What a grandstand finish to the game. It looked as if we were going to drop two points, but the late penalty from Alexis Sanchez ensured we took all three with a 2-1 win over a team who must hate the sight of us this season.
To which I say: haha.
Anyway, here are the player ratings today.
I hate Jon Moss. What a disgrace he is to the Premier League. Never have I thought I would one day be scared of Burnley in a game. I screamed and jumped louder when we were rewarded the penalty than when Alexis actually scored it. Cheers!
was it just me, or did he actually look sad when alexis scored the penalty?
Honestly, I’m not sure the officials can be blamed too much today.. That’s a red card if it’s against us all day.
The penalty decisions he actually gave were right, the Mustafi one should have been given too but you can see why he didn’t give it… but the offside for ours kind of evens it out…
From the stands the red card looked like total bollocks – upon seeing it on replay i’d downgrade that assessment to it simply being harsh. Likewise their penalty looked obscure from the other end of the field but Coquelin admitted to the manager that he barged their player over. But Moss was making dodgy decisions all day. Not sure at what minute Burnley picked up their first yellow card but it was definitely half an hour later then it should have been. So by the time he had managed to find 7 minutes of injury time with us only a… Read more »
I’ve seen Rojo do the same thing for Man U this year about 4 times and come away with a yellow at most. He was facing the player and really didn’t come in high. I think it’s one of those ones where you give the player a yellow and a stern warning.
I do like what Wenger said in that he needs to stay on his feet. Sad because I thought Xhaka (and Ramsey) was having a good game until that point.
If we’d have got the penalty on Mustafi, Giroud would have still got his goal per start! plus we’d be leading earlier and might not have got anybody sent off! so it does make a difference, he did not make up his error!
Didn’t the goal come a minute after the penalty shout? Like, on the following corner?
The thing is, I can’t understand how the penalty wasn’t given. It was 100% a penalty, probably the least controversial of them all. His assistant badly let him down. It definitely needs reviewing, because a PL standard referee can’t be missing things like this.
I think the red card is a tad harsh but he did go in two footed and left the ground. It was unnecessary.
Their penalty… clumsy. As soon as he feels contact, he goes down, appealing on his way to the ground. The challenge definitely didn’t take him off his feet but there was contact.
They can and shall be blamed. Mustafi was clearly tripped. It was more obvious of a penalty than Coquelin’s little flick out. Koscielny kicked in the head was extremely dangerous play. This season they said they will act on such incidents… Xhaka dived in, but it was nowhere near as dangerous or as obvious as a 2 footed lunge as many incidents this season. He barely touched the opponent and it was more a scissor sweep, low on the ground. It was also an honest/clumsy attempt to win the ball. Moss clearly has it in for him, and he sought… Read more »
So here’s the thing: – football is a professional sport and one of the richest and most watched across the globe – we have finally gotten rid of the wart on it’s skin that was Sepp Blatter and yet we still resist using the incredible technology which have transformed many other sports (poor cousin cricket has used the DRS to amazing effect) – a sport played at the pace and with the frenzy of football (and especially the Prem) MUST use every reliable aid it can to guarantee the players, the sponsors, the investors and – most crucially of all… Read more »
Can Joey Barton fuck off as well/10
Who are you…. Jon Moss you fat bastard
Nice win from totally anger to bliss
Only Arsenal do this to me.
My 10/10 would go for Wenger’s passion and fuck-of-I’m-of-pitch push on ref!
Would Arseblog be the ‘site of us’?
Joey Barton is a fucking wank stain that promotes the need for condoms. He should be the face of durex or just work for a loan shark the stupid thug posing as a footballer!
I’ don’t think I want to see Joey Barton’s face on a pack of condoms when I buy them…
I don’t think you can deny the contraceptive effectiveness of Joey Barton.
John Moss never has a clue because he’s so fat and out of shape he’s alwys a mile away from the action. So he ends up relying on his assistants for everything.
Of course, when he’s closer, he doesn’t seem to do much better. So maybe it’s just that he’s a bit shit, in addition to being fat and out of shape.
I for one was glad to see John Moss fat and out of shape, I didn’t feel quite so bad about my own recently acquired rotundity and it was an instant tonic to make me to start that diet and nip off down to the gym after the match.
To celebrate this decision I had a swift post-match pint in The Tolly en route to my local branch of Treadmills For Fatties !
Despite Giroud’s impressive goal scoring form, we need to revert Sanchez as the starting CF. Our attack is much more dynamic with him as CF
Yes. This times a million.
I think Wenger will start Alexis in the middle whenever Theo is fit to play on the right; without Theo (or maybe Lucas Perez), plus a fit Ozil, a lot of the movement that Alexis creates doesn’t force defenders to open space in the middle, where goals are scored.
But we do have Perez. And now Welbeck. We don’t need to keep Giroud in the side, and Alexis on the wing, even without Theo.
I swear people just see what they expect to see. I thought Ramsey was very good today – I’m not sure why he’s got a 6.5.
Also, how Monreal has 6.5 and Gabriel has 7 when Gabriel did less going forward (getting forward doesn’t equal doing anything from an attacking sense) I’m not sure.
People tend towards their own dogma like Alexis has to start up front. They rarely tend to have enough flexibility in thought. Flamini was way more effective than many would have suggested but they already made up their minds before objectively looking at the player. I agree Ramsey was very decent today. I think he dovetails better with Granit than Coquelin personally. On that note, many will moan about Granit being ill disciplined (rightly so) but choose to over look Coquelin giving away the penalty needlessly. And they will criticise Granit saying he is a poor buy when Koscielny gave… Read more »
It’s a lazy rhetorical move to criticize others’ opinions by calling them “dogmas” without offering any reasons for thinking your views are better. Personally, I think Arsenal are considerably better starting with a mobile centre forward than with Giroud up top, and that Alexis is better starting from that central position than from out wide. The only time this is not the case, I think, is when we’re playing against teams that are entirely parking the bus and we need a focal point in the box, and even then I think it still might be better to wait to bring… Read more »
Giroud may be a static player but he is the main reason we are not completely out of the title race and I love that.
You must have watched game on TV where you don’t see Ramsey’s lack of awareness. He was average once again today. TV must make it look like he is involved in everything. You don’t see bigger picture. He slows us down so much. I get why so many in here rate him now, they all watch on TV.
What a load of old cobblers
That’s a bit of an odd argument, considering the overwhelming levels of negative criticism he gets on here, pretty much every game (a lot of it justified, to be fair). I would have thought the majority of people commenting that he was awful in some way were watching on TV as well.
If you didn’t watch on TV, how would you know that people would get a different picture of his performance by watching TV? I’d hazard a guess you’re just assuming that’s the case, so that you can claim superiority of support because you’re a ‘regular’.
Now I understand why Alexis must play the entirety of a game for Arsenal.
He can be the difference in the 97th minute.
Alexis, we all know you want to stay, I just hope the owners are willing to “show you the money ” that you truly deserve.
I think Xhaka was poor even before the sending off. He lunched in a challenge in the first half, lost it, which gave Burnley acres of space in the middle of the park and led to good chance for them. He doesn’t dictate the tempo of the game, for he has only one tempo and the creativity is build up game is lacking. He also doesn’t deal with pressure very well and is easily stressed of the ball which has led to a number of goals against us this season. He seems the type of player who only thrives against… Read more »
1) Giroud. We were playing with 10 for 20min++. Had it been 11 with our dominance before the sending off, he may well have nicked a goal. You only have to look at Welbz missing the big chance at the end to know how good a record Giroud has had recently. So why all this nonsense dogma about Alexis up front being a better option. By logic the reason why we have had to rely on Giroud to bail us out of jail several times this season is because Alexis wasn’t scoring them in those matches. The correct option would… Read more »
See my comment above: we can appreciate Giroud, give him credit for what he does well, and still think that we are overall a better team with Alexis up top and that this should therefore be the default for, say, 90% of our matches. You can disagree, but that doesn’t mean those whose opinions you disagree with are blindly following a dogma with no flexibility in their thought. You saying it’s so doesn’t make it so. Oh, and for the billionth time (I’ll let it rest if/when you ever let it rest): Flamini wasn’t a terrible player, but suggesting he… Read more »
Can’t see how Giroud gets a 7 for not doing much while Ozil only a 7.5 when he is all over the pitch working his tail off. The “worked hard” stmt for Giroud just doesn’t do it for me. Yes he’ll mozy on back on defense some times when the ball is deep or for a free kick, but it’s rare he will ever work in the attacking 3rd to win the ball back and so little movement off of the ball much of the time. I think we are at our best with Sanchez starting up top as it… Read more »
Mate, watch Giroud’s touches again. On more than a few occasions he is picking long balls out of the air and trying to bring others into play. It was a great way to get out from some decent Burnley pressure. Half the time they didn’t come off because nobody came into the space where he can lay the ball off. There was a ball that he miscontrolled from Ozil that was bollocks, the pass neeed to be slightly ahead of him and not into feet. You’re also forgetting that Giroud has a decent left peg on him that’s scored a… Read more »
If I know the one you’re referring to, there is no way that pass from Ozil can be considered “bollocks”. He threaded it through to pretty much the only place he could put it where Giroud would receive it. It was a difficult ball to control, no doubt, but Giroud shanks attempts like that much more than do truly top class forwards. I actually expected Giroud to screw it up before the ball reached him, which is not the expectation I would have had if, say, Suarez or Aguero or Sanchez or Lewendowski or Costa had received that ball in… Read more »
I’m not bending over backwards. Giroud has a peach of a first touch that he’s shown time and time again. From the goal against West Ham where he outmuscled Carroll and another West Ham defender, picked the ball out on his left and nutmegged the goalie with his chocolate leg. It’s because he doesn’t do that in Fifa or FM that people bay for his blood.
Don’t get me started on Sanchez and control, he has such a great first touch but he has also been let down in the box on more than one occasion.
Burnley are like Stoke, dirty cheating thugs who get away with everything because they’re supposedly brave little underdogs, so elbows to the face and trips and shoves are all OK and don’t exist in the minds of the ref or his assistants, or biased pundits. They have a vile excuse for a manager who thinks that signing Joey Barton to maim people is a good thing. The age of extra time was added on because the player trying to hurt Mesut fucked his own knee in the process and took ages to leave the field, and that gave us time… Read more »
Wenger needs to have a serious talk with Xhaka!! We can not afford giving away penalties and getting red cards.
The Boss needs to to put a stop to this. He will cost us points.
Wenger sort it out!!
what makes you think he hasn’t done so already?
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/15118/10739161/granit-xhakas-red-card-history-after-his-ninth-sending-off-in-three-years
Moss has twice sent Xhaka off on reputation, I think. Nobody in their right mind could think his tactical trip in the away match was a straight red. Can’t really hammer Xhaka too much for those decisions, even if today was a bit reckless.
If that was a red than i think we should see 4/5 reds every week
He should have a serious talk with the fa over Jon Moss, that was not a red if it was a red i saw atleast 3 red cards this game. It was not a red last time either. So what should wenger say to xhaka ? Try not to foul in case the foul will be considered red card by a totally braindead monkeyfucking idiot with serious hate for The Arsenal ? Apparently dickheadmike dean has been relegated for being useless toward other teams than Arsenal so they probably need another bought and payed hatchetman to fuck us over.
Bonus rating: 10/10 to the steward who stood between Arsene and the 4th official!
“he should just stand still” – haha, no shit! Hindsight eh? 😉
Not at all! There are studies that plot location of penalty shots that show a greater percentage of successful shots don’t go that far from down the middle, so it makes sense that a keeper may be better off not guessing and diving one way but staying upright and wait to react.
Thing is if a keeper were to always stand still penalty takers will cotton on to the fact pretty quickly (especially a high profile keeper), and just put it the corner when they face him.
Great result.so good to come through these types of hard games with all the points and not allow the gap to grow. All played a part and i like the way we started the game with a good tempo. 10/10 for the way Alexis scored so cool under pressure..class.
So it is Ramsey and Coq in the coming games then. Remember them having a pretty solid match against Barcelona at home last season (before the Mertesacker and Flamini brainfarts). We might have to adjust our system a bit for them. Maybe drop Giroud and play more in the counter. When can Elneny be expected to return?
Agree, except for the bit about playing on the counter. Yes, we have to get up the pitch quickly as we won’t be able to build as effectively passing out from the back, but then we need to stay up and high press like crazy, the way the likes of Spurs and Liverpool do these days. That’s both the best way to utilize Ramsey and Coquelin and the best way to mask their deficiencies.
Am I the only one who thinks Jon Moss wasn’t that bad? He missed a penalty but he surely was relying on his linesman, who was much closer. I can’t argue with Xhaka’s red. While it did not end up endangering the player it was a two footed lunge over the ball. While it was incredibly frustrating to watch us concede a penalty in injury time, that decision was correct as well. Maybe we should have finished our many chances from earlier in the game. Anyways, we absolutely deserved 3 points and we got them in the end through perseverance… Read more »
So the whole stadium starts singing “you don’t know what you’re doing” and then Coq makes a lunge in the box…. what’s Moss gonna do at that point? The same as we all would. Retaliate. Even if it hadn’t been a pen (which it was), we’d have forced it on ourselves.
Agree with you Scooter
How many games is wenger likely to be match banned from?
Moss gave us a 98 minute penalty (off side in build up )hardly that bad biased a ref in fairness
If someone had slide into one of our players like Xhaka did we’ d be shouting for a red, such a stupid place to have to make a tackle , could have stood him up , to allow other players to track back into position
Yeah, the worst part about that challenge is the fact that it’s so damn daft. It’s in the middle of the pitch, in a situation which poses no threat whatsoever. Now we end up losing him for a whooping four matches, including Chelsea.
It is a red and a correct call. But I think the irritating part for most is that a lot of tackles like that and even a lot more dangerous ones have gone unpunished this season, especially against us and for our rivals. Could have been a yellow another day for another player. Still a stupid challenge to make, especially as he could have drawn his feet so that he wouldn’t have made contact with the soles
Big up the team for battling til the end
Missed the game today, was trying to take advantage of the good weather and snow with some mates. In the car back, stuck in heavy traffic and desperate to hear the final minutes of the game I switch on the radio to bbc five live on 693 medium wave (I live in Belgium so you can get the commentary but a lot of static too). So among the static I hear: “It’s 1-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates in stoppage time as we switch over to the cricket” – Ok nice, please dont fuck this up lads – radio continues:… Read more »
ha ha … nothing like a late, late winner. Any Spuds fans in the car?
Give Alexis a banner and he finds a way. Dog Day Afternoon before that.
Never a sending off, but Rolling Fat Stone Moss got the penalties right. Bring on Watford! Fuck yeah
Yeah, glad you were able to catch that. my stream died at the exact moment Burnley were awarded penalty and I thought that’s that then. Wanted to go to bed (it was 1am), but couldn’t leave and then just managed see the Panenka! Woof!… goodbye sleep haha.
Iwobi, what a player.
Speak less of the 7mins of extra time… Someone really needs to look at the allocation of this, can be massive, as teams go all out if they are loosing you are more likely to see a goal in that period of the GE than any other
The Xhaka decision was just terrible. He was sent off on reputation alone. I don’t think Moss was even going to give a yellow. Then the linesman convinced him to give a red. Replay I saw showed: no studs showing, barely touched his opponent, never left the ground, was pulling out. Truly, a joke.
We always make it difficult for ourselves I could barely watch the penalty because of the tension
Can’t wait to find out which member of Moss’ family xhaka slept with to piss him off so much.
Xhaka was on track for a 9 before the red. He really is a wonderful player.
Well done lads for fighting till the end that’s all we ask for. Ramsey is improving but I for one will take wilshere any day. Ramsey has too many touches tries to be too intricate instead of keeping it simple. And I think next game lets give welbeck 60mins on the left and Sanchez on the middle. Giroud can make a cameo later. We more dynamic,lethal with Giroud out. He’s not bad but we ain’t crystal Palace with benteke or Andy Carroll at West ham or United with fellaini. The service he needs he’s not getting, with him in the… Read more »
Does anyone else think it’s strange he let Danny Welbeck in but not Lucas? Don’t get me wrong I like Danny, but what does the new boy have to do to earn a run in the team, honestly?
Welbeck is the tougher of the two. By the time he came on (bit later then should have been) we needed a brawler.
Because he can play target and run behind the line. We needed a physical presence and Lucas is more a technical player
Cunt behaviour from Xhaka, distance isn’t that relevant, a two-footer is a two-footer.
I hope Wenger gives him a bollocking but he doesn’t seem the type to do that. I’m sure if it was a Chelsea player who made that sort of tackle and got sent off Conte would’ve half strangled him by now.
Mustafi woefully under-rated as usual. I just love the way he acts as a 2nd or 3rd playmaker. Opponents shut down the midfield and he steps into space and starts dinking the ball over the top of smacking through-balls. Of course he’s sometimes “iffy” because he has real attacking ambition.
I particularly enjoyed his double or was it a triple chest-bump with some burnley chap when going up for a clearing header, about 5 yards out from our box, with both players mistiming their jumps. Most amusing !
I think it might have been the rather excellent Koscielny mopping up for Mustafi again. I like Mustafi before it looks like I am hating on him. Anyway, I think it was Kos.
Kos was brilliant today, we might have struggled a lot more without him.
Yes, Kos mops up for Mustafi when Mustafi goes forward, but that’s his job. ManCity paid 50 million coconuts for Stones hoping they would get an “auxiliary playmaker” like Mustafi. If they had gone for Mustafi I don’t think anyone would have beaten them this year. He would have been the final and biggest piece in Pep’s possession game because its so hard to mark central defenders who can pass and dribble.
not sure why I’m the only one questioning alexis’s rating. He was in no way the best player on the pitch and his sole contribution was finishing a penalty.
if his sole contribution was winning the game, that’s a pretty significant contribution. he also put the cross in from which the penalty was won. he lost the ball a couple of times but he was always trying and looking to make things work. i don’t know if he was the best player on the pitch, per se, but he was one of the best.
Look people, incl Arseblog, blaming Johnny Moss is a cop out, nothing else. Xhaka makes a completely unnecessary studs up challenge (albeit , with zero intent to hurt as you can see by the deceleration thro impact) at 1 nil, in full control of the match. Its not the refs fault, that he now has a call to make , yellow /red. Xhaka is asking for trouble and he gets it. Yes , I know , Rojo, both studs up, and flying thro the air, yellow. I know, I fucking know, but dont put yourself, and the team in the… Read more »
And if you want the best out of Alexis, you put him up top and stop this messing about.
Darfours late swipe at Xhaka was a red. And Barnes looked to be coming from offsides position on their pk. Jon Moss deserves a punch in the neck.
How does Giroud constantly get panned by Arsenal fans?? He consistently saves our bacon, scores crucial goals and provides an incredible service to midfielders running beyond him. He’s intelligent and his movement creates space for others and he’s an aerial threat which we simply don’t have otherwise. Yes he’s not the quickest but his timing of runs makes up for it. He also defends set pieces like a boss. I just don’t get the negativity.
evidently if you’re running away from the goal and get fouled in the box it’s not a penalty. if that’s how it’s gonna be go ahead and add it to the laws of the game, please. (i.e. Mustafi and A. Hernandez)
Welbeck for Giroud
LucAs for iwobi in our next game
Iwobi have become an integral part of Arsenal now and he keep showing why he is chosen for games. He played quite well yesterday and I do not think he should be compared with Lucas as they play differently. Iwobi is an impact player and his movement with the ball can only be compared with Alexis in the team.
Ramsey and Coq partnership in the middle now for the next 4 games. Anyone else a little worried about that? Hope the lads can anchor the middle of the pitch better in these next 4 games than they have when playing together in the past.
Granit Xhaka. What a JOKE. We played with 10 men bc of that “player”. Slow as usual. TERRIBLE give away that led to the Red. It’s not cute anymore Buddy. He fouls to cover up the deficiencies in his game: lack of pace, slow speed of play, slow decision making, poor pass selection. A 6 is far too generous for him. I think all of the other players should get a bump in their ratings for having to play under the pressure imposed upon them by that buffoon and his consistent and persistent idiotic decisions. No one single player has… Read more »
Wenger will get a touchline ban for a match or maybe a stadium ban for the Saints match.
Its great that our players protest when decisions go against us.
I remember how meekly we used to accept stupid decisions previously.
Remember that moron who reffed that 4-4 game at Newcastle.
Xhaka’s scissor kick technique of tackling will see him get sent off many more times if he does.not cut it out of his game.
He is still young.
I expected this game to be tough given our home record this season and Burnley actually being a good side. 3 points in the bag is all that matters. Only one thing on my mind now: When will those Chelsea fuckers start dropping points?
I wasn’t too happy with John Moss but… You do know that his bad refereeing basically won us the game? Kos was offside.
3 things:
1. I know he played for us, but: Niall Quinn, just f**k off.
2. John Moss needs to be weeded from the ref ranks.
3. Xhaka – sort that s**t out ffs. You are too good for that, far too good.
Oh, and you just know someone will be licking their lips at the prospect of throwing the book at Wenger. What a crazy game.
Missed opportunities in the beginning which should have put the game to bed but above all well done. I do not think the red card was warranted. However, Xhaka needs to sort out his reputation concerning this.
Amazed me how none of the officials did anything about the dog Barton’s forearm smash on Sanchez in the box.
Useless wankers.