So our unbeaten run in the Premier League, which stretched back to the opening day of the season, came to an end at the hands of another Merseyside team.
Everton’s late winner condemned us to a 2-1 defeat, after what was a lacklustre performance to say the least.
Here’s how the players rated tonight.
Some of the abuse Iwobi has received is a disgrace. We’re really an abhorrent fanbase at times.
I don’t even want to read it. Iwobi done his best, got involved and on the ball, missed a chance which was brilliantly blocked off the line, and got himself in a great position on another chance. Anybody who abuses the lad are a disgrace. Iwobi is a top guy and is a home grown talent who has what it takes to succeed at the very top. Why on earth would you abuse the lad… We should not tolerate any abuse social media. If you see it, report it and call these idiots out.
Iwobi should have started. One issue was the manager’s lack of rotation. OK I understand the winning formula narrative but he noted the exhaustion of plating 4 games in 10 or 11 days. We missed Mutafi’s passing from the back and against a pressing Everton I wonder whether Elneny should have started in place of Coquelin who was great in Stoke game but under pressure was less effective in moving the ball here (apart from the through ball to Sanchez that led to the Ozil miss) and the MF seemed overrun.
Real disagree with you on this.
The Ox has been solidly improving every game, and when he was subbed off in the game before Everton it was plain to see he was disappointed. To not play him would have been bad not only as I think it might have frustrated him, but more importantly, he was starting to become a real part of the team contributing consistently over the course of his time on the pitch.
Team selection was spot on from Wenger, I thought
Sadly, and I’m not hating on him, Özil looked out of sort from the very off when in the first few minutes two or three of his passes just did not come off at all. That was when I thought it wasn’t going to be his night, even when we looked to have the better of the game. The Ox tries so hard and that is to his credit and Theo was a little naiive in his defending but had a lot to do for the cross that came in once he’d commited unwisely. I wish Perez had come on… Read more »
to think we might be behind Chelsea by 9 after the weekend game points is pretty bad
and we could be 69 points behind them at the end of the season. We’re not going to be though and getting worked up about something that hasn’t happened yet is ridiculous
…read straight off the script from the media narrative
I agree that Perez would have been a far, far better substitution for Walcott on the right. You could visibly see the team struggle to adjust when Giroud came on.
Agred. I don’t see point in bringing on Giroud but taking off the supply of crosses. I do see the point in bringing Giroud on though – it’s the Plan B we’ve demanded for years.
Wenger needs to order Ozil to stay out of the box when we’re defending set pieces from now on.
If the fragile barbie puts no effort whatsoever in these situations then why is he there? decoration?
Should just stay out of our box. He had an all round shit game today but the whole team in general were dire.
Fragile barbie? What the fuck is your problem?
That fragile barbie very likely can kick your ass and feed your hypothetical balls to you any day of the week.
You are living proof that supporting Arsenal is not a cure for being a total wanker.
Well, Ozil did look like he was afraid of getting hit by the ball for that second goal. He needs to get stuck in more like Alexis.
But I’m not blaming him for this loss. It was a collective effort of mediocrity.
He is a pansy though. I’d love to see stats on aerial battles for ozil. But I think they would be skewed as most of the time he ducks or stands a couple of yards away.
It’s his only down point but it’s pretty annoying.
Lol @ the bonus rating. Please publish them so we can downvote them to oblivion.
Coulda shoulda woulda
Onwards and upwards.
If you can’t love Mesut when he’s poor, fuck off. Think that normally goes different but no one disses my googly eyed assist machine.
You realize your goggly eyed assist machine has the grand total of 1 assist
Or to put it another way, 5 assists to go with his 9 goals.
Or to put it another way, every season he leads on assists. This season he doesn’t so starts knocking them in himself. Not good enough for the lads on here who couldn’t assist that old lady across the road never mind find Oliver Giroud with a pinpoint 40 yard ball over the top.
Sorry my bad, he actually has 2 assists in his 14 premier league games this season.
The team didnt really show up today. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Just hope they make up for it with a win against city.
Disappointing result and performance, have to credit Everton too with the intensity with which they played which unfortunately we did not match. For the positives Koscielny continually has dominating performances and did so again tonight. Xhaka is really starting to show why Wenger paid so much for him, what a passer. He also is always in the right position to support the player with the ball, always making himself available and like Ozil has great anticipation on what to do with the ball when he gets it. His defending and positioning has been very good too. On the negative side… Read more »
How many goals Walcott scored this season compared to Ox. You see why Walcott is part of starting XI ?
Okay, I get it. A loss was meant to happen and it happened against Everton and not City. I’m certain this team will recover in time to win this weekend.
I’m confident all the way to the end.
Amen.
Blogs you just don’t understand the modern game, you’re not allowed lose a match against a team unbeaten at home because then football isn’t well fun. I threw away all my ozil toys and now im on the internet, im mad as hell and im not going to take it anymore.
PS I’ve no problem with venting, i saw that ludicrous display last night (although that will happen over 38 matches), i am referring to the abusive angry toddler reactions.
That ludicrous display last night?
What’s Wenger dowing bringing Walcott on that early.
That’s the problem with Arsenal, they always try to walk it in.
🙂
Kind of feel like giroud has lost his super sub mojo, now he no longer really feels convinced a starting place is re-winnable, without something like an alexis injury (God forbid). Very ego driven player giroud, and his ego is low on energy.
I thought we did ok. The result says otherwise, yet the ref was kin awful. We had two clear pelanties in the last five minutes. And why only 4 mins of stoppage time? The injury to their keeper took at least three minutes. 6 subs. Blimey. We should have won the game.
They lost a game. A tough one in which they fought until the end. Suspect some of those claiming that Arsenal ‘didn’t turn up’ have either never played the game or are simply, complete and utter wankers.
Interesting. I can see that abuse is okay if it is directed at those who are strongly critical of the team when it performs poorly.
That’s the point, they didn’t perform poorly, they just lost.
Seriously? It’s easy to get carried away by the comments, and forget that we are reacting to player ratings by Blog and fans where our highest performer is Kols at 7, while our best players, Sanchez and Ozil were rated 5.5 and 3.5 respectively, by readers. Theo was rated 3. Yet you say they lost but didn’t perform poorly? LoL.
Everton work rate 10/10, they wanted the win more than the gunners
Well, they were more desperate, I’d rather put it that way. This was a team that was called out before the match by their manager for being too weak physically.
It’s always hard to face a team with that kind of extra motivation, particularly when they’ve actually got some players of decent quality.
With scores even at half time, we had time to wake up to the threat. Our manager had the interval to motivate our players too. Afterall, we are the ones aspiring to win the title, not Everton. We were the ones poised to top the table. I don’t understand how Everton could have been more motivated than us just because their manager challenged them before the game. And ours didn’t.
Spot on, but Wenger is not a motivator of players, never has been. It’s common knowledge that he doesn’t raise his voice in the dressing room but last night was the perfect example that in some matches the need to fire up and physically and mentally motivate the players is vital.
Interestingly Gary Lineker asked Steven Gerrard before the Champions league match last week if he would be happy with a manager who didn’t raise his voice and he said no, sometimes you need to be shouted at.
If our players can’t get up for an evening game at goodison park and can’t get properly motivated to play in a match in which they could go top of the table after the final whistle then shame on them. And no amount of screaming and yelling by Wenger is going to change that. Poor team performance but especially from the midfield. They did Nothing to inspire me at work today.
Nonsense, it’s the manager’s job to prepare and motivate the team not just tell them to be prepared and motivated.
I’d love to see Lucas get a run of games. I understand the PL has a uniqueness that takes some time to adapt to however he is a strong energetic character and i feel a run of games would be the making of him… the primary reason I’d like to see him play more is purely down to his positional awareness. We have a team of players who seem to be drawn to the peno spot when the ‘wingers’ have the ball in anticipation of the cut back but I love a player who will gamble on the Cross hitting… Read more »
Two completely free headers on the 6 yard box. It would be less frustrating if we actually got out played for a goal occasionally.
They were good goals, it’s called exploiting an opposition weakness. A concept thats become frowned upon under the morally pure Wenger over the last decade or so but a totally legitimate and necessary ploy for all teams, especially ones that wish to be successful.
Hahaha. Mate, you are calling for serious thumbing down!
Really poor from ozil today. One of his worst.
Not just ozil though, a lot of players underperformed today
Not our best performance by a long way. I guess that’s what happens when you’re competing at the highest level in three competitions… unlike a few of the teams around us.
Bounce back with a win on Sunday and today will be a distant memory. Bad start to my Wednesday though (awake at 6:45am for this game in Aussie)
What 3 competitions at the highest level are those, sir? It’s long since we got knocked out of the League Cup, where we played kids anyway. That’s not exactly at the highest level because you meet all sorts of teams. And the FA Cup doesn’t kick-in for us until January. Again, you meet all sorts there. That leaves us with just the Premiership, and the Champions League. I believe we have the squad to participate in 2 competitions fairly comfortably.
Let’s hope we kick off Everton’s season… Remember they still have to play all of our rivals in the second half, including Chelsea at Goodison Park. As for us, we need to beat City more than ever. What gives me hope is that they are missing 2 key players. (But we never seem to capitalize on others’ injuries…)
For the bonus rating: I think those are comments from gamblers…
This game was lost on the midfield, by not retaining the ball and creating oportunities, so Coquelin, Xhaka and Ozil are the ones to blame. Everton goals were some sort of bad luck. Arsenal was the one that didn’t scores more
How did Coquelin get such a poor rating??? I thought he had a fantastic game. He was running past players, playing good passes. The one “silly” foul he gave away was Xhaka lost his footing and left us exposed. I know its unpopular and we always feel like we have to speak up Xhaka but he was much much better than him on the day.
Everton don’t lose at home. Despite their recent run, no-one wins there. A draw would have been a good result, and we came up a bit short on the night. Would have liked to have seen Lucas for longer. Shame, but everyone except chelsea has wobbled a bit recently. Not a disaster, as long as we don’t lose against city.
Watch Chelsea go there and pick 3 points easily. So u can’t beat Everton away and you wanna be champions come may? Champions don’t give excuses, they get the job done.
Bring Back Kanu!
Hope his is the catalyst that make wenger change the starting 11.
how the feck did we not get a penalty for the trip on alexis, spurs would get 2 for that. All season long we have been seeing soft penalties given against us, and our rivals given soft penalties, and we cant get even a stonewall penalty. But going by how clattenburg reffed that game from the outset, i suppose we should not be surprised that he did not award us a penalty, as it was one rule for everton and a different one for arsenal all game. dont forget their winner also came indirectly from a dodgy freekick that led… Read more »
Three things -the arsenal seems to inspire other teams to greatness they had previously not achieved. Everton’s play was the best of their season. How many times have we seen a goalie stand on his head? A striker show up, or a back four hold their line, a midfield dictate terms, a team show up for the first time in the campaign? Arsenal is a struggling teams talisman, they’re turning point. -loyalty to players is a wonderful thing, but so are timely and beneficial substitutions. If a team is stagnant the last thing they need is a player who lacks… Read more »
Oh well…another loss was pretty muc inevitable.
Blogs, what about making the comment section by invitation only?
I worry about the lack of protection our full backs get. hector is lightening quick so gets away with some of it. I feel they may be being asked to do too much.
Well, hindsight is easy but fatigue must have played a role in the lackluster performance as it was almost an unchanged side from Saturday. We have a deep squad for the 1st time in a while so I hope Arsene rotates successfully in the busy holiday schedule like he did for our last CL game and then the following Prem game on the weekend. Alexis, Ozil, Kos & Bellerin are the only untouchables for me and should always be 1st on the team sheet. We have a decent enough squad to rotate almost every other position and keep everyone fresh.… Read more »
Iwobi 6????? Carelessly gave the ball away several times.
4 or 5
I thought Everton played very well. Even though we lost, the overall performance seemed similar to our other performances. We were unlucky with the referee decisions. On another day, we could have won or drawn this game. So I am not too worried just yet. Not a surprise that Alexis and Ozil are carrying us offensively. Yes, a lot of players are contributing with the goals but Alexis or Ozil would have some role to play in creating a majority of chances. So no surprise that Ozil had a poor game and the team did not have a good game.… Read more »
I would take a draw at city if we are to repeat this performance. Too flat.
Shit happens suck it up get over it move on
Arsenal are more than happy me match and frankly two losses all season we’d have taken that at the start
Really though, I feel like people hate arsenal. Certainly in all my interactions with other american fans. it’s rare to meet an arsenal fan. We have very likable players. I don’t quite understand it
This was a game we needed to win 1-0 but after we went ahead with the goal we niether defended well nor went forward well.
We do have a problem thus season, both home and away, in that we score and then sit back to look for the breakaway. Problem is that our offensive midfielders are not good at defensive cover. AW needs to recognise this and not assume that players know how to do things everywhere.
What a surprise Giroud defended a corner well soon as he got on and then was ignored by Sanchez who only has to glance at his telepathic boyfriend because they are both world class and deserve 3 times as much money as anyone else on the pitch!
It was Ramsey’s fault!
I was thinking, we could have really used a fresh Ramsey off the bench. I think we lost due to late substitutions. We had a quality bench that was roaring to show what they’ve got, we just didn’t give them enough time to come on and affect the game.
Clearly tired legs were at show today
Does anyone else think, we should start ospina instead.
Perez on left, Ox on right and Alexis up front.
Giroud and Iwobi cost us the game
Everton played like all teams should play against us. Aggressive, in your face, and physical. We struggle to cope with that, especially when we are missing Mustafi, one of our few bigger men.
Does anyone else think, we should start ospina instead.
Perez on left, Ox on right and Alexis up front.
We should have finished the toffees off in the first half and we deserved at least a draw,lets get three points against city…….COYG.
I never really understand the players sometimes. We tend to cross the ball more when Giroud is not the pitch ad less when he’s on it, we should play to his strength. We’re poor but we can make up for it against City. Hope Perez or Iwobi get a chance against them. Onwards and upwards
Who knows what this means. Everton are very tough at home and we, well, sucked. (We really did – a horrible performance and very lucky to have a goal).
We shall see.
Can’t understand why wenger leaves it so late to use subs he will have to rotate iwobi and perez for Walcott and cox keep everyone on their also elney for coq gibbs for monreal
Its pretty obvious that we have a lot of other competitions to contend with (champions league, FA cup, League Cup, etc). Chelsea and Liverpool do not. Arsenal have played poorly in the past at this stage. We’ve gotten through November (relatively unscathed). I get that we’re aiming for our first premier league in some time, but I thought we kept playing to win and I thought most of us played hard. It’s not always going to go our way, even as a title-challenging side. I do wonder whether Everton’s side were buoyed by their crowd. What if our crowd gave… Read more »
Like I said, the whole season will hinge on efficient rotation. Fans see Alexis scoring and they will say he has GOT TO start the next game. Or Lucas after his hat trick. As I have been saying since day one, its the whole squad that we need performing because Alexis is not going to be doing it every game. Sometimes you have to start Giroud or for the matter maybe Lucas. We are playing practically a game every 3-4 days. We’ve only just come off juggling CL so we need to consider this. Bellerin has only just returned from… Read more »
I actually thought that in spells we played reasonably well. It wasn’t consistent enough throughout the game, but to suggest we were awful from start to finish is simply not true. Everton didn’t play particularly well either, and were fortunate with the series of events surrounding their second goal. The frustration comes from the fact that the goals they did score were avoidable even with those incidents as both goals came from more-or-less free headers in the box. I don’t really understand the abuse aimed towards Iwobi, he was asked to come on and give us a different option along… Read more »
I blame Ramsey. Completely unsettled the rhythm and balanve of the team last night and……oh wait hold on he wasn’t playing was he ?
A frustrating result and two funky goals to give away but you can’t win em all. Once Everton equalised the game was on a knife edge and could have swung either way. It went Everton’s! I can see all contenders drop points in the coming weeks so lets just hope we can bounce back and take the Man City scalp next week….then kick on again 🙂