Most definitely not the start to the Champions League season that we wanted. 10 man Arsenal, after Olivier Giroud’s red card, went down 2-1 to the home side, and it was frustration all round.
Here are our one-work player ratings because, frankly, none of them really deserve us thinking up much more than that.
One word for the ref: Paid.
I thought that at first, then I realized the ref team was just shockingly bad all around. It was just a coincidence that it benefitted Zagreb almost every time for the first half of the game. Later in the game we started getting bad calls in our favor too.
One of the worst team performances by a reffing team I’ve ever seen but that’s not why we lost the game. We lost the game because Giroud is dumber than a box of rocks.
Not the refs fault Giroud is an emotional trainwreck.
if he runs his fingers through his ronaldo inspired fuckin hair one more time!
It seems that Giroud is mentally fragile despite his repeated claims of having mental strength. Again he wasted the boss’ trust in him at the expanse of the team. After this game, he only got himself to blame if he sits on the bench.
Well done Theo. Keep improving your shooting.
That was one good comment!!! Great..
Giroud yellows were soft, but Ospina should have been sent off for that challenge and someone else (can’t remember who) was on a yellow card and should have had another. We could have easily had 1 or 2 more players sent off.
We played like school kids…
Campbell, it was. We could have finished that game with eight players. Or, more properly, we SHOULD have finished with nine. Giroud should never have been sent off, but Ospina and Campbell both should have been. But it wasn’t just the discipline decisions that the crew got wrong. It was everything! Consistently, free kicks were given in the wrong direction (case in point – Giroud was fouled, he didn’t commit one before the first yellow), fouls were not given at all when they occurred, Debuchy could have been booked twice for diving, throw-ins were consistently given the wrong way, goal… Read more »
Don’t forget the multiple offsides wrongly called, including that one where Ozil scored.
ozil was miles offside..
easy tiger. Hope you don’t fit carpets
Özil was so far offside that he should have been booked for kicking the ball away (into the goal). The ref could have argued that he surely must have known himself that he was offside.
It was a foul on Coric. Yeah, ref wouldn’t be wrong if he booked him
Unless we start putting away those early chances we are going to struggle
Ref was least of our worries last night. Dinamo is a small club in the European context so I don’t know how well are you guys informed about it. I’m from Croatia so for whom it may concern – Dinamo is undisputed champion of Croatian league, but that only goes to say about quality of our league, not about quality of Dinamo. It is run by two brothers, one of them is their manager which you’ve seen on the pitch and the other one is the executive director of the club. They are severly hated by most of the nation… Read more »
Thanks the Dinamo background info! I was wondering why the stadium seemed pretty empty….
WENGER IN FOR LIFE
All 5 outfield players who came into the starting line up looking to impress were so poor, none of them had a good game.
None will play vs Chelsea for good reason. No squad depth.
Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with that sentiment, it does make articles like this a bit cringeworthy:
http://news.arseblog.com/2015/09/wenger-its-easier-to-rotate-now/
You know, when Joel Campbell comes on and you’re thinking, wow, he performing quite well compared to the rest of the lot, you you’re team is having a shit night.
Joel Campbell was far from good when he came on but still seemed to do alot more than others..Not a good look at all.
He gave cheap fouls away. He was just on the field. Not better than rest by any stretch of imagination.
Chaos Dust
Arsenal’s journey in Championship League
(strange, no one is pointing fingers at the two £30m plus players on the pitch)
We will qualify ( second)
Silver lining? My boy Gabby.
if kos can be arsed to close players down and put strikers in his pocket like we all know he is more than capable of, I think the gab-kos partnership is going to be keeping mertesacker out of games quicker than people think. in my opinion the manager has to select gabriel for saturday. if anything just to give some of it right back to that temperamental caveman who tries to play football for them. i think we are going to find out a lot about the character of the starting 11 saturday, could set us off on a massive… Read more »
and he is the only one who really wants it. when we were down he was at least trying to rush things and fighting with the opponents.. its shocking how nothing alexis did worked.. assist yes.. but dont remember anything else
Why is it that whenever we play shit, its not just 1 or 2 off-form but in fact nearly every1 plays awfully? Must be the dressing room… We didnt even look fired up after the break despite losing!
So Joel Campbell wasn’t actually our worst player tonight then? Fuck me, now I’m glad I only caught the last 20 minutes.
Gabriel and Theo played well, everybody else was pretty horrible.
Coq keeps on bossing the midfield. One of the only positives from the game. Was looking forward to see if Arteta can show he’s a reliable back up for Coquelin and the answer is still no. This game was so similar to the defeats against Dortmund last season, against Chelsea away, Man City away. He gets run over by oppositions. Just isn’t up for it.
From what I remember, Zagreb scored the first through a cock up by Oxlade Chamberlain (mainly responsible) and Debuchy. The second came after the sending off when Arteta, Gibbs and Koscienly failed to clear the front post area. Please tell me where Arteta being ‘overrun’ by Zagreb cost us. The fact is that Arteta is not the only one in the midfield, he cannot cover 50m width-wise on his own. No one player can. Where were the other players?
I didn’t say Arteta was the only one to blame obviously. Just pointed out the obvious weakness in the middle when he plays as the DM. He didn’t react fast enough in the build up to the 1st goal. A lot of Zagreb’s shots outside the box were not closed down fast enough by him and Cazorla. The reason he looked good when coming on as a sub the last few games is because he played with Coq. Play him as the sole DM and we’re screwed.
Would have said the same but then there is his stats https://twitter.com/Squawka/status/644252787690340352 especially the duels and the tackles
The only two stats that are pertinent for him from that list is tackles won and aerial duels won. I would be interested in seeing passing accuracy, forward passes, turnovers (unforced and forced) and interceptions. His primary function is to close passing lanes, regain possession and recycle the ball quickly. Chances created, shots and crosses do not come into it at all. Although I admit Arteta was ineffectual, I would argue against the narrative that it is his physical side that let him down. Mental awareness was lacking more than anything. A greater proportion of blame for the two goals… Read more »
This place is gonna be funny.
In the summer, you wouldn’t dare mention that Arteta isn’t good enough without a mass of gooners who’s general thoughts seems to go with whatever wind direction is going on during that moment (ultra positive) without getting negged to oblivion. Same too for Giroud.
Let’s see what the general crowd idea is on Arteta is now. Still good enough?
Honestly I think it’s a team balance thing. Arteta can only play with Ramsey in the midfield, and Cazorla only plays well when played with coquelin. Hope the boys bounce back this weekend, but that game was just depressing
Nailed it. We have two CDM pairings – Coquelin/Cazorla, or Arteta/Ramsey. Never split those up or the result is … well, we all saw the result today.
Yes, the comments section directly following a loss provides a much more comprehensive and better-reasoned picture of a player’s value to the team.
As supposed to right after we win a game or preseason friendly, when the euphoria is at a high?
But that’s my point exactly, the same people who claim Arteta is past it now are mostly the same people who were bleating on about him being good enough.
It’s a never ending cycle of bouncing from one extreme to the next.
Yes they will all be W.C come our next win. (Please be soon, Saturday perhaps?)
Anyone with half a brain could see Arteta has lost his legs. Why wenger thought it’d be smart to start him alongside santi, I’ll never understand. The Giroud issue has become frankly boring. You’ll still see people say he’s a top 10 striker. 2 goals in his last 15 games.
If this team can’t beat Zagreb, we might as well drop out of the competition.
why wenger gave him a contract extension at all?
It’s not thoughts that go with the winds, Stillmatic. It’s the stomach to read through all the negativity. When we win or things are going well, the winds lead to positive comments from being happy- you know, happy. And those feeling good don’t want to hear negative because they are enjoying themselves, and that’s just not the time to be negative. When we lose it’s the negative posts that show en masse, which is to be expected. The comments also tend to be dominated by those who post negatively pretty much all the time, because that is how they satisfy… Read more »
Literally, amen
a bit of a fairweather ain’t ya? stick to your guns…declare that this is A WORLD CLASS team, you know you’re positive…stick to it
Do we need to start talking about Alexis? If he had started his first season like this one (terrible finishing, giving the ball away all the time) people would have been all over him. Now he is getting a free ride!
Rushed back because no-one else in the team was exhibiting anything near his mixture of drive and imagination. Frustrating that his not having the run of the green but cant knock him too much for the sheer level of effort he puts in
After what he did last season he deserves a little dip in form.
Alexis – Theo Assist today
Maybe next time mate.
Arteta was playing in high heels, playing like he trying to prove not too old and looking too old.
Still waiting for output from ox
and giroud has even less fight than bentdner – gets dominated by nearly every centre half for strength. whats the point being that big and having as much aggression as a teddy bear.
annual champions league fookup against a much less fancied team.
not happy – where is my zoot
Arsenal drive me to weed on many occasions.
any excuse ; )
Share some next time?
Ozil has smoked too much judging by his expression and cruisy running … needs clear eyes when passing. 6 months ago everyone said we needed a world-class striker and a back-up DM. Nothing has changed.
Reaching for the vaporiser now. Let’s hope we smoke Chelski and have some decent banter.
And to add to that:
What is going on with Sanchez
What is going on with Ozil, had about 2 very presentable opportunities to score and fluffed them. Yeah Gibbs i know if it were Ozil giving those passes people would be arguing about who ever was at the end of those messing up those lovely passes.
Repeat after me
1.There are no strikers available in Europe better than Giroud.
2.Arteta is good enough to play for a team with ambitions to win the league.
3.It is acceptable to go into a season with one recognised striker with money in the bank.
4.Arsenal are an ambitious club.
If you don’t agree with me go and support Chelsea.
I think I’ll disagree with you and still support Arsenal.
You seem to be be confusing support with blind worship. I still love my team, but I can disagree with decisions they make. Right?
I think your sarcasm detector broke.
Dude, you know what the comment policy is on telling folk to go support another team.
there are better strikers in Outer Mongolia than Giroud at the moment. He couldn’t score at a brothel. Remember Monaco? Fook me. We need, and deserve, much fucken more.
Except he scored on Saturday.
Whisper it quietly but Joel Campbell actually played pretty well when he came on, he looked our best player. Walcott and Coquelin did well also
Are you blind? He was utter shite.
Gave the ball away incessantly, when he wasn’t giving away free kicks and running the clock down for Zagreb…
Joel made a few fouls but by far was not utter shite. Was much better than ox who was actually awful on the day and he wasn’t thrown in for his first appearance of the season.He wasn’t fantastic but was far from garbage. Don’t know what people have against Joel honestly. There seems to be this inherent negativity about him that stems from nothing.Our subs who came on were the only ones who actually looked up for it and provided something. they were some of our better players and he’s included in that. Give credit where credit is due
not sure we were watching the same game. Did you mean to say Walcott?
You’d have to whisper that quietly, it’s so outrageous. Campbell was terrible. Did he complete a pass today, between fouls? He’s lucky he wasn’t sent off. Frankly I don’t know what anyone sees in him. He had one and a half good games in a World Cup. That’s all. We should have taken the money offered last summer and kept Akpom.
Campbell had 6 successful passes, two unsuccessful passes and a long cross that got cleared at the very end. He was not our worse player by far, even though he only played 25 minutes when the team had only 10 players and under the gun to make a comeback
That may be statistically correct but he was also begging the already card happy official for a red. Being rusty is one thing but mowing down opponents at every given turn is not. Fucking plonker!
And that challenge from Ospina on their young lad. Jesus Christ!
Are they both looking to get signed by Stoke or something?
Yeah of course, it would be more sensible to let him score, after our defender graciously put our keeper in trouble. He did alright and he did what he had to do. Unlike the rest of the team.
As long as you’d be happy with the likes of Stoke doing that to one of ours then sure, why not. Stud the shit out of anyone getting near our goal. Never mind fair play.
Giroud was poor tonight. I can appreciate what he brings to the team but he had a shocker tonight. Mikel aswell, no doubt a great guy but tonight really showed that Wenger should have strengthened in these this position as he came in for cover and was simply not up to the task.
Praying Wengers gamble with theo over the course of the season pays off otherwise it’ll get increasingly more difficult to defend and stand behind his transfer policy.
I am not sure why anyone is surprised by Giroud. He is not a top player and never has been. Wenger has had years to find an upgrade yet has failed to do so. The fault lies with the Manager, and until he changes or is changed Arsenal will continue to be inconsistent and prone to games like last night. Campbell by the way is underrated as well and probably should get more opportunity to play regularly.
My one word review:
Arsenal.
Our team is fine. It’s the refs fault. It’s mourinho’s fault. No one’s available to buy.
Ospina was positionally awful and did not command the box nor martial his defence! Ref shook hands and was pally with their players and I understand their president recently left prison early , having been in for corruption, please draw your own conclusions.
If that was a bought ref he was even worse at being bought than at refereeing.
Worst ref team I can remember. Don’t dignify them by insinuating it was deliberate. You can’t be that deliberately bad.
Same thing year after year after year. Best case, fa cup
I think giroud is getting a ruff time of it. The cards were harsh and fans / commentators Are on him overevery half chance missed.
Ox is great going forward but reckless tracking back and a bit clumsy
Totally agree Pauly, free-kick he conceded for legitimately winning a header, which resulted in him getting booked for rightfully complaining was never ever a free-kick! Also Özil’s disallowed goal looked on in live and replays. Well done for watching the game and not just listening to bt sport’s drivel!
Rather than reckless tracking, I would say clueless. Too many mistake there (West Ham, Palace). For a player of his talent, its infuriating he keeps betraying expectation. Seriously considering to call him the Mule rather his fancy ‘Ox’. A Cow is better, at least it jumps over the moon.
Ox needs to get his head up more often. He runs off into the cameras time and again while ‘dribbling’ or ‘Crossing’
Faulting the changes is weak tea. Rotation encourages competition. I look at Alexis, Ozil to do more, and Giroud to calm down.
This is worse than West Ham. Before kick-off everyone agreed it was generally good tactics by Wenger by resting players with Chelsea in mind. Line-up was shaken up but definitely decent enough against Zagreb. They’ve let him down. They’ve let us down. That’s the worst part. In my opinion, Wenger is the least of the problems yet the repetitive individual mistakes make the case that he ought to do something about it. That makes it tough to critisise him, how is it his fault that Giroud wouldn’t be disciplined or Debuchy was giving the ball away. Another player, another individual… Read more »
how is it not wenger’s fault? he thought giroud was world class enough NOT to sign another striker…so when he plays like shit…wenger should eat up his own shit…anyone can see arteta is a liability and not only he extends his contract…he refused to bring in another capable backup….
believe me…wenger deserves the blame….he made his bed, he should sleep in it
“It’s easier to rotate now.” Yeah, sure…
i dont understand how on earth arsene put arteta first instead of coq. i think if coq played from the start, it wont be that bad. i mean, cmon, i aint le prof, but that is an easy call right there…
Surprised Coquelin was given such a bad rating when he was miles better than everyone else on the team. He sweeps the the midfield smartly and at pace and the only reason we even got a goal today was because he was hungry to win the ball on the half-way line. As for pretty much the remainder of the team, how stagnant can they be? Arsenal’s play has become slow, boring, dreary and predictable. The defending was far too narrow and the attacking is completely repetitive. Honestly, did we even test the keeper today? Judging from how the match went… Read more »
Maniac, watch the full game again, we were better in every area against a team who played like Hull did a couple of years back, very hurried, not in control of passes, but caused us to panic, twice, plus Ospina does not give his defence any confidence and I don’t know why he put Kos on near post for the corner, leaving Gibbs marking, Los naturally tried to attack the ball, the other way round, if he missed, Gibbs would be on the line still!
I agree on Le Coq. I gave him an 8 rating Even though he came in when we were down 0-2, in 25 minutes he showed how much we missed him today for the first 65 minutes. We bossed the midfield and injected the team with energy to fight back. He was critical in Arsenal getting the goal and having even a sliver of a chance to get a draw. Let’s all pray that he does not get injured or suspended the rest of the year
Ozil: Onside? http://arsenalist.com/f/2015-16/zagreb-vs-arsenal/ozil-offside-goal-before-zagreb-scored-again.html
Wilshere: Missed.
Thanks Zack, Pivaric was in similar position against backline just before Ox knocked it in and the other linesman kept his flag down!
It was actually the same linesman, who later in the game made another clearly erroneous offside call on Ozil.
But yeah, doesn’t excuse us not taking the game to Dinamo fucking Zagreb.
Reckon he should have got benefit of the doubt. Badly positioned linesman too. Doesn’t escape fact we were poor.
Time for Giroud to trade places with Walcott. Never seen him so frustrated, you can see the shit getting to him now.
Cavani in Giroud out.
I’ve seen Cavani fluff many a sitter. Not a bad player, he has his moments but….
If you have a different opinion to me then you obviously dont care about Arsenal as much as i do and should support another side etc etc .
I find it hard to believe that players were arrogant etc. What exactly have we done in Europe (in the entire history of the club) to think about arrogance? Poor collective and individual performance.
We will ‘respond’ with a draw next then 2-4 wins , then …. Same old cycle
I suppose Ajdjtroiuoqwe798q7398123jojasdhoijasdhhiasdgajshdg means some nice things…
Arsenal stroll into tonights game with a bit of confidence, up into the top 4.
Chelsea stumbled into tonights game with Mourinho under real pressure.
Arsenal get pulled apart by Zagreb.
Chelsea walk all over Maccabi.
Before the Champions League started this week I was looking forward to the Chelsea game. Now I am dreading it. The long trip home is not going to help either.
But then again this is Arsenal. It wouldn’t be them without it being a rollercoaster of a ride. We go through the toils to make the highs even higher.
COYG!
Chelski v Tel Aviv? Who to support? One team with Zionist owner, the other full of Zionist child killers. Fuck em both I say
Bring back reserve games…our back-up clearly need them?!
When we play Giroud our front 3 attacking midfield are crowded out and rendured useless when teams bank up. At least walcott stretches back fours. We need welbeck more than we think he also stretched defences and allows players like sanchez and ozil to be at their best.
Giroud is a sub for me at best.
Thank you for that bonus rating, it actually got me to smile.
What an appalling team selection! It was bloody suicidal. Why leave out Cech who is just getting into his rhythm?? Has he been doing too much running around in goal? Arteta and Cazorla?? Are u fucking kidding me? W Giroud and Ozil to run onto their insightful through balls!! What a fucking disgrace. Le Coq didn.t play in the interlull what does he need a rest for? Walcott played about 20 minutes. Alexis did need a rest and travelled half the bloody world and back last week! WTF, WTF WTF!? I don.t think I have ever been so baffled our… Read more »
My season prediction. We will be 15 points behind City by Christmas in 6th place, but in the new year we will find form and win 15 of our last 16 games making top 4 after all. Our late season form will convince Wenger that next year we will definetely challenge. The summer window is quiet while wenger reiterates his belief in our current squad pointing to selective stats from the last half of our season saying something along the lines of, look we won 15 or our last 16 games and I dont see the need for strenghtening an… Read more »
Best chance for the media to get their knives out about us. So bored of the Arsenal bashing. If we had played well they wouldn’t have anything to write about…
Pretty sure there’s a double standard when it comes to City and Manure.
Well!With the way Debuchy played,I don’t think he is going to win his place back from Bellerin for a very long time.Gods may wonder what has happened to the player who was so good just an year back when he joined us!Fucking injuries.
The injuries which have stalled the development of so many players including wilshere and chambo are either due to a long standing curse against the club or due to very bad management of these injuries by the club.
I am choosing to blame the latter.
Dense… Hahahahahaha
Against a team that seats deep, I didnt see too many dribble/run through the middle at early stage of game (before Giroud dismissal). Has Arteta & Cazorla gone totally Denilson?? or my eyes deceived me as I thought I saw Giroud holding the ball off defenders to non existent players several time.
Coquelin is the key, without him on the pitch the team doesn’t tick…players shy away from responsibilities
Well, safe to say Bellerin, Coquelin, Monreal and Ramsey will sleep easy knowing their first team place is safe.
while pointing out the replacements for our current first choice did themselves no favours, this was an all too familiar away performance in Europe from us.
Poor performances all round, once again seemed to lack a real organising leader and confirmed what I felt when the draw was made: 2nd place in the group is what we’re playing for.
Frustrating but the most damning point is that I wasn’t surprised that we put in that type of performance and lost.
On a positive note that’s two in two from Theo now. He likes to score in streaks and hopefully this could be the start of a 5,6,7 game goal scoring streak for Theodore. He’s scored a few versus Chelsea in the past as well. Yep, we were shit. Giroud’s sending off was the game changer but complacency issues against so called inferior teams is starting to look like a problem for this Arsenal. Monaco last year and already West Ham and Zegrab this season. If we get 3pts on Saturday, this sham of a performance will be forgotten. Up the… Read more »
Loosing to a team with DYNAMO as its first name is terrible!
What’s everyone complaining about. We’ll finish second in our group. We’ll get knocked out in the round of 16. We will finish the season third or fourth. And then next year we will do it all over again with Rumours that Benzema will join but he never will. Maybe we can win the fa cup again.
Ps. I dare not think about what haPpens if coq goes down.
I was angry at our satellite box for not working. I should have known it was trying to protect us.
New deals to Rosicky and Arteta seem utterly flawed right now. Before one kicks the ball again proper its going to be March and the other can kick himself into March for all i care.
Coyg
All I can say is, I am glad I stayed at work and didn’t watch the game. This had a feel of underestimating the opponents thinking this should be an easy win, something Arsenal does from time to time. Learn from your mistakes Arsene!