A win at last, and a very impressive first half was enough to secure a 2-0 win over Everton. The goals came from Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi, and the home side offered little in return. Which was jolly nice of them.
Here’s how the players rated.
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Monday, December 23, 2024
Not sure how lukaku gets away with a challenge like that on the keeper?.. It almost seems reckless.. Had it been in air would it have been different? Feel like the refs are all against us lately.. Good win though..
I thought that too! Strikers seem to be able to get away with that on keepers but anywhere else on the pitch and that’s at least a yellow. People will say the ball was there to be won but he didn’t win it. It was late and dangerous
Totally agree. It was borderline red. He knew he wasn’t going to get the ball, but went in anyway and was way late knees and feet out. So dangerous…and not even a foul. That was honestly one of the worst refereeing performances of the season, and that is saying something. Disgusting. It seems pretty clear referees have an agenda not to give Arsenal fouls and DEFINITELY not penalties. I would love to see a compilation of our penalty shouts that have been turned down this season. I would say we have been denied AT LEAST 10 stone-wall penalties, and at… Read more »
He didn’t do well today but I give Clattenburg credit for being the ref who’s given us far more penalties than any other team and never given one against us. My immediate reaction watching on tv was a dive by Alex is and I thought he would get booked for it – slow-mo and hindsight proved us both wrong.
It was a dive though. He did get clipped and then carried on but then took a really bad dive, but it was still a dive.
He attempted to stay upright and make the play but looking at the contact, how is that not a penalty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqfuPUNUwyk
im sorry, but are we going to excuse this tems shit perfrormnce fore last few weeks now??
We have nothing to play for, but a fourth place trophy. Thats fine then, nothing has changed, lets all settle. Kroenke will be happy!
This page is literally a rating of how the team did today.
Is that so difficult to understand?
Try to enjoy yourself mate, today we won. I think we would be better off if we held off judgements until the end of the season. The team needs support, let’s do our piece and hope they do theirs.
mans got a point though. now we can be heard or seen in stadiums. what about summer when theres no match to attend to? no media attention is what we get when being fed the same bullcrap by the ones we wanted to leave our club.
No media attention over the summer?! Lols.
Yep, we’re falling for the same thing every year
Loved the win but Everton were shit and this is another false dawn, followed by…
…Warchest, super quality, we were unlucky, mental strength, protracted failed bids, sign some kids, financial doping, blah blah blah
No, we are going to rightly recognise and applaud them for what they did TODAY.
We may not win the League, but in case you’ve forgotten, we’ve all got St. Totteringham’s Day to look forward to
I for one don’t like settling for crumbs…nor should Arsenal.
Surely the ref was thinking, “I will not give these kind Everton players any yellow cards, until they kick someone so hard, he will limp off injured. But they’re such good guys, they won’t do that!” Except they did. Good job Mark, you are most definitely an icon for all future referees. Now go get a new pair glasses. Or just fuck off.
What do you mean? He only missed an obvious penalty, at least a yellow for Funes Mori putting his arm across Bellerins face when skinned on the edge of the box, a late unnecessary challenge on the keeper by Lukaku when he couldn’t possibly get the ball and 2 yellow card fouls by Cleverley, the most ironically named footballer in the history of the game, so the usual Clattenburg performance while following Riley’s orders.
Dennis Wise might have something to say about that…
Who were the commentators on NBC today? One of them kept waffling for 5 minutes how Sanchez wasn’t tripped up in the box when slow motion rerun after slow motion rerun showed that he clearly was. I used to think the NBC commentary was better than the regular UK channels. Not so sure now.
Definitely a penalty, but I can’t help wondering if we’d have got the call had Alexis not fallen over like a freshly hewn redwood. Considering all the cards that Clattenburg had already given….
Our brilliant “expert” here in Norway, Thomas Myhre…ex Everton goalie, thought it was no penalty because Alexis fell at the wrong time.
If he had fallen a split second sooner it would have looked more realistic…
Does that make it any less of a penalty?? He was fouled, isnt that enough??
These “experts” seen equally dumb in most countries.
@tasmanian jesus
It was the same on the BT sports call (sadly that was the stream i seem to always get stuck with). Michael Owen saying “he should have fallen earlier, so if he stays on his feet he can’t have it both ways, so its his own fault”…Just shows the moronic mentality of the British Football Media…fucking imbeciles
That right there is a Moron, thankyou for that crisp definition.
That was Jim Beglin waffling, Runkeball. Beglin usually seems pretty reasonable, if a bit, uh, inelegant with his words, so I was surprised to hear him basically saying that a player needs to go down immediately (I would call that a dive) if they feel contact like this.
At least Peter Drury said he was inclined to give Alexis the benefit of the doubt on the play based on his history. Beglin was having none of it, though.
Elneny.
He does the simple things well and the hard things even better.
And his positional discipline is wonderful.
sadly, i can’t help but think he would not have gotten a chance if we did not have as many injuries there.
which is honestly quite absurd.
can’t help but think “what if” had he been starting games sooner for us.
I can’t seem to understand how we have lost everything for the season eventhough we can still play like this.
There’s a mix of reasons, one of them being that Everton didn’t press us high up the pitch and in the middle, our achilles heel. We also had a better balance in attack with Iwobi and Sanchez getting closer in support of Ozil, and Welbeck running the channels and being an outlet. I’d still prefer a 4-3-3 to the 4-2-3-1 in the future, to help us beat the opposition press and use our pacey attackers, but it worked well today. Can’t complain 🙂
Because we reach those heights when the pressure is not on. Like last season when our form after crashing out of the Champions League was absolutely to die for, but everyone already knew Chelsea had won the title.
The reason for me is a lack of good movement which has lead us to be bland up front. We can pass the ball until the cows come home. We showed against Everton how incisive passing and movement can be effective. Secondly, finishing off our chances. Even against Everton, although we won, we were not clinical as we could be. We could have won by 3 or 4. This is why it baffles me why we did not sign a clinical striker. It just seems every season the fans are proven right and Wenger proven wrong. I think next season… Read more »
I’m officially upgrading Leicester from ‘pesky nuisance’ to ‘pain in the arse’.
Let’s hope the top two teams drop points next weekend! Still waiting for Leicester to start fucking up due to the growing pressure….
Leicester still have to play Manure, West Ham, and Chelsea, lets just hope they drop 9 points
Sp*rs have to play the mug smashers, Manure and Chelsea as well, lets hope they drop 9 points.
we have a far easier run in… as much as I want us to win the league, if we don’t all i care about is finishing above Sp*rs
If we don’t finish ahead of the spuds they’ll never let us hear the end of it.
Yeah, one year in twenty is about their mark.
And they also play Southampton and Swansea … two great sides
Welcome back Arsenal! Missed you!
Doesn’t really excuse or explain weeks of piss-poor performances, but plenty of positives. Iwobi is going to be a star, Bellerin already is, Welbz shaking off the injury and Ospina not being a calamitous bungle-hound.
whats wrong with clattenberg? got sooo many dicisions wrong n all for the benefit of one team. so many yellow cards. lukaku mori stones jagielka mori again! a penalty. a disallowed goal. free kicks on bellerin giroud. we actually had more fouls than them. n oh i almost forgot that cunt coleman. did a dani alves through out the game. worse refreeing ive seen since chelsea.
Suspect he was told by his employers he had to give everything against us to even things up after his rather cel lent performance earlier in the season away at the Barcodes when he unforgivably and inexplicably didn’t allow them to kick the ever loving shit out of us.
We were excellent in that first half and I like the way we dug in when we had to 2nd. My only grumble is why haven’t we seen more of that on a consistent basis this season? Agree with Blogs re Alexis, I just think the amount of footie he has played over the last 2 years is the contributing factor. The work is there but the sharpness of thought and action is currently lacking on the whole. Nice assist though. Iwobi certainly showing a few of our other young players how to take the first team by the scruff… Read more »
Giroud’s display made Welbeck look world class. By the way, Long Live Elneny. Reminds me of Pirlo. Obviously faster than the Italian though
Dennis please send us a striker!
How could we lost gain Man Utd and Swansea when we can play like this ? This team really is an enigma… we need consistency !!!! BTW, what is the chance we signing Ibrahimovic ? And how could England miss Alex Iwobi ?
Does anyone else think that Welbeck should start every game instead of Giroud?
Giroud and Walcott should be absolutely ashamed that they have been replaced by a player who has just got fit after nearly a year out and a talented 19 year old. Worst still (for them) we look faaar better without them…Not just the result but like against Barca, there was pace and directness to our attacks without losing (infact having more) ball retention. Welbeck isn’t any better in front of goal but he provides SOMETHING…even if he is having a poor day infront of goal he is a constant nuisance and outlet…Defenders WORRY..Giroud is capable of this on his day… Read more »
Haha Clattenburg was so bad but fortunately it didn’t matter. The team was very pleasing today. I liked that in the 2nd half they didn’t go crazy going forward and kept the ball well.
Alexis probably deserved a 7 but i had to give him an 8 after that banter in the stands.
Two good performances in a row! Both away too. The midfield seems so much more balanced without Ramsey. I do like him but it really does. Welbeck gives us so much more energy up front and creates space for alexis.
Giroud’s header should have stood as a goal. Good grief Elneny is Pirlo, you’re having a laugh. He is better balanced with Coquelin now but it has taken a bit of time to settle (understandably). Yet to say he is better than Ramsey is ridiculous. He was brought in as an alternative to Ramsey in the link role with both Jack and Santi out. As a DM, he is still not there. the 2 minutes post Coquelins ending off serves to illustrate this nonsense. This is not to say he won’t in time develop into one but he is still… Read more »
I don’t think any of the combinations used works as well as Coquelin and Cazorla, purely because none of the players used are as good at leading the transition from defence to attack. I think this is pronounced when we try to counter-attack – most of the time the ball takes too long to go from back to front because none of the players used since Cazorla’s injury have the same ability to play the decisive pass. I disagree on Ramsey-Flamini – it was obvious straight-away that the midfield was dysfunctional once Cazorla was injured. I think this combo can… Read more »
You are absolutely right about Ramsey-Flamini combination being dysfunctional and I would take it further by arguing that the combo largely did not work because Ramsey consistently exposes the DM, regardless of who is partnered with him. Now before all the Ramsey supporters take me to task, I am not saying he isn’t an important player, not am I claiming that Flamini is not without explicit shortcomings. On the contrary, Ramsey is very talented going forward but it is obvious that he does not have the positional discipline that Elneny has so far shown in the CAM role, nor can… Read more »
I was interested in your thoughtful analysis. I think you get the factors right, but I do not agree with the conclusions reached. My view goes against the universal narrative of “all Arsenal supporters everywhere agree with me that” and “all Arsenal supporters know” which this comments section is frequently reduced to. But When Flamini and Ramsey were thrown together we had (obviously) no Coquelin, no Cazorla and no Sanchez. Of the next 17 games we lost 2. We won every cup-tie we played (as we had done the only other time they played together, against the Tiny Totts). Results… Read more »
Its good to see the options we have again out wide with Iwobi.
He slipped under the radar with many people focused on Gnabry or Akpom.
Like Campbell, he is a genuine option for us. Ox should not be discounted too.
And Alexis finally looks ike he has turned the corner and come back into himself again.
We will need goals. It may come to that if not to catch Leicester(As seemingly difficult task) at very least to pip Spurs.
Iwobi and Elneny’s contribution today is being overblown. Sanchez, Coquelin and Gabriel all made greater contributions. Coquelin MOM imo. 12 interceptions, 4 tackles, 85+ passing average and bossed midfield. Elneny was above average but not that great. Iwobi, very pleased for him, he’s going to be great but today’s performance is being overhyped which is good for the kid but feels like he’s being patted on the head. The rating seems condescending rather than a celebration of his contribution. Gabriel, Koscielny and Monreal all contributed more. Three best players today Sanchez, Coq and Bellerin with Coq MOM.
Hunay Floores, however way you spell his name, is a cunt.
Are we going to win all our remaining matches, watch Leicester drop 9 points and Tottenham implode? Well, maybe the Tottenham thing.
Dont know about you but I am making sacrifices to the lasagne gods.
Worked last time……
Tottenham is certain. Just look at their schedule.
I agree with you. Both Leicester and Spurs will drop more points than they are currently ahead of us. They have some tough fixtures coming up The big question I guess is whether we will win the games we need to win to make the best of that.
Welbeck has to be our first choice striker now, he just offers so much more than giroud upfront and u can see that Ozil loves playing with a striker that actually moves.
Iwobi has a chance, doesn’t he? And the thing I like about Elneny is that he’s a smart footballer and can do all of the basics right. Hopefully by the time it’s all said and done, Africa will have sorted its shit out and scrapped one its bi-annual competitions. Ludicrous state of affairs in an already massively overcrowded football calendar.
And a nod to Gabriel. Still dodgy as hell when he lets the ball bounce, but did a great number on Lukaku. Kudos.
Africa doesn’t need to scrap it’s bi annual tournaments for your convenience.
We will win the Pl,yes say i am mad but i see no way that the two above us can win it with the games they have at hand,We will lose one or two cames but those above us will lose more.I know no one is saying that but i have been following LC,the are tired now they could have easily drop points today
Lol! Finally Arseblog news comment section the way it used to be…
Referees hardly help us. Clattenberg just proved as much this afternoon.
Can’t wait for an arsecast extra discussing a league win and a good performance…and another cheating referee…my favourite match reviews, when despite all the FA/referee cheating we dominate the way we should.
El Neny and Iwobi have really changed things around for us. I’ve been critical of Wenger, but I feel we need to wait until the end of the season to judge him. If he can pull this off then he can stay forever!!
Mr. Blogs: You’ll have to apologize to Ospina for saying he can’t kick very far. On the other hand you’re spot on about Clattenburg needing the services of an optometrist.
Look I know the kid did well and we’re happy for him but lets not get carried away about Iwobi’s performance. He was OK. Got a goal – misdirected a number of passes and, in the 10 minutes before he was taken off, tried to channel Neymar and looked very silly.
Anyone got s clip of Sanchez running to try keep the ball in , before jumping the barrier and taking a seat with the Everton fans? Put a smile on my face.
i thought gabriel did really well – stayed on the right side of good aggressive defending vs tackling two-footed like a nutter and risking a red. Had Lukaku in his pocket all game.