A disappointing 1-1 draw today with the old enemy. We never really got going and gave them the lifeline of a penalty.
Here’s how the players rated.
A disappointing 1-1 draw today with the old enemy. We never really got going and gave them the lifeline of a penalty.
Here’s how the players rated.
I’m disappointed and others are catching up to us.
Arsenal are just over achieving if we are honest – November will bring them down to earth when they are fighting for fourth once again. That is all Arsenal are capable of under Wenger..
You’ve been waiting for a long time to make that comment. Haven’t you?
Afraid to tell us which team you support?
Hey Sp*r fan, what are you doing at a arsenal blog?
disappointing performance. Not convinced of our title credentials
This is the second game this season towards an interlull that our players seems to be on some holiday mood… It’s not good for a tittle chase.
A tittle chase makes me think of something Benny Hill would do
I actually thought Monreal looked back to his best, Xhaka not too shabby going forward (not to sure about his going back…)
I agree Monreal was our best player today on what was otherwise an abject team performance.
Agreed, I’ve been critical of him this season but this was a very solid performance from him. Iwobi deserves credit for tracking back more today too
When Walcott went to sleep 2 seasons ago against spurs and they scored from it. arseblog didn’t let it go for about a year and a half. Ozil put in the weakest defensive effort at the start of the dembele run for the penalty and misses and open goal and no mention. I get that he’s one of our best players but he can still be criticised.
After seeing such awesome skill and technique the other night. I think we can understand that open goal opportunity on his wrong may have been a little difficult even for a man of his ability.
Foot^
I totaly agree. He should be stronger in that duel and made a foul. And shoot he missed after Alexis asist. I love him but…
I actually thought Özil was getting into some brilliant positions to score today. I counted about 3 where he was open but because of lack of vision he wasn’t picked by the crossing player.
Ramsey and Ox were piss poor
That used to happen to TR7 regularly, finding a position by making space but team mates lacking the quality to see it or see it too late and put pressure on the receiving player. Might explain why he got injured so much.
Although that was technically an open goal, it really wasn’t an “open goal” type guilt-edged chance: the ball was flying towards him at an uncomfortable height on his weaker foot, and to ensure the goal was opened he probably needed to hit it first time. Not a big mistake, really (I’d say Iwobi’s weak shot when played through was far worse, as he had time and space to at least force Lloris into a great save). As for being shrugged off the ball too easily on the goal, Dembele was still miles away from really threatening and our collective defense… Read more »
While liverpool is putting teams to the sword, we are making excuses again. OX, chambo, theo have good sell on value, trade them in for some new training cones before their contracts expire.
Don’t think we can sell Ox and Chambo mate.Given they’re the same person.
Haha sorry, meant Ramsey
Nah, you’re thinking of Ox and Gibbs, who are the same person. Ox and Chambo, two different players, I bet.
Hamilton?
I’d keep either Chambo or the Ox ?
Yeah the draw was a bit crap but let’s not get all gloomy yet please. If you have some wild unfounded idiocy you wish to make public schedule some time on Arsenal Fan TV and have hand out with that knob Claude.
Why is Theo in that list? Was returning from injury and I thought had a decent game, depended well and wasn’t scared of putting a tackle in. I haven’t been his biggest fan in recent years but he’s been one of our better players this season
Xhaka looked like our best player today. He contributed well defensively and kept trying to make things happen when we attacked.
Our fullbacks were bloody brilliant today, especially Monreal. Showed why he is still first choice, and why he richly deserves his Spain call up. Coquelin was similarly fantastic at putting out fires, and xhaka was steady. But I’m overwhelmingly disappointed with the others – the ox for Walcott in hindsight was the worst possible substitution. Theo at least could have broken the deadlock with some magic, and was actually tracking back well. A big opportunity missed.
Actually think Bellerin looked a bit rusty and off the pace today, which is understandable after recovering from a knock. He was hardly terrible–had his good moments and sloppy moments–but slightly disappointing by his ridiculously high standards.
It seemed to me for the first 30 or so minutes we seemed to really struggle with the Sp*rs formation it seemed out full backs weren’t too sure how far forward they should go..THe whole game considered I thought they did well. The tackle by Bellerin in the box was particularly delicious.
Disappointing result. I was surprised to see Ramsey brought on for Coq (who was excellent for the most part). Ramsey still looks understandably rusty, but that is no excuse for those wasteful long shots. (What’s worse is that I was unsurprised by them.) If Arsène felt he needed Ramsey on the pitch, I’d rather have seen him come on for Iwobi on the left. That seems the most logical way to use him right now without messing too much with our pacey, starting front four and risking ball security in central midfield. I miss Santi. :'( By the way, how… Read more »
Monreal is good going forward but I wish someone would coach him to stop a flaming cross! That, for me, is a full backs main responsibility when defending. Its just too half arsed from him, gives the winger about ten yards and then turns his back when the ball goes over his head. Get Winterburn or Dixon back to drill this into him
Ox ox ox, what was he doing? His decisions making is appalling in this game.
To be fair, he hasn’t looked good for a long time now.
Except for those times he has looked good, like, I don’t know, 8 days ago.
He might have had one or two games against weaker opposition in which he was decent but saying he you can’t argue he has not been overall disappointing for a while
“Overall disappointing for a while” and “hasn’t looked good for a long time now” are not the same thing.
Ox seemed to pick up the nervous play from the rest of the team that started after Spuds scored. Panic at the back and trying too hard to make things happen spread through the team. Iwobi looked overawed by the fixture and his defensive cover was feeble – seemed to wander around after players like a dog on a lead instead of getting tight/tackling. We needed someone to calmly control midfield (Cazorla would do but we need someone else for the future) and Ozil isn’t the one to do it despite all his skills. One question – it’s 1-1 in… Read more »
Comment:Wilshere is the man, way better than Xhaka
Ahhhh I wish that strike of Theo’s had gone in. Woulda been a different story.
Not sure how since we scored the first goal immediately after.
Oxlade-Chamberlain did an Eboue there!
Can we recall Joel Campbell and loan OX, pretty please?
Campbell isn’t getting to the sporting team so doubt he would improve us. Would rather see The Jeff get a run.
We will have welbz in two months, who I personally think he is better the walcott and ox and he is consistent and if walcott retains his form we could have monster front 3 of walcott – alexis – welbz
But my front tree when everyone is fit would be welbz – giroud – alexis
The Ox had 20 minutes to change a game in which the entire team looked disjointed and under par, and yet somehow, after 2-3 very conspicuous mistakes, he’s the reason we weren’t good enough and the target of the fans’ ire? Please. He’d just been getting back into some form with his performances in the League Cup and against Sunderland, then is benched against Ludogorets for Ramsey (even though he played well last weekend and he’s a more natural right winger), and then unfortunately has 20 bad minutes today in a game in which many of his teammates had 90… Read more »
It’s true a lot of players were average but he really looked awful. He’s the only player in the team that would surprise me if they mishit a pass or cross by about 5m with no huge pressure.
Yes, like I said, a couple of very conspicuous errors. But their conspicuousness didn’t make them more costly than the many other errors of his teammates, and we do know he can do better (for instance, compare the bad crossing today to the wonderful cross for Alexis’s opener last week–don’t tell me he couldn’t do that this week because the opposition was better; he didn’t do that this week because the pressure was on him to effect the game in 20 minutes, and he choked; but that doesn’t make him a hopeless or terrible player). How many times did he… Read more »
I absolutely agree he’s not the reason we didn’t win the game. But everytime almost every time he comes on he offers very little to the team. The way he’s played for the last couple of seasons I would rather have someone else in the squad instead of him. If we sold him and replaced him with someone decent I would be very happy
Aside from Mustafi I didn’t think anyone played particularly bad just no one played particularly well either. Xhaka was decent though
I miss Tomas Rosicky 🙁
Can we bring him back as a confidence coach for the ox.
I’d take TR7 back without even thinking it, miss the guy, his vision, his slide tackles, his superb goals against the sh*t, his energy, his speed. Flamini, please invent a machine to turn Tommy back to his 20’s so we can sign him up and play him more
Is anyone else starting to feel nervous? I don’t like this feeling :S
I did, when I saw Man United’s result and realized that the game at Old Trafford now becomes even bigger. We don’t do well at Old Trafford with lots of pressure on us.
Yup, and it makes me miss Santi Oh Santi even more
Holding better than Mustafi.
A bit of a slow paced game. Just didn’t look at it today. Missing Santi, just look disorganised without him.
Or when not available we should probably try to pair two of Xhaka, Elneny, Ramsey for some matches. It feels like the Coq isn’t as effective when paired with other players than Cazorla. They really bring the beat out do each other.
You can blame the players all you want but the ref killed the match by awarding an unnecessary penalty
Clattenburg had a very very bad game to be honest. How Waynama and Rose didn’t see at least a yellow only he knows. Imo Dembele dived and it was not a penalty. He lost control of the ball way before that. And his encounter with Koscielny was deliberate. And no one is talking about 38th minute of the game when Vertonghen was pulling Xhaka’s shirt. Clear penalty for me and more clearer than those at the start of the season for pulling shirts. As for our goal, Sanchez was in offside but he wasn’t that active. That ball would have… Read more »
Very sub-par performance. Moving on. November is still young and plenty more to fight for!
Thought Iwobi started the sexond half really well, was a bit sad too see him subbed off. It looked like he felt the nerves a bit during the first half though.
Our CB pair looked tired and slow. Maybe time to rotate them too? I think they have started every league and CL match since mustard came here.
All in all a tight match and a point is an okay result. Hope we can steal 3 at manure.
Iwobi’s been very ordinary recently. Was thinking Ox should start instead but seeing his performance today I’m not so sure. We have to shift Alexis to the left and play Giroud up top
Tbh I thought we played better with Sanchez at CF, Giroud seemed to slow us down. And 3 centre backs all but nullified him in the air. Iwobi started a bit shakily, couple of misplaced passes and that poor shot, but in general I thought he did well, especially either side of half time
Ox played really bad. Felt like we are playing with 10men to be honest.
Definitely frustrating to end with a draw while Chelsea and Liverpool moved ahead of us. This was the type of match that I would love to have seen Welbeck on the right side vs Walcott who never really got involved. Many seemed off of their game like Iwobi who had a number of careless passes. On the bright side I thought Xhaka looked up to the task defensively and really opens things up with his passing. We do greatly miss Carzola and his all around game.
I agree on Iwobi, he has struggled in the last few games. Problem is there isn’t an obvious replacement apart from Giorud but that means changing the system. With Santi back we could play him out wide or use either Chamberlain (worst Arsenal performance since Walcott against United) or Ramsey there.
How the fuck am I still more positive than half of you fickle fuckers?
9/10 derby games are shit and more importantly we didn’t lose against one of the league’s top form teams. If we start losing to Bournemouth or Sunderland then complain.
Agreed. When we lost the first game at home to Liverpool, we’d all have taken what’s happened since as a reaction to that if it had been offered to us then.
Loads still to play for. COYG.
We really miss Santi! Our midfield was nowhere today. Coq is great and intercepting, tackling and pressing energetically but is clumsy when under pressure himself and struggles to play the ball. Dhaka did little in the first half and they just played straight through us. We have so many options there but other than Santi none of them seem able to help build possession or transition defence to attack.
Shoehorning Ramsey in again.Your playing against two big strong guys in wynyamu and dembele and you take off the coq
Would have been better just subbing Iwobi for Giroud. There was no need to bring Ramsey and Ox really
Blogs, I thing monreal was our best defender today he also made last ditch tackle on kane that he need only a tap in to score also he was most of the game exposed with little help from iwobi and made same great headed clearance and was our best today the only thing he lacked today was going forward but we all know that bellerin is best going forward .
Really missed Santi today. Iwobi had a poor game, but can’t fault his effort. Passing was atrocious. At least we got the point. Not the worst way to start off Nivember. Hope we can get back in to a decent flow asap.
It looked like spuds would have signed up for this result even before the game started. They will forever be in our shadow. We need to show a bit more mental strength and run around a little extra to win the league. We cannot afford to draw or lose the next game. That game is a 12 pointer for me. Winning against Manure would justify today’s result as a fair one.
Well, that was shit. This season will end like last season, and the one before that, and so on.
Top four but no title, loss to a superior team in the first knockout round of the CL. Maybe second round if we get crazy.
Frustrating game. Pochettino seems to know how to disturb Arsenal’s rhythm. Disappointing that we couldn’t finish them off despite our superior options. No need to panic just yet though. We are in a good position.
The hysteria. Firstly I’m not sure how you can objectively rate Ox and Rambo at such low ratings. Granted they did not make enough impact but they hardly warrant such skewed and bias points. Secondly the rest of the team didn’t do it through the game either so why focus on certain ‘favorite’ players for criticism. Thirdly, as much as we should have won this game and a draw is two points dropped, this was a well contested game and frankly, they were also decent. Finally as I have mentioned, all these people blindly saying we should start Alexis up… Read more »
BS. They were both trash today and deserved their poor ratings. Neither plays wide, especially when giroud on.
Agree the rating on Ramsey was very harsh, I actually thought he did well, shooting aside. Harsh on Ox as well but less so, that was a bad cameo especially considering who he replaced. Agree that we didn’t build on what we had second half, so frustrating. It seemed like the penny had dropped; their wing backs can be caught up field and their centre backs can’t deal with our pace out-wide. But we failed to get a grip defensively second half, a real shame
United is a must win now if we want to keep pace, we really should have taken advantage of Man City’s slip up yesterday.
I am so glad that I didn’t listen to the so called experts. First of all, this match was played after a particularly hard game in Europe. They were saying that Tottenham ere woeful midweek. We went two down. I enjoyed the game because I didn’t think we played too bad. Some good flowing football but Tottenham aren’t easy pushovers and they are not unbeaten by accident. NLD’s are always a tense affair. The next match is the one I would like us to win because a) it is against Man Utd and b) it is against Jose Mourinho.
There’s so much pressure on the payers in the derby games that they try too hard and lose their fluency. Iwobi looked overwhelmed by the occasion, Ox just doesn’t handle pressure at all and was atrocious when he came on, and why the hell was Ramsey shoehorned in when the game was crying out for the calm ball-playing Elnenny? Anyone seen the clip where Ramsey calls Mesut teachers pet? Coming from the biggest teachers pet of all, that’s pretty ironic.
Totally agree! That was not fair not at all, quite partial.
Is it just me, or was Alexis awful today?
Nothing worked out offensively it seemed.
If you think Alexis played awful today, you have a deep lack of understanding of this sport.
Ox is letting himself down. He is just not learning or improving. He needs to keep about opportunities and start working hard and show he deserves credit chance
Ox didn’t do great but he’s already on his best goal tally. I think he’s unfairly criticised, yes he wasn’t great, but he offers more all-round in ability than Walcott, can dribble, shoot, strong, fast.
If we’ve kept faith in Walcott with his many false dawns this long, we owe that much to Chamberlain to keep him on, because Chamberlain has more potential than Walcott had.
To be honest, apart from dribbling and strength I can’t think of another area where Ox is better than Walcott, not the way Theo’s being playing this season. That’s not me saying Ox is a bad player, I even think people are being harsh on him now. But between him and Theo, in this team, it’s an obvious choice.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear enough in my post, I’m not referring to their respective performances this season, Walcott is miles ahead. But I think Ox is improving and deserves the continual chances Walcott has got since he was 16, and I believe Ox can be even better than Walcott aged 27.
Ah fair enough, and I agree that Ox has even more potential than Theo though I wonder if that holds him back as well. The weight of expectation, the individual focus leading to finding teammates being an afterthought. He’s got all the ability in the world but it’s the simple things he seems to lose focus on. Walcott justified those shows of faith with some impress performances before periodically succumbing to injury and then a loss of form/confidence. But he always worked to get himself back in the team, Ox has to do the same
I actually thought Xhaka started the game a bit quietly and was surprised to see the stats for him, though I thought he improved as the game went on, especially with Ramsey on the pitch. Ox will get a lot of stick for that performance and no doubt he was poor, but it was a minor part of the game. I’m more disappointed with that penalty to be honest, so so silly. Shot ourselves in the foot again against Spurs like the red-card last season. A few people here saying Ramsey was poor. He’s shooting was awful but I liked… Read more »
It was my first game at the Emirates, not disappointing is the result.. But how much the fans were keen to leave the stadium. The players will surely have noticed, I did feel there is a disconnect somewhere. I hope I’m wrong but I can’t help the feeling.
Don’t like piling on players but Ox and Ramsey nearly caused me an aneurysm today. Frustration was already high and for them to come on and produce the shite that they did was unreal..The Ox in particular.
Then Giroud has one contribution…Miss a free header..-___-
Strangely though even when they equalized i never felt we would lose. We were shocking and still got a comfortable draw.
we had some good chances in the first half and we were punished for not taking them
Hmmmmm, sounds familiar, must check back over last 10 years to see if that’s happened before?
The media hype got to them. Hope they are learning they got to this point, not on paper!!!!
Fact Iwobi performed badly defensively! Fact Ox performed poorly offensively! Fact we missed the maturity of Carzola! Fact the players look too much at the media and get carried away by the hype! Fact arsenal is a bigger club than Tottenham! Fact it was a fair game, nothing lost nothing gained! What I don’t know is how fast they will learn and mature?! Unlucky boys we all know you can do better! Believe!! COYG….
I am disappointed, But, we were not playing Burnley or Swansea today. Sp*rs under Pocco are capable. Both teams tried to attack, neither side was able to break the other down.
I am gutted for Kos giving the penalty away. And Ox was off his head. Other than that we played ok and drew.
Arsene Wenger FFS, what’s the point of having competition in the teams if he’s just going to play someone back into form. Alex Iwobi has to be dropped. Been terrible for 4 games now. Give someone else a chance to step up.
As long as we are within 4 pts of the lead or clearing out come April and without major injury I’ll start getting excited. It’s a long way to Tipperary and the title-FA Cup-Champions League-Milk Cup quadfecta.
How lucky was Cech with that slip. And they hit the post. The OX was unreal for such a talented chap. In the olden days we would have bottled this and lost so half happy. Santi is key. Iwobi is the future.
I think we were caught by suprise with sp*rs 3-5-2 formation to be honest. Didn’t manage to adapt to their play and we couldn’t play our game as we were more focused on how to not concede against them and who was picking up who. Alexis against 3 central defenders and ozil not really clicking allowed sp*rs to dictate play most of the game. Our subs were the right ones considering how they did midweek but in hindsight were terrible, I thought walcott at least should have stayed on. Let’s not slate Iwobi here, the kid is still learning his… Read more »
I think it’s unfair and it really upsets me when Alexis performances aren”t appreciated nor respected as they should. He was extremely focused and played a terrific game today, chased and challenged every rival, made sprints, long accurate passes, dribbles, first touches, and at least four brilliant assists (to Coquelin, Özil, Iwobi and Giroud). And he gets a 5? Just because he didn’t score a goal?… People should not “punish” him for that, and try to learn a bit more about this sport. He just can’t be getting the same rating as Walcott, Mustafi or Giroud today, considering Giroud and… Read more »