewhere Ibrahimovic was allowed to leave PSG. Can’t help but think he might do a job for us over the next few seasons….especially in and around the box.
Koscielny and Monreal men of the match.
I really don’t like how Walcott gets excused of a poor game because ”Its not his type of game” Guess what teams defending deep against pace is not a new tactic. It is basic 101 against pace…All this does is expose Walcotts lack of Ability at everything else. I really like Theo and he COULD and has been an effective player for us BUT he will NEVER be a good footballer. Thus never be the striker we need…The guy has been at Arsenal since 16 yet he has seems to barely learned anything. Very VERY limited player….He should be terrorizing… Read more »
I don’t know who has excused him, but them going to 10 meant it went from a bad fit to worse, as the game was more open, end-to-end until that point making counters more likely. If you saw my comment above it simply was long-winded saying we were better with Giroud on. It’s a very rare match setup that fits Theo in that spot, so rare I don’t think it’s worth bothering except perhaps as a a sub to change it up. He’s best from the right, pushing a high line. Today he wandered around in the middle when we… Read more »
That is my point though…The fact that a player can be rendered completely useful because the OTHER team LOST a player…Its ridiculous and a excuse to hide the fact that Theo just isn’t a good footballer..Why is is such a bad thing to say this..Does not make him less EFFECTIVE when playing well or utilized correctly…Nothing he has shown me says he will be a striker.The days of Pace being everything has gone. If this was 15 years ago Walcott would be Michael Owen but its not..Literally has to play against a high line or he is invisible. Granted Wenger… Read more »
No disagreement from me, he’s not a central striker. I do think he has a better chance to be useful in this type of match from the wing though. Pre ACL he was starting to combine well with Giroud, and his extra pace might’ve gotten around their left back or at least forced him wider to make space. I kept wanting him to drift wide today to at least make space if he’s not getting touches. Expensive space though. Ox and especially Ramsey drift right over to the middle and left when all our play stacks up over there, Theo… Read more »
i think theo’s has had his chance. don’t get me wrong, i’ve always liked him, but unless opposition teams are really poor and open, he’s going to struggle. for all of his lack of pace, inaccuracy, giroud contributes much more. i’m afraid wenger has overpaid for walcott’s services although i respect wenger for not letting him go to a rival unlike previous years. what i’d like is him to finish the transfer window in a flourish. heck, it doesn’t even have to be a striker or a DM. looking at today’s game, we need another small, creative player 🙂 remember,… Read more »
Mr. Blogs sums everything up in his bonus: “Bonus rating: 10/10 to Theo and Giroud – such is their commitment to the team they wanted to hammer home the point to the boss that we need another striker.” Also, I think Arsenal needs to hire SAF to teach Wenger how to put the fear of God into the players at halftime. Our guys definitely needed a fire lit under them this game.
To put things simply, Wenger started Theo to use his pace between the lines which looked like working early doors, the red card changed that, the space closed up and we needed to use the width more, with the mags much more compact and sitting back…we didn’t, some chances in the first half Giroud could have put away, when he came on, a couple of opportunities presented themselves that suited Theo better, it’s one of those things. A pen in the first 10 and no red card, would have suited us much better!
Thanks for the praise but judge me after 10 games.
Even got his head in the right place. Top man.
God we were shite today, can only get away with it for so long. We cant start Santi and Ramsey together.
The Gunners definitely needed a fire lit under them today. Maybe Arsenal needs to hire SAF to coach Wenger in how to deliver Hellfire & Brimstone bollockings at the half?
Walcott played today? Hardly saw him out there, typically hiding behind Colocinni. I’ve never seen a striker get as few touches in a match as he does (same thing last outing). If Ozil were healthy I would have liked to have seen Sanchez at striker instead of Giroud as Walcott just does get involved enough where Sanchez will be constantly look to get open in front of the central defenders. I know we have Welbeck returning, but other than a few moments late last Spring Wenger has to see we need help at striker after yet another toothless performance from… Read more »
Monreal was un re al!!!
Theo is shit.
He’s fast, that’s it. No tricks no vision, no composure, no skill and hasn’t developed since he was 15.
140 grand a week is a joke for a player with his lack of talent.