There wasn’t much to enjoy about the game today, bar the performance of Petr Cech who made some very important saves to help secure a point and put us back on top of the table.
Here’s how the players rated.
Saturday, April 20, 2024
There wasn’t much to enjoy about the game today, bar the performance of Petr Cech who made some very important saves to help secure a point and put us back on top of the table.
Here’s how the players rated.
Bonus rating: Mike Dean/10 for Craig Pawson’s awful performance.
Ah come on. Seriously, the ref was fine today. Got a few things wrong but was generally grand. His performance was a lot better than Walcotts anyway.
Yeah maybe that was a bit harsh. The ref didn’t cost us points as clearly as Mike Dean did, but that doesn’t mean he was good. He was bad for us and sometimes he was bad for the opposition as well. In my opinion, that performance was way below the level we should be seeing in this league.
The ref was fantastic today. Let the game play, didn’t let players roll around. So he didn’t give the cards. But there was no harsh tackles. The problem with Arsenal was, there was just not enough quality in midfield. Like Arseblog said, we have no out ball from defense when cazorla doesn’t play. Ox is not a central player, even if he thinks he is. Looked lost. As bad as everyone says Walcott was, I disagree. He kept receiving the ball was and was constantly isolated, having to beat two or three men. Our poorest area was easily in the… Read more »
There were some complaints about the ref. I thought he was fair. He was blind in both eyes.
Did you watch the game? There is one player, I think called Peters must have fouled Campbell 10 times and some of them must be really bad tackles and not a single time he got the yellow card and not even telling off. There was a player who had a crunching challenge and didn’t get the ball and then told referee to F off and guess what no yellow card. The worst was two penalties that never got awarded. Please, if you want slag off team for non performance then that’s acceptable but don’t defend the referee. One penalty decision… Read more »
Yes, I watched the game.and have been critical of referee’s in the past like Taylor and Dean. Today was not about the ref as much as you might like it to be. We battled hard and won a good point in my opinion. Ref was o.k but not perfect. Walcott was atrocious. I think thats a fair summation when we all take our Arsenal glasses off. By tomorrow, when you’ve had time to mull it over, you might think the same.
As a team you have to nullify those fine margins and not allow decisions you cannot control to determine your fate. We should have scored in open play. Giroud had a good chance as did JC and Aaron. Also we showed them too much respect, which I understand is a mentality thing against a bogey team, but we perhaps should have been more direct. Ox was trying to pass too much while it would have probably served him better to be more direct and run at players. Walcott too. Overall or passing was not coming off today, too many passes… Read more »
Good point considering state of the squad. Walcott’s lack of effort however is shameful, a throwback to the bad old days before we shipped all the crap out
I think Walcott isn’t motivated to play wide. So he is playing like he did when he played on the right.
It doesn’t excuse his performance though.
I actually think he was better on the right.
I think he may be fatigued and to be honest I don’t think he did that badly today, certainly not a 4. The amount of off the ball runs he made but wasn’t picked out was silly. Also actually thought Ox was better than Ramsey today, kind of shocked by the ratings really!
For me Ox was the worse player for us on the field, followed by Walcott. The former’s passing is woeful, the latter couldn’t hold on the ball when he had it.
This ! Ox’s passing was woeful today. He looks really down in the mouth when he should be firing on all cylinders and trying to convince Wenger he merits a start. I find that worrying.
His passing was poor but so was Ramsey’s and Giroud’s (and everyone else really). Just seems odd to me to pick out those two players when we were poor across the board (and even then, we didn’t play THAT badly).
Ramsey looses the ball and or gives it away far too often. He needs to read the game better (and be far more aware of where his team mates are, and pick a pass through to whomever, but he is either too careless or his technique needs improvement, or both. He is too much of a liability in mid park, leaving the central defence exposed.
Walcott was so timid whenever there looked like a physical play was coming, he almost appeared afraid. He just backed off using any force against opponents when he came close to them. Terrible performance today. Just appeared to me like a little kid afraid to play against the bigger boys. No physicality at all on his part.
Easily the worst player on the pitch was Ox. Not his fault though, he’s just not a central player. How many times I saw him just standing around and not looking for the ball when we had it was funny. When he got it, he was turning the wrong way because he has no awareness of the runs being made. Wenger should have tried swapping him and Campbell. I think Campbell would’ve been more suited to that role .
Ox is not a central player, you say. We have better wingers at the moment (Alexis and Campbell).
I really wonder where and how he will improve his game.
I love the Ox but I am beginning to fear for his Arsenal future.
For whats its worth you are not alone.. I’m a day late with input but in my opinion OX did well , very few mistakes and lots of good moment to imply there is more to come the midfield was way more balanced than in recent outings. And I share you opinion about Theo as well I think he is on the right path i’m looking forward to seeing him run at Chavs backline.
Wenger should bench Walcott, a while ago he did very well coming off the bench. He’s playing like he doesn’t need to fight for a spot because of the starts he’s been getting. I think off the bench he showed more hunger and a point to prove.
Bonus Rating: 1/ Ring to rule them all at Mordor.
Walcott and OX were poor… Campbell is becoming very reliable and quicly becoming an important player with his vision passing and workrate. Cech is top class. Ramsey if not for the goal line clearance i would put him in the same bracket as Walcott and Ox he wasn’t as bad as those 2 but he was pretty close he unstabilizes our midfield when he doesn’t choose when to attack carefully too eager to join the attack and doesn’t recover well when it breaks down that combo flamin and ramsey is not working. Elneny time to shine.
Too right, Ken.
– Brian, Exeter
agree about Walcott and Ox but disagree about Campbell ,, he was too eager to sit on his ass or spend time running round in circles . rarely closed the Stoke player who was closest to him down and looked well out of his depth against physical opposition . But a point against our worst nightmare and the Ref ( who was absolutely shiiiite ) will do for me 🙂
I think today’s match showed me two things clear as day. First, Walcott really is a striker and not a winger. Secondly, no one in our midfield looked to get open to receive a pass from Mertesacker or Koscielny. And these issues have been evident for a few matches now.
Agreed. Midfield 3 were poor. Not bad really when you think they are reserves as if Ozil coq and cazorla were fit they would be on bench.
I was thinking the same about Walcott. When Alexis comes back he is going on the bench or maybe starting over Giroud when he starts to look jaded.
Tough game. We were not at our best. We could have lost, but we also could have won. We terribly missed Mesut. Cech was the savior – a terrific performance.
The midfield was our weak point today, especially on the creativity side. The only key passes and through balls were provided by Campbell – a wide player.
Still on top and hoping that with several key players coming back we can remain on top until the end of the season. COYG!
Iwobi almost changed the game for us when he came on. To show you how bad Walcott was. HE was useless offensively and defensively he needs to find his form because we need everybody!! The OX ugh don’t know where to begin seriously lacking in confidence and desire and hunger.. Cech fantastic
Something I thought I’d never say: Stoke City fans don’t deserve the quality of football their side plays.
They have beat a ton of good teams at home. Looked like a solid point gained to me today especially considering the injuries.
Their fans are a farce. All they do is hiss and boo. Don’t they realise how ridiculous they seem?
Not a bad point without Ozil Sanchez cazorla coq welbeck jack rosicky. 4 guaranteed starters there. Just made worst cos we conceded in the 90th min to drop two points against Liverpool.
It’s not just the big names either. If you look at the amount of technical proficiency those names bring to the team it just goes to show how unbalanced we are. We’re a team who prides itself on controlling games and dictating games, and those are our dictators, the players whose skills facilitate that style. It’s all very well looking at Liverpool and saying they’re having a crisis, but it’s the specific technical type of player we were deprived of today that is such an issue.
One does not simply walk away from Mordor with 3 points.
Orcs!!!!!
Had we not conceded that late goal at Anfield, this will be a point worth celebrating but nevertheless we are still on top
Indeed. A minute away from an excellent away trip.
Cech is top, top quality.
Cech gets a 10 from me, he did everything he could and helped us avoid what would have been a morale crushing defeat. Rest of the ratings re spot on. We seriously need Alexis Carzola and Ozil back to fire us to the title that’s gonna be a fight to the finish Now #COYG
Thank you Petr
Stoke city supporters the cancer of football
Awful, awful knuckle-dragging inbreds. And they still have their fair share of sheight on their books, starting with that pig-faced captain and that top-knotted thug.
Anyone with any stats on how many fouls pieters made without getting a booking?
Seven called fouls, four uncalled, and one where he kicked the ball away after conceding a fk that should have gotten him a yellow as well.
Arnautovic, Shawcross, and Whelan also got away with a fair few. For me, Shawcross should have been booked inside of ten minutes when he went in studs up on Ox.
Worst was when he charged into the pen area… clocked Cech going for the cross and clearly, deliberately, calculatedly (yes, I’m taking this rather seriously!) stuck his elbow into Cech’s ear and then levered him downwards with that gorilla-sized forearm (matched only by the shape of his ears).
At least the ref gave us the foul… but precious little else!
Yes, that was utter crap. I’m all for letting the game flow, but c’mon.
Midfield is really a problem. Let’s hope Elneny can make the difference. Thought Monreal and Campbell were outstanding today.
Monreal is our player of the season so far. I know Ozil gets all the plaudits, and he is vital as he creates the goals, but Monreal does everything right, and well, every game. Love the guy!
I thought this was one of Ox’s worst games in an Arsenal shirt. I felt that so many moves broke down because of him, his passing is too sub-par to play in the middle
Ox was not very good today, but he was nowhere near as bad as he has been in some other recent games.
Ramsey broke most of our moves, Ox was bad but kinda expected it so wont be too hard on him. Ramsey always wants the ball to lose it and put the team under pressure.
It was a decent game but we need to do better.
OX and Walcott ‘s current forms are worrying.
I still have faith that OX will improve.
Injured players need to come back already and I hope Elneny delivers when he starts playing.
I’ll take a point especially as we had no ozil could of won 2-0 if weren’t for butland glad cech saved with that double save a tale of two keepers know to avenge that loss at c***sea were we were had done by
At least were top
Sweet Jesus, man! The ” . ” is your friend…use it.
Yes! Go fck urselves stock fans! You are a disgrace to football!
We survived the game with no injuries and we didn’t lose. That’s a good result under the circumstances and I’m glad we didn’t risk Sanchez and Ozil against those animals. They will now be ready and available against the cunts at Stamford Bridge next week.
At the Emirates!
Too right! Cunts FROM Stamford Bridge.
On a side-bar… how indescribably sweet was Terry’s o/g v Scouse… and then the ref goes and gives him a palpably offside equaliser to screw it all up!
Ox pass accuracy is a real concern, I love that player and I am really rooting for him to do well.
Blogs do you have any stats on this?
Today he was 39/50
Ramsey has to understand better the need to play make.
Walcott’s limitation in build up play is beyond appalling.
Frustrating draw. Other than Campbell no player looked like creating a chance today. Needed something extra from Ramsey and Walcott.
Giroud tried.
Cech saved us
Giroud was awesome today defensively.
How walcott get into this team is beyond me, reserve players put in more effort than him.
Iwobi was far better than Theo
In the next match it’ll be worth the gamble on Alexis. Creativity-wise the team was clueless today. Nobody mentions the bad refereeing, he really let the orcs play like orcs. Several fouls were not called, especially on Giroud. But Chamberlain’s form is shocking, often he was just standing around when he should’ve been showing himself for the pass. Walcott’s just poor on the ball, but that’s no surprise to anyone, except that he really had noone around him to pick these balls up that he had lost. Iwobi was at least looked like a footballer wanting to make things happen.… Read more »
How could any football fans think that booing someone who has had their leg broken by one of your players is a reasonable thing to do? The sky commentator said Ramsey was being booed because of an incident with Shawcross. Why did he not say that Shawcross almost destroyed his career and those booing should be banned from going to football matches.
My theory is that the Stoke orcs can still smell the blood on him and it got them riled up. Some dogs eat turds, Stoke orcs get excited by the smell of blood on other players. It’s just their nature.
Thumb me down by all means but at least they sang this time. And in human language! Normally they just grunt, bark or howl when they try to communicate with each other.
Wonder what Cech has to do to get a 10 ;-). We really missed Ozil in the possession game especially building from the back where he always makes himself available and does not turn the ball over. Ramsey is working very hard, but to me just does not seem close to the form he had a couple of years ago with that great run of matches in the middle. Could be the partnership with Flamini and his not being able to really build possession as Arteta a few years ago and Coquelin more recently were able to. Chamberlin worked his… Read more »
Positionally I think Ramsey was off. He needed to stay deeper and allow Ox Walcott and Campbell to run at stoke and make late surging runs into the box. He was too high up the pitch on many occasions resulting in massive holes in the middle of the park. I don’t know how many times i counted the middle of the park empty because Ramsey was near the strikers.
Mordor is no place for handsomeness, we tried but our midfield is weak for now and it’s a big worry.
Hope Le Prof will find solution to it pronto.
One less minute and those two games would have been a real success but now we are left to ponder what could have been,Overall the games against Pool and Stoke were wrecthed horrible showings but they are now gone and we are still top the only comforting thing about it all ,now we need to get players back on form because today showed that some of our pivotal players a way off form,it will impossible for us to win the league performing this abjectly for the remaining 16 games,we need some serious spark to the team.
Very good point. Surprised with the low scores Blogs.
In previous years that was a 2-0 defeat, we showed good resilience at a ground that is difficult for us every season.
Big players soon back, no new injuries and three trophies still up for grabs. We can do this. COYG
Harsh rating on theo. I think there was absolutely no help from the midfield and he was the only player trying to make things happen, running at the defence, switching flanks.
At some point btw 60-80mins giroud looked like he was hiding from the ball, I expected a giroud/elneny sub with walcott up top and ox back to the wings – a different approach.. But maybe I’m just one of 6billion coaches..
Walcott needs to get a run at striker as he is having little to no impact on the wing (esp the left wing). Just does not get involved enough and on the left side won’t dribble up the line to use his speed as he would on the right side. He can’t really make the runs into the middle because Giroud is so static. I think we were at our best offensively this season when Theo was striker and pulling the defenders out of position in the middle with his runs while Sanchez and Ramsey ran in behind.
Yeah, really surprised by the negative Walcott comments considering everyone else’s performance. Would like to see him do a bit more on the ball. When he dribbles at people and makes forward passes, he really makes things happen. He focuses too much on his off-the-ball game at times. And Giroud didn’t have a good game either (though in fairness, had a lack of service from midfield).
Theo will never change… he will always be a inconsistant player with pace that can do amazing things on his day…
Petr Cech saves when he wants. Immense player.
Such a shame Chamberlain form is so off. A period I was really hoping for him to kick on. Little confidence and nothings comin off at the mo.
Been saying this for a while now, and will keep saying it; Ramsey works best with a Deep-Lying Playmaker than a DM like Flamini. Covers his weaknesses.
And Theo to the bench.
Theo run ! Your speed is your best assert. Everyone around shouted run so much during match. Two sprints in 90 minutes is not enough. ! No running both too track back and to join with others on counter attack. Jogging over half way. On the plus side took care to just wack ball away when defending corners , not trying to dribble ball out. Do there is some learning there.
I thought the ox at least showed for the ball. We all know when stuff is not going to plan it’s hard to get going. He is in a bit of a rutt but thought he was one of the few that looked to get involved. Theo needs to take a hard look at himself. A point at that lot is no bad thing. Top. Let’s push on.
At this rate I won’t surprise Campbell keeps his place instead of Walcott when Alexis returns.
A deep-lying playmaker would require a holding midfielder (DM) beside him and Ramsey isn’t as ‘defending’ as you’d like. So I struggle to see your point there sire
The midfield. Is lacking. As Ramsey always presses. Today often alone. So you have Ramsey pressing the Stoke centre backs. Flamini just in front of b.f.g. And chamberlain. FGloating around. Too spread out our midfield . So Stoke if had more quality can. Pass in the gaps. And spaces on pitch. glad they didn’t.
Serious question here, how many points did Chec saved us till now?. We need steel nerves for next 16 matches hopefully we will improve with all the injured players coming back. Ozil, Sanchis,& Chec are key hope they stay fit till the end
Just curious, is anyone keeping a tally of how many points Cech is saving us this year? Thanks Roman!
Monreal was way better than 7 stars! Worked like crazy and got good headers and interceptions
Agreed. How good is his consistency. Seriously good
Some of the players in this squad should thank their lucky stars there’s the home-grown rule to abide by…
I think it might be the Southhampton Lemon Effect. Young players look great there and then become the absolute definition of mediocrity when they are sold for high prices. Today’s game showed us Walcott, Ox, Klein, Lallana and Schneidelein. Add in Lovren and (maybe) Chambers and you have some seriously expensive Lemons ripping off the league. We need to stop buying them.
We would have kicked their ass if Ozil was playing today as we missed his creativity and vision in midfield. The Ox and Theo were poor today, in hind sight playing Iwobi from the start and Ramsay in the number 10 role may have been a better option.
Elneny needs to get into the fray from now on.
Criticising a mf’s creativity shorn of ozil, Cazorla and alexis seems pretty harsh at a ground where I think all the top sides have lost this season.
Also I thought Walcott was through and wrestled down. Even if not a pen, it should have been a red and us vs 10 for the last half an hour.
They wanted a scrappy game, lots of fouls and a ridiculous amount of time wasting, with Johnson’s double failure to grasp the ball for a throw-in the best example. I personally think we had a lot of individuals trying to make things happen, but with a lack of movement…Ramsey & Ox were ahead of everyone for me, ref was awful though!