Arsenal kept a second successive clean sheet in their second successive win, beating Crystal Palace 2-0 thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Alex Iwobi.
Here’s how the players rated today.
Arsenal kept a second successive clean sheet in their second successive win, beating Crystal Palace 2-0 thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Alex Iwobi.
Here’s how the players rated today.
Oli’s charming modesty about getting “maximum luck” for his goal was refreshing. That must be goal of the season so far, no?
I fully agree, goal of the season until now. But I was wondering, what does Giroud have to do to get a 10 rating on Arseblog?
Ah, I missed the bouns rating, sorry.
Not miss a “sitter” and give the ball away ever.
The rules are pretty clear.
Ozil was anonymous today.
In all seriousness though, despite the shitness of palace, did we actually miss him?
Isn’t it better to look at it in this way? Mesut Ozil is fucking brilliant, but when he’s out we seem to have the depth and quality to cope.
Think you answered your own question there Hah, “despite the shitness of palace”.
Dig out the chav match, yeah that shite team that are pissing the league. Interestingly enough Mesut (can’t play in big games) Ozil tore them a new one. Didn’t play against the bin dippers, yeah that went well and both trips we went with the tactic of defending all game. Not his style may as well have left him out of them.
To Manchester ^
I know that this will get me a lot of downvotes, but I don’t think I’m seeing in Xhaka what a lot of other people seem to be seeing. I see him as a quietly efficient player on the ball who is often quite clumsy in the tackle in dangerous positions. A good player but I don’t think he is good enough to be a starting midfielder in a top 4 team at the moment. He is also fast becoming to long shots what Kolo Toure was to direct free kicks
Xhaka and Elneny are top quality in my opinion. COYG!
https://twitter.com/afcvideo/status/815664071102136324
I think he’s really cementing his place at the moment
I like that he’s puts a lot of weight behind his passes. That’s nice.
He had a very good game and has done very often when he is given time on the ball. He struggles when pressed though although it may be harsh to expect him to have the close control skills Cazorla has when under pressure.
Would disagree, I think Xhaka is quality. Only issues I have with his game are a lack of mobility/dribbling and he’s maybe too rattled by pressing. Will need to work on those for the big games but he was on top form today
Some stats
https://mobile.twitter.com/Squawka/status/815659616193417216
https://mobile.twitter.com/Squawka/status/815619777540620288
Looked particulary impressive in the second half I thought
English pls? Perhaps you’ve been watching Xhaka of Arsenal FC Argentina
You are 100 % correct ……… in your statement that you would get a lot of down votes.
The rest of the babbling that you produced, a load of croak as far as I am concerned.
My poor sleeping family when that goal went in. Went absolutely mental.
My reaction was just the opposite. Stunned silence followed by that wonderfully gooey feeling as you realize that just really happened!! Now I am gonna bask in all its glory until Tuesday when he hopefully plonks in another one like this.
I know the Brits made fun of Bob Bradley for using North American terms when talking about footie, but there’s a great ice hockey term for Giroud’s shot: Bar Down!!!
Sanchez with the cross, Giroud reaches back…Scorpian kick bar down! What a beauty!
Is that too North American? haha.
Happy New Year’s to all. Hopefully some rivals start dropping some points soon!
First to comment? Good today , very dominant, roll on Bournemouth
Giroud. World Class! Wenger go buy us a striker.:D Alexis. Can we have another one of him? Iwobi. Excellent. Doesn’t matter where we play him. Personally prefer him moved centrally next to either of Granit or Le Coq. We have tons of options out wide again. Iwobi protects the ball and uses it well plus he can carry it with feet. Elneny. The man has a pair of lungs. Good hard graft before he leaves for the ACN. Granit. World Class. Another superb display with a wide range of passing from deep. Wenger has made mistakes in market but crucially… Read more »
That moment when you watch it go in and you say to yourself…”he did that thingy”!!! Oh to be a gooner.
Great job by Alexis. He did not score, but did so many good things for the team, not to mention the countless passes in the box. Amazing assist to Giroud. Well done AS7
C’mon Blogs what’s he gotta do to get a 10?
Give Giroud 10.
Or we riot.
Burn the servers down and all that shit. We will even hunt James down and burn him at the stake.
Chill man
Why would Ramsey start ahead of coquelin and xhaka next game ?
Agreed. What did he do today to push for a start for that game?
He played well, looked sharp and Xhaka at least is due a break during this busy period. Need to be rotating to keep everyone fresh
I wouldn’t say he played particularly badly but I don’t remember him doing anything of note when he came on. You are suggesting Coquelin and Ramsey partnership? Who’s going to sit and be the play maker? El Neny, Cazorla and Xhaka are the three players who have the skills to play that position. Not so much Coquelin and certainly not Ramsey
Elneny’s on a plane to Africa, Cazorla’s injured, and Xhaka’s played every minute of our last few games. Is that enough?
Yep, more or less that. Two games in 48 hours means you have to try and rotate.
I worry Coquelin-Ramsey lacks creativity and vision in midfield. My money is on Xhaka-Coquelin for that game
Totally agree that Coquelin-Ramsey is not a good partnership if we ever want to keep the ball, especially away against a good possession/pressing side. So with Elneny gone, Xhaka has to start on Tuesday (or Iwobi play deeper?).
…..only Higuitas was better and Bergkamp, Henry and Wrighty won titles and doubles
the look on crystal palace owners face when he paid 30m for benteke and we paid £10m for the scorpion king of london.
Great shift in by alex, Mo and granit! bring on bournemouth
Xhaka’s passing is lovely to watch as each pass has meaning to it. His defensive work is great. And he hasn’t been carded in a long time either. Getting better and bettter.
Yes his passing was great today. I thought Elneny was excellent too – a bit more incisive than usual – an 8 for me
I know he was probably just rested but interesting that Coq was dropped for Elneny here. I’ve often said we shouldn’t be playing 2 DMs at home to teams outside the top 6 and while Xhaka and Elneny played in a 2, Elneny had license to roam and make things happen. He isn’t as much of a ball winner as Coq but a lot better on the ball and all-round excellent today. Also noted that when Coq did come on, instead of holding like normal and waiting to press, he was racing all around the pitch trying to make things… Read more »
I don’t know what Arsenal games you have been watching but Coquelin always presses high and plays higher than his midfield partner. He doesn’t sit
To clarify, I meant Coqulein normally holds when we have the ball. He doesn’t make the kinds of runs he was making when he got on the pitch today even when we’re winning, including a particularly eye catching one on the left. He may have just been out to impress but I also suspect he might have been told he has to contribute more to our attacking side in games like this
Elneny a sure 8 for me! Really good today.
Good performance, sure, but for me it’s groundhog day:
– look great against weak teams
– usually outclassed by strong teams
I hope they prove me wrong when we play Chelsea
Wow, 18 thumbs down, three thumbs up!
Wondering why?
Inconvenient truth? Blind faith?
(PS I thought we played well today and said so. But how can anyone argue against the point that we usually look great against weaker teams and usually average against strong teams? Personally, I can’t get carried away with good wins against weak teams. But maybe my expectations are too high?)
Rather than just thumbing down, I’d like people to tell me why I am wrong. Don’t worry, I won’t get offended – just want to engage in debate! Why is it any different this time (ie. beating weak teams, and not turning up against strong teams) Probably because people don’t have a sound response that… Who is confident that we can beat Chelsea? Certainly not I. As long as there is almost religious blind faith, and ignorance of our massive flaws, this club won’t move forward. But some are obviously happy with us just beating weak teams (with the very… Read more »
If the point is that we play better against bad teams than good ones… isn’t that why they’re bad or good? I feel like this general thought is kind of empty and easy analysis to make. For example – look at last year’s top 6. Leicester – took 1.8 pts per match vs other top 6 clubs. They took 2.25 vs everyone else. Arsenal – 1.6 and 1.96 Spuds – 1.7 and 1.89 Man City 1.2 and 1.92 Man United – 1.7 and 1.75 Southampton – 1.7 and 1.64 Outside of Southampton – they all (to varying degrees) do worse… Read more »
You did see us totally own Chelsea earlier in the year right? (Costa haha) Conte looked totally despondent and his team looked lost and out of our league. Credit to him that he was able to get his system in place and the players responding so rapidly after that but unless there was a transfer window I don’t know about, it’s the same lot of guys still there and they are definitely capable of going right back to the form they showed that day and we are certainly capable this year to be the ones to take them there. The… Read more »
For me Xhaka was the unsung hero today, he was superb. Overall a very solid performance. We never looked like a losing side today. What a finish from Giroud that was, whatever Mkhitaryan can do, Giroud can do it better. Just a little dissapointed since we didn’t rest at least one of the trio Xhaka, Sanchez or Giroud for the last third of the game which was quite intense. Suprised Wenger subbed Elneny, who is going and won’t be available for next few games. Maybe Welbeck in contest for Bournemouth? Will Ramsey be pushing for a start? Imo only if… Read more »
That was satisfying. Great performance by the team. These 11 players were not being pushed around by the opponents.
Pity Elneny is leaving for a month. Hope Wenger uses Coq. It´s better for the team than using Ramsey.
Would love to see some Xhaka-Ramsey action, though at least against lesser opponents Xhaka-Elneny seem so to work really well. Two good matches for them now, this and the Bournemouth match. They help us keep the ball which has been kind of a problem lately when teams press us
World class
HFB he scores when we wants…;-)
Total domination…fun to watch. Palace didn’t really put up much of a fight. That goal…oofah! That’s a world class finish from a world class striker right there.
Generous rating for Monreal. Had troubles against a shitty opponent. Otherwise spot on.
Sanchez was such a joy to watch today, no matter where he plays he is so dangerous and loved his effort tracking back vs Zaha to make that tackle. Some of his touches are unbelievable. Nice to see Elneny get a run and love the way he works with Xhaka. Speaking of Xhaka what a range of passing he has. Makes me think back to how tough it was watching Denilson play the ball backwards and sideways from that position. His level of play now is certainly helping with the absence of Carzola. Love watching how Iwobi buzzes around and… Read more »
I thought Iwobi was our best player today. He was constantly wanting the ball & was involved in most of our creative plays today. A few wayward passes but that will come with game time.
Have to disagree. Palace have a decent attack, we made them look rubbish by giving them no useful possession for most of the match. During the 10 minute spell we were under the cosh Monreal stuck to his job as we dug in as a unit. His average position was way up the pitch as he contributed to overloading the wings, yet we were never caught out or exposed on his flank. 8/10 all the way for me, one of his best this season.
Christ imagine if Theo had played like Perez did today.
4
Who needs Mkhitaryan when you have Giroud. And its onside. Loved his back heel when we were building up to that counter too.
Very pleased today. What a beaut that was. I see a lot of people saying how Lucas is very left footed. I must say Sanchez is very right footed. He rarely uses his left and he tends to always cut in. With that said Alexis is a monster. I am glad Lucas got onto the starting 11 today, more games under his belt can only be good. Hopefully we go on a win streak now. COYG!
Bellerin motm
Solid performance and not overly worked. Absolutely incredible goal from Giroud, best I’ve seen at the Emirates and right up there in terms of Premier League!
Some good Rotation today, qould have given Alexis last 20 mins off myself and left Perez on. For Bournemouth I’d expect a few changes and hopefully Mesut is fit, team for Bournemouth..
Cech, Bellerin, Koscienly, Mustafi, Monreal, Coquelin, Xhaka, Ozil, Chamberlain, Iwobi and Alexis
Great display today boys. Keep it up please!
Anyone else think Elneny is clearly a better fit in our midfield than Coq.
Stupid Afcon. Why must it be every. Fucking. Year.
Best goal of 2017,already?
10 out of 10 for Ox’s write up – load of guinness, dodgy kebab, powerful runs!
Quietly impressed with Elneny. Deserves more game time. Thought Nacho had some hairy moments but can’t argue with a clean sheet. Lucas looked like he was trying to impress too much but would still like to see him get a run of games. Alexis desperately wanted to score and looked a bit pissed off in the closing stages. What a competitor though.
Giroud – goal of the season with 5 months still to play. Much better than offside Man Uropa goal
How bad was Flamini today for them? How many times did he even touch the ball? He had some pretty rough moments for us last season to be sure but never as invisible as today. I figured he’d be up front with Benteke karate kicking all over the place.
You know it is going to be a good week. when people cried wolf to arseblog. for giroud to gets 10 on player ratings.
Elneny does not have a stop button. I only saw him misplace one pass. Very very good.
Iwobi best position is in the middle. We seem much more direct with him in the middle. Not to slight Ozil but I don’t buy the notion that we need to play an attacking style for him to be effective. He needs to adapt to the style of play. If we’re sitting back he needs.to com deeper for the ball. I love ox’s wide runs…he has the speed and power to consistently.beat his man. We had some nice crosses we should have gotten on the end of. Still need more crosses for giroud to get on the end of. Who… Read more »