If you’ve followed Arsenal long enough, you’ll know this club can take you from the sublime to the ridiculous, and tonight was another in a long list of examples of that, going down 2-1 to Watford.
A dreadful first 45 minutes went a long way to sealing our fate, and despite Iwobi’s 58th minute goal, we couldn’t find the goal/goals we needed.
I’m not rating the players tonight, it’s all on you guys. Comments on each player though.
Ffs
I think you should just leave them all at zeroes and move on
0 for everybody from me
Bag of Sh*t
It’s after games like this when you really think “what’s the point?”. All the good will in the world is drained completely.
The worst kind of Groundhog Day.
Blogs, you couldn’t bring yourself to give Ramsey the rating he deserved so you left them all blank. Very clever ?
Fact; We were never going to catch Chelsea! Fact; We will draw with Chelsea this weekend, and take 4 out 6 points just like we did to LC last year. Fact; Ramsey looks great in practice (must be reason he starts)! but is a passenger when pressed and hurried on the pitch. Fact; manager cost us three points by starting a slow physical striker OG against slow physical defense of Kaboul and the gang. Why start Giroud and rob him the service and the pace of full back Bellerin? Isn’t our system of attack based on pushing fullbacks up the… Read more »
Think you need to check your facts. We beat Leicester City home and away last season.
Just as disappointed at the result as you. And went little too far with the facts. lol.
That’s an awful lot of “facts” you got there
Exactly
Must be an American. They have a new meaning for the word ‘fact’ due to Trump.
I’m not sure what’s more ridiculous; voting for trump, voting for the brexit or continuing to watch this squad that can barely bring themselves to go thru the motions. All of them are asinine. I need to find a less stressful leisure time activity than watching arsenal.
We took 6 points against Leicester City last season, so that one wasn’t much of a fact.
You noticed it too, huh?
Blogs, you love ramsey so much, just like the board loves wenger
Having watched only the highlights and we allowed that fat slow lump Deeney run right through our defence as if they weren’t even there. How the fuck???
Fine saves by Cech in the first half. Without him we’d have had more goals against us than we already did.
Pitiful!
To be honest, and not having seen it on the telly box yet, I thought Cech should have held the ball for the second, instead of palming it out to whichever Watford player was blundering in on goal.
That looping header was a worry for a moment but then again each counter attack was a bit of a concern. We could have been 4 or 5 down at half-time.
Ramsey was garbage 3 is too generous.
Some Coq stats, courtesy skysports Won drawn lost With Coq: 9 7 5 45% Without Coq: 13 0 0 100% Truth is.. when Coq was introduced to the team his job was to protect the back four but then Wenger over elaborated and put him in CM to win the ball early and pass early. He’s no Kante, positioning and finding an early pass out to release the pressure is not his strength and when you pair him with a bloke who plays in his own world you are asking for trouble. Santi bailed him out but ramsey can’t pass… Read more »
It Flamini-Ramsey again.
I have no doubt Wenger sees this too, but he feels obliged to play them as he always goes by his pecking order rather than the balance of the team.
Same reason why Olly (whom I like) is back up top and Wenger abandoned Sanchez as CF (Which was working) or why, no matter how hard he tries, Perez will never get a start as CF unless injuries brings it.
Stats, lies, more stats, alternative facts, non-fake facts, shit … and the honest-to-goodness stuff we get from SkySports.
Yeah. Coquelin’s the problem alrighty. How could we have all missed it? Proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by proper integer numbers and backed up by voices no-one else seems to hear.
Iwobi played well, Ox was ok, Lucas did well for the limited time he got, and Cech didn’t do much wrong, but other than that it was abysmal really.
Sanchez had a stinker too unfortunately.
I miss Niles and Jeff
The club will never progress as long as Wenger stays. You can ‘love’ him as much as you like, but that’s a fact.
Yeah, okay. Let’s do a Liverpool, and fall into mediocrity for a few years. ‘Atleast Wenger will be gone.’
The mentality that the team will stagnate without Wenger is what has left us stagnated for long.
What price Sutton United wanting it more than us in three weeks’ time too?
Downright depressing they need to look at themselves in the mirror and decide how much they want to win Watford fought harder for the 3 points the bare minimum to put on an Arsenal shirt should be to give 110% week in week out if you want to keep your place in the team.
Tonight the performance fell way short of that
Predictably we crushed a cup game and then floundered the following pedestrian league fixture. As far as expectations go, if we don’t win we are still fully capable of 2nd place. Chelsea isn’t simply widening the gap between Arsenal, they’re widening the gap between ALL the other contenders. As an Arsenal fan it’s frustrating, but objectively there’s a chance we’ll finish above Liverpool, Spuds, United and City for two years running. I would’ve said last year was a better chance than this (beating LC twice and still screwing it up). Don’t get me wrong, a failure to win is a… Read more »
Get what your saying, But that understudy was our best performing player last night. Walcott, who was no the pitch for 45 minutes didn’t come close to Iwobi’s performance. I don’t have any problem with Iwobi starting games. He is less ‘consistent in patches’ than Walcott. As a side note… and this maybe scapegoating here, which the team don’t deserve. But the ref seemed to be vary lenient to Watford last night in comparison to Arsenal.. and I wonder if the team let that get under their skin. You could see Mustafi, Monreal and Ramsey all whining about the decisions… Read more »
It’s a different game if you bring on a hot forward to start the game instead of when you’re 2-0 down.
A point of note mate, Walcott is not a better player than Iwobi. Iwobi was one of the best players on the pitch last night.
Don’t worry. It gets worse. If I make it through a day without horrible pain or disappointing someone to badly I consider it a win. When Arsenal win it helps distract me and the next thing I know it is 3 days later and 3 days closer to death.
We are desperately lacking in structure. Don’t see how we can persist with just two midfielders behind four forwards, especially with those we have available. It’s suicidal.
What’s Lucas got to do to start? Wait for his contract to have 18 months left?
Whisper it, but 4-3-3 is likely the best balance for this team.
But Ozil can’t work in a 4-3-3 (he’s effectively a forward) so this left with a 2-man midfield to get overrun.
FFS Wenger himself abandoned 4-4-2 to avoid that tactical situation a decade ago.
It’s why I gotta rate Conte. He thinks about the team first and follows suit, even dropping Fabregas to make it work.
Not blaming Ozil for last night either. Just a running commentary on the systematic issue of Arsenal for the last 2 seasons now.
Ozil plays every game for a 4-3-3 Germany. Every game.
Yeah, out wide.
I wouldn’t mind shifting him to LW, but I imagine that will leave our LB hugely exposed. And unlike a tournament, a Season is long. I can’t imagine Ozil being happy on the wings, and I expect Wenger would sooner or later indulge him.
This is one of those cases where we KNOW Wenger surely things the same. Why else did he try the 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 early last season with Jack and Ramsey and Ozil out wide? But Ozil left us exposed so he reverted back again; fixing one problem, but then opening others.
It’s extremely infuriating and not always a good idea to comment on a performance right after a match, but that was teeth-pulling bad. Disappointed the most with Arsene Wenger’s selection to start the match. Gabriel rather than Bellerin, Giroud up front, and coq-Ramsey midfield are three choices that kill our fluidity. The team can accomodate one or perhaps two of these, but all three choices together were just poor. What’s even more disappointing was the Lucas Perez sub. More specifically, the movement of everyone around once he came on that killed our momentum. Iwobi was great on the left, Walcott… Read more »
Wenger got the team selection wrong. Why was Welbeck not even on the bench? Blogs (and many others) were calling for Perez to start. I think Giroud would have been a better impact sub in this one…midfield all wrong, argh!!!!
so frustrating, we really need to beat Chelsea now to have any chance.
At this point we’d probably be better off playing youngsters who are actually going to put in a shift.
I will sit through blooding some kids and losing for a while, if those kids show us that they hate to lose in an Arsenal jersey. We have a couple of guys giving 100% and sadly a few who just dont. For the first ten minutes of the second half we chased, harried, won 50-50s and you’re just left wondering why the f**k does it take 45 mins and two goals to get you trying? The great man said, ‘remember who you are, what you are and who you represent’. Dear me Rocky, a few of these boys need that… Read more »
I think the best bit of the first 60 minutes from the kick-off was Big Pat ( Jennings ) coming on to the pitchside to talk with Nigel Mitchell during half-time and seeing brady’s goal against Tottenham and the ’79 Cup Final highlights on the big screen because up until then there really was nithing to bring a smile to the face at all. I have long said Perez should get more game time or start since he set Özil up for those two goals in the CL, his cameo that night really showed what he is about, a cross… Read more »
An inexplicably bad performance. Why do we start games so poorly?! The manager and the players have acknowledged the problem, but nothing changes!
Not looking forward to Saturday’s game. Another loss and I think even the optimists have to acknowledge a PL win is out of the question for another year.
I swear, if I’m having a good day and arsenal are playing, arsenal always lose. I apologize gooners, its all my fault.
Please ensure you have a royally shitty day on Saturday and we’ll overlook today’s overindulgence! Ok?
With god as my witness, I will stub my toe on a very large Lego set that morning
The one rating I’d really like to leave for this game is Arsene Wenger – 4.
His team selection cost us this match, starting Giroud without any of the wide players which complement him was a maddening decision, and his lack of movement directly contributed to our awful first half. Alexis, Perez and Welbeck all fit this team far better as first choice central strikers, I’m a big fan of Giroud but he should be our super sub.
It’s probably not a coincidence we have so many poor starts and late winners with him up front. He’s a good player but it’s not working somehow.
It wasn’t giroud who made the silly foul that lead to the first and wasn’t giroud who on a throw in threw the ball to the wrong team or giroud that let a slow player go by two of our defenders.
No one’s saying it’s all his fault. The point is rather that his starting radically alters the way we play, and, given our current forward options, that’s something that Wenger could very easily remedy by leaving him on the bench to come on as a late sub.
I can’t see how it changes the way we play. He’s been our starting striker for several years now so if he haven’t got used to it by now then something is seriously wrong.
Yes, this this this this THIS. I’ve been a Wenger-in guy forever, but that may have finally changed tonight. This game was absolute AMATEUR HOUR from AW, starting with the decision to start Giroud. Let’s look at the facts. 1. When reasonably smart but (let’s face it) completely amateur fans like arseblog, gunnerblog, and I can see that WE ARE WORSE WITH GIROUD STARTING, how can Arsene Wenger not see this???? He is a good player, and great one to have in the squad, but extremely limited. We have known this now for years, which is why pretty much the… Read more »
Best post I’ve seen in months on here. Could not have said it any better. Word for eord, you repeated my thoughts.
And you know what? We all know Giroud will start on the weekend.
Fucking season is over.. I am on sick leave in Sweden and scraping for money to se AFC against Bayern . But now i will boycott going this year as i did last year when Arsene is in charge. WENGER OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t understand what the point of having the best attacking depth of the last 20 years is if you can’t play Perez over Giroud when it’s clear Giroud is stifling our fluidity despite his goals
Are we holding onto Ramsey for too long just bcuz of symphaty over his horror injury and 1(more like 0.75 though) great in-form season? And can I dare to say, sometimes I feel like same goes for boss as well
Ramsey is a good player as the Euro’s proved but he just doesn’t fit into our team. maybe it’s time to cash in on him while he is still worth a considerable sum.
Of course he is good player but is he good enough? I mean he was incredible during Euro 2016, but so is Joe Allen. And he plays for STOKE
Team played like a bunch of strangers tonight. Is there something going on in the dressing room? It’s almost like they can’t stand one-another – there certainly was not the intuitive connection among the squad that we’ve seen in the past …
Maybe they have realized that Sanchez is a greedy mercenary that plays just to bolster his own stats.
Comments are easy tonight…just type the phrase: utter shit and cut and paste 11 times. Slow starts are becoming the norm and not the exception. They are lasting whole halves too. It’s a real worry because it’s nothing you can fix like adding a quality player in a position where you are lacking. It’s a mental thing and didn’t we just add some kind of sports head shrinker to the staff?? WTF is he telling them? Is he a Chelsea fan?
I really don’t want to say ‘told you so’… But for fucks sake this team doesn’t deliver when they need to. Happy with top 4 every year? Then keep Wenger. Want the title like me – then he just has to go…
There can’t be any excuses with this talented squad.
Yawn…wake me up when we have a manager who can take us to the title
Freaking frogs…. Let me go to sleep
Blogs still managed to push the blame on other players but not Ramsey. This is just ridiculous.
Ramsey is never Arsenal quality.
And there goes Mustafi’s streak. On his performance he deserved it, to be honest. He and Coq got 2’s from me for doing fuck all to,stop that first goal. Pathetic defending. Ramsey and Giroud get the other 2’s, and only Lucas gets above 5, with a 7. He wanted it, he worked for it, he almost made it happen, and he didn’t look like a whiney hump shouldered spoiled brat when it wasn’t coming off (looking at you Alexis).
Iwobi was excellent when deployed on the left, bringing on Perez actually stifled Iwobi’s game as he was forced into the centre
Sanchez was our 2nd worse player tonight (see Ramsey), you could tell he is just playing for himself. Unfortunately looks like he will not be signing that contract, so please sell him this summer to get a great fee from ??
Cech – kept us in the game, could have been 4-0 by half time (7.5) Gabriel – got forward okay, but crossing was poor and defending was non-existent (3) Mustafi – stupid fouls, backed off when he should have tackled (3) Koscielny – best of a bad lot at the back, hung out to dry by Mustafi (6) Monreal – attacked well, defended badly (4) Coquelin – not up to his usual snuff (5) Ramsey – awful for every second he was on the pitch, to blame for both goals … don’t try to block a shot unless you can… Read more »
And super Jack misses yet another chance to make this midfield his own. So very Arsenal for him to think this wouldn’t happen.
Blogs, Ramsey turns his back on the shot for the first goal instead of attacking it to try to stop it. On the second goal, he does little to try to get to a poor throw in, then just coasts instead of running back to defend. And then after showing little going forward from these “efforts”, he manages to strain a calf. When will you finally stop defending him?
Well, i wanted to say thing for a long time already, whether you lot noticed or not. Yeah we do have a great top top squad depth, but you know why we are still in the same shit again? Yes, you know the amswer, my beloved Arsene just dont know how to handle such depth and rotate players. So there you go, same horse shit every year
Sell them all. If not I am putting Alexis, Iwobi and Lauren Koscielny in my Ford Fiesta.
It was Gabriel who fouled before the opening goal
Total shit
The team just crumbles the moment there is any mention of them being serious contenders, lets be serious..How many times have we had the opportunity to get away from the chasing pack or go top, really think about it..We have never taken the chance.
The decision to move Iwobi who was skinning the left back was ridiculous.
Whats with Ramsey these days whenever he plays we loses. And the Mustafi unbroken streak is now finally broken.
How many times have we come out looking absolutely shite in the first half? Title hopes effectively gone now. Players are clearly not in the right frame of mind to go out there and dominate the opposition. Hopefully a new manager next season will change this.
I gave a zero to every one of these players. They don’t deserve anything more. I don’t care if you disagree with me
Why does no one talk about a change in formation? How long now have we been playing the 4 2 3 1. Its predictable and the pairing of coquelin and ramsey has proven to be disastrous in the past. Other managers would have tried something different, however wenger continues the same thing, expecting different results. madness.
Awww…so cute seeing y’all rant like we didn’t know this was coming. It is what happens every season under Wenger….we’ll go on another run of good results again when we are out of ucl and top 4 is under threat, the cycle of failure continues
I’ve never lost my hope but my sleep…over to you my dear Cannon!
Ramsey should be kept as a sub for Ozil in cup games and in games where we’ve gone 2-0 up and just want to hold onto the ball. I really wanted to see OX in that central role in a premier league, maybe he was just too tired to start. But now that Ramsey is injured maybe he gets to play there! Chelsea, Pool, Spurs all dropped points unfortunately we bettered them by losing more! AW would’ve thought that Watford would park the bus & put in OG hoping OZ & OG would break their defence. But in my opinion… Read more »
Ok not at all surprised we gave them a two goal lead. I don’t have any words to describe our players being half asleep during the first halves of our games anymore. Not sure if it’s psychological or plain unwillingness. I was disappointed with Giroud getting the nod, really had expected Sanchez to be up front. And once again Perez what more does he need to do to get more game time. He’s so mature Perez u can see in his style of play, i enjoy watching him and his movements. I sympathize with the manager in that OG was… Read more »
A great big pile of festering shit. Then you switch over from the news to watch this pile of shit.
I have time for Ramsey but he has a large responsibility for both goals. Tottenham and Chelsea draw and gain points on us. Just pitiful.
What has Ramsey contributed this season? I’ve seen no progression in his game. Time to move on.