So, Arsenal beat Brighton 2-0 (goals at this link) at the Emirates on Sunday on what was a relatively comfortable afternoon.
There were some dangerous moments from the visitors though, and by Arsene Wenger’s own admission the team lacked offensive efficiency. Here’s how the players rated today.
Sanchez MOTM.
One back heal. One good shot and lots of giving the ball away.
I guess the other 10 player would have done the same in his position…. please stop hating and start supporting.
Not “hating” just telling it as I see it.
Are you Mesut Ozil in disguise?
Agreed. Id say Monreal doing a solid job in defence and opening the scoring
yeah i was shocked sanchez got motm, his superb backheel set up a great goal but it wasnt an important goal, for me monreal deserved motm
I thought goals win games and are all therefore important..
Perhaps its just me…
it would have been important had Brighton equalised.
+1 goal and +99 goals in a match still give us 3 points.
the ‘goals are everything manta would work better if he’d scored one.
He did a great deal more than the back heel. Clearly MOTM. This hatred of him is sickening
leave it out mate, If you’re feeling under the weather its not because i thought nacho deserved an 8 rating and alexis a 7….
What hate???
He couldn’t give away the ball enough in the first half. At one point, he got the ball (within 90 seconds) 3 times and 3 times he gave it straight away to Brighton,
Heel. Had a great match but I am not biased against him.
Be careful Tom, Keown gave him MOTM, I wouldn’t want to upset him!
“give the ball away…” has to be the most stupid thing what arsenal fans moan…
25 Misplaced passes 5 off target shots and was dispossessed 3 times.
yes he did get key 6 passes and the quality assist , he was overall very good today but not motm good.
That doesn’t include the consistent failure to pass to a better-placed teammate when there’s, even a remote, possibility of him scoring.
Interestingly he is beating Nacho 47% to 33% on the official website for MOTM.
That’s because we’ve got ppl with tinted glasses that think that Alexis doesn’t do anything wrong
Half of that is ones a defender the others an attacker with technique, the other half of that is the back of his shirt says “Alexis”.
Don’t get me wrong, Alexis had a pretty decent match today and gave much of our creativity including the delicious assist. But Nacho as a CB got a crucial game-winner first goal and was a solid part of the clean sheet. For that I’d go Nacho.
Exactly. That’s the whole point. It wasn’t his worst game but not MOTM
Were you watching last year October’s game?
“The standards you need to play for this club, it cannot be eight out of 10, it has to be 10 out of 10. When you cannot deliver that, it is not good enough.
Mikel Arteta
Ramsey wasn’t unlucky not to score, it was a bad miss.
It was a very good save
If he goes upwards into a completely empty net from 5 yards he scores. Bad miss
Agreed, I haven’t seen it on TV yet, but from a live perspective it looked bad – you’ve got to be scoring from that distance and after that move
Yeah, and if he went upward and the keeper left an arm back instead of a leg you’d say why didn’t he roll it on the floor? He did exactly what you want a player to do which is keep it low whenever you can
Ramsey’s shot was directed (not wildly fired) to the keeper’s right as the keeper dove left. He kept it low. It was a decently hard shot, not trying to roll it in. The keeper got his foot to it. Good shot, great save.
Oh and risk putting it over the bar? Nope! That’s why players are told to hit em low and hard. Keeper made a blinding save, his best of the game coz the rest of our shots were weak as piss.
Ramsey did everything right the goalkeeper stuck a leg out and was fortunate
He’d more than one opportunity. Should’ve scored today.
That goes for every player save Cech and the Cb’s.
Good save, but Ramsey had time to lift the ball
I think it’s a bit of both: great save by the keeper, but if Ramsey just smashes it, it’s a goal.
We get the hint, you don’t like Ramsey. Your obsessive vendetta on these comments sections is getting dull now.
How about 10/10 for the blind man posing as a touchline assistant referee and getting away with it? At least 2 clear instances of the ball completely out of play, but play on for the Gulls. Good win though.
Yeah! There were actually a couple of outrageous decisions. Once when Bellerin clearly managed to keep the ball inside and the other time when the opponent clearly played the ball from outside the line.
Two real WTF kind of moments.
We need to be a little more clinical with our finishing. Teams around us are beating these lowly teams by four goals or more. We tend to slack after a couple of goals.
I used to like the five, six and seven goal scoring days of old.
No one is beating Brighton by 3 or 4 goals tho
You must be the kind of person who always likes his neighbor’s greener grass. Have a pint or something.
@Man Manny, you beat me to this comment….verbatim! Spot on, man.
The finishing does need a bit more clinical because goal difference might have a significant say this season.But let’s also give Cech and the defence some credit for turning it around with a fourth consecutive clean sheet, having not conceded since that Liverpool debacle. We all know it’s defence that wins titles and without getting too ahead of ourselves, we’re beginning to look a bit more organised and solid at the back, especially on the left side with King Kola and Mr. Reliable.. Long may it continue. And hopefully our defenders will avoid getting major injuries this season. Fingers crossed
Definitely agree with this and it’s been a problem for a while now, not racking up the numbers we should because we take our foot off the pedal at 1 or 2 – nil up
whilst I would like us to be score 4-5 every game I am a realist and teams that defend so much against us makes it a damn sight harder to do so. however we dont help ourselves by playing it too safe.
I just hope come the end of the season GD doesnt matter. But if we put in winning performances regardless of scoreline, it wont.
It’s not that I’d like 5/6/7 so much as I’d like to feel more confident. If BHAhad had scored one, the last 5 minutes would have been the manic moments situation and not do my heart any good at all!
No bonus points for Xhaka for wiping the spray. He was looking for a silly booking there and on another day we’d be calling him stupid for this.
Agreed but the ref was also playing plonker not allowing ball to be moved 6 inches. If a kick is taken quickly, the nearest 5 yards seems allowable.
Ramsey a 6??? He only had that shot because he abandoned his position yet again. Ramsey rarely tracks back with any intention. Any player who continues to just run up front and play striker is going to get the odd goal. Doesn’t mean he played well or is a good midfielder. We have no shape with Ramsey, it’s exactly the same Arsenal.
While Ramsey’s seemingly reckless abandon grates me at times, today we played mostly against a bus that didn’t leave the parking spot even after 2-0.
Could it be that he plays higher up against these teams that park the bus so that we can get an extra body in the box? Don’t get these comments about him not being disciplined. Why would we play with 2 sitting midfielders in matches like this? He was disciplined against Chelsea and more offensive today for a reason
if it was an intelligent decision where Ramsey checks the amount of players that are behind him as to whether he can bomb forward or not. Or even to check that xhaka at least is behind him. But he never does either of these things and not just against brighton, almost every match he does this. He just bombs forward wanting a goal without any sign of intelligence or regard for the team.
There’s some merit to your argument although I think he was alright today.
BUT I do feel he is better for us in a more advance role because his better instincts is to attack.
I feel Iwobi may be better suited in a deeper role as he tends to be more discipline. He also has the strength and tight control to prosper there plus an eye for the through ball.
We now also have Jack to consider in both roles albeit we have to be very careful with him as his issue has never been ability but availability.
Not generally over-enamoured by Ramsey but for my part, he’s been playing well of late.
I would love to know your rating criteria of what warrants playing well. Playing well for Ramsey you mean? Possibly he’s been a little bit less shit than normal. Is Ramsey a midfielder you’d go to war with..? forget that you just can’t count on him. Let’s see how he does against the Manchester teams or even Everton next week. Let’s see if he keeps his discipline in those games, I see no evidence that he will. Playing Brighton doesn’t mean you can just abandon midfield, these teams setup with one intention, to hit us on the counter. And they… Read more »
Yes, forget the Chelsea game – lets see what he does in the next big game. And if he does well, forget about it and see what he does in the next big game. Sounds like a fair and logical rating criteria.
Watch the Brighton game again – we were exposed on our left. Ramsey has a decent game, similar to several other players. But then again, anything pointed out to you in support of Ramsey is a waste of time (like several others on this board). You hate Ramsey, point taken – move on.
you have a stronger love for Ramsey than the team doing well, point taken, move on.
You know that is a load of bullshit – if that is the point you took, you’re making my point for me – you will make up bullshit due to your hatred of Ramsey. The team have played decent since the loss to Liverpool and very well against Chelsea. The same could be said for Ramsey. Majority of fans call him out (or any other player) when they have a poor performance. You though will bleat on about Ramsey regardless of whether he played well or not. A rating of 6 is considered just ‘ok’. Yet, look at you piss… Read more »
You have a stronger hate fro Ramsey than the team doing well
my 9 month old son looks like he could do a job against everton at the moment!
does he play DM?
Ramsey nick your bird then?
she prefers HFB, but then who wouldn’t!
Though on that front apparently she says I’m safe until he shaves his beard!
He’s not cheating on me with anyone, beard or no beard!
You do speak sense about Ramsey, but…
there’s an issue there. I’ve heard this from ppl “in the know” that he’s been given a freedom from AW to just roam around. Today, he was playing like a proper Nr9 CF. I saw him more advanced than Lacazette so many times. I feel that he is instructed to bomb forward. The problem we have is that we’ve got Ozil also in the team and both of them in the team make it very unbalanced and even when they track back when we are countered, no one puts in a tackle anyway.
I would never go to war with Ramsey. I’d have to seriously question anybody who would go to war with a footballer instead of someone skilled at marksmanship or flying Typhoons.
Spot on Bro
He was actually seen with regularity in front of the back three and protecting the left wing back from being over loaded. I thought he was quite pleasantly getting back with lots of intention.
Iwobi in the welbeck mould. Really good work off the ball that goes unnoticed. Just get those shooting boots on and I think we’ve got such a brilliant player
Iwobi is a more technically accomplished footballer than Welbeck but was nice to see him develop that off the ball movement that’s vital for attacking players. He needs to add more of that to get more goals and assists
He did score, to be fair, and it was a good effort. The one where he ran about half the length of the field before shooting was the wrong decision to shoot, I thought – he always seemed to be off-balance as he got near to goal – so I didn’t think he should really score in that situation. The one in the first half where he was on the left was the wrong technique, I thought. If our players just put their foot through the ball at times I think we’d have more joy (see the difference between the… Read more »
Question to the people that made it to the Emirates today, did it seem a little empty? Haven’t been able to make it so far this season but last couple of games I think I’ve seen more empty seats than usual
It’s definitely not full to the rafters. It’s been that way a lot lately, but then West Brom on a Monday night, Cologne on a Thursday night, Brighton on Sunday morning and Doncaster in the Carabao cup don’t exactly set the imagination alight… There’s been at least one season ticket holder in the group I sit with missing for all of these games. Despite the lack of glamour, would never have happened in previous seasons…
It’s because people are disillusioned with everything Arsenal. It’d be interesting to see how many people came/how much noise they made with a change of manager. My guess is that it’d be just about as quiet but more full.
Yes I am very disillusioned at winning 6 of our 7 matches and winning 3 Fa cups in the last 4 years. It’s so sad being an Arsenal supporter.
Judge my comment in May.
Kroenke and the Board deserve empty seats.
I still think Iwobi brings balance to our front three. When he starts scoring more regularly he will be some player, that’s for sure. I’d rather see us give him a run of games if Ozil is going to leave anyway, to be honest.
Agree 100%
Ozil could leave for all I care. Sanchez though I think could stay. But he isn’t. You heard that from me, too.
We need options.
IT is never about one player over another. Players come in and ut of form, some players suit certain circumstance better than others.
Hence Giroud or Lacazette or Welbeck or Alexis
Ozil or Ramsey or Iwobi or Jack.
We need all of them to win the league. It is a long road ahead.
Arsenal played well and seem to be getting back on track. The key is consistency because all this will amount to nothing if we screw it up again…
Now that Everton are in crisis after spending all of that money (£45 million on Sigurdson) and playing so poorly perhaps some of the media attention will be diverted from Arsenal….
Burnley are coming for us!
On a serious note, it looks like Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Sp*rs are fighting for two spots.
United yet to play a top 6 side. The judge is still out on them, though expect them to make top3 at least. Liverpool and Tottenham don’t have the squads for 2 competitions, which could benefit us hugely
I think that’s just what people are saying because that’s what they want to believe. Truth is, Man finished so low last season because a) they had too many draws at home to shit teams because they couldn’t score against packed defences and managed to let in sloppy goals; and b) they tanked the end of the season as they were going for the Europa League. With more goals added from Lukaku, an acclimatised Mkhitaryan and a released Pogba (when he does play) and better defensive solidity/midfield control with Matic (and Lindelof and Bailly whenever they might be available), Mourinho’s… Read more »
Agree with everything you say, just don’t think they are clear favourites without seeing them play other top teams. They also have the CL and are one injury on Lukaku away from having to rely on a young Rashford/ past his best Ibrahimovic
City lost Aguero to a car crash and Morata hobbled off. I believe Pogba is carrying an injury, Spurs barely a point away… so plenty of doors open for us to gain ground in coming games hopefully. Jack’s own revival (assuming he can stay fit) brings a bit more option to our midfield. The other only concern is out wide at wingback where we are dependent on Kolasinac and particularly Bellerin. Surprised we haven’t seen Chambers yet. Hope he gets some time on the ball otherwise what’s the next best thing, Debucchy? He’s just collecting his pension at the moment… Read more »
Very correct but I doubt if Arsenal is will be among.
Mustafi was much more assured today and not trying his Gerrard-type 60 yard passes all the time. Did make the odd error still but the responsibility of taking Kos role seemed to be a positive impact today.
Good game for Holding to get some confidence back too.
I was too busy organising the first goalscorer sweep today to notice – who was Captain today?
Cech
Thanks. (Strange – got 3 thumbs up before the answer)
Not sure of benefit of goalie being Captain though.
Cech
If only we had a defence like Liverpool’s we could be up there challenging like teams who are having magnificent seasons ???
Yes, we should have kept the Ox and signed Rock and Roll genius Klopp. 70 year old music makes for progressive footy and wild antics on the sidline.:D
Hmmmmm like seriously
Clever Join the discussion
Iwobi need to pack shots in his boots.
Blogs is on a mission to get people to hate Sanchez…Guess what, Your darling boy will never be half the player Sanchez is.
Seen on a “team building” perspective, Sanchez can be a disaster and i dont mean to compare him with Ramsey. I remember saying the same things Last year on this blog. At times Sanchez can be so iritating and look so selfish… He can be brillant, destroy defenses… But his attitude does not suits any collective sport. I’d rather go for someone having 70% of his skills but who behave like a real teammate… You can be a bloody fighter and cheer your colleagues up!!
But we need him.
His role is as a catalyst.
He takes on players and creates chaos.
That can cut both ways of course as he tries to do too much many times and loses the ball cheaply.
BUT if we don’t have someone instigating like he does, we are so much more predictable to defend against en mass.
Its a catch 22 but in favour of Alexis still.
When he leaves, we will need to add that ‘unpredictability’ quality with someone from market.
A Mahrez at very least if not we should be testing the waters with Draxler.
Just because a player is a diva doesn’t mean you can get along just fine without him. Strong locker rooms can handle a few bastards, lunatics and primadonnas. Of course its better when your best players are model pros (like Messi), but that doesn’t mean its better to put Christiano on the bench in favor of someone less prone to buying sculpture of themselves.
Give me the 100% of those skills, and let those teamates toughen their skin and have some more self confidence.
If you visit this site very well, you will realize that Blog actually love Sanchez. I still remember one of his write-up entitled ” THE BEAST OF NORTH LONDON” in reference to Sanchez.
We will need to replace Alexis with someone in equal measure who can be a catalyst to things. HIs willingness to take things on just makes things happen. I’m thinking Mahrez at very least or Draxler. That said, he also loses the ball way too much which comes as part of the territory. Good assist but too much show boating trying to do the complicated stuff. Lacazette’s first attempt was deeply unfortunate not to go in. Good movement throughout. Still one of his subsequent attempts at goal you felt could have been better. Iwobi’s strength and quick feet a very… Read more »
Walcott AKA Mr poor decision in the final third.
I suspect Walcott stole your passport.
The amount of witch hunts on players after a win seems awfully strange…
Little niggle: isn’t it about time you had photos for Lacazette and Kolasinac? 😉
A couple of assessments after the last run of games: Bellerin looks to be back to where he was, or almost; many fewer loose passes, many more dangerous crosses from brilliant attacking runs. Xhaka has learned to avoid the sort of tackles that get a card; better positioning as well. Elneny, when not exhausted (as at Bate), is good enough to be very useful. Holding looked good today, after some awful performances–inconsistency that is really not surprising for a talented but very young central defender. Cech has looked like a world-class keeper again.
What is the point of Giroud, when no one even tries to cross the ball to him. He just stands there waiting, making runs, but the ball never comes to him…
Agreed. We need to play to his strength and power.
One half chance at the very end is all he got.
Team still needs to adjust to different weapons up top.
Look up NEVER in the dictionary. 100 Arsenal goals is THE point!
Don’t think our performance was great tbh. Looking at how solid and effective both manchester teams are at the moment we look like we’re light years behind them.
every time we are on a quick counter attack, I don’t get why Lacazette doesn’t make the run behind the defenders, his teammates are dying to pass him through balls. will somebody at Arsenal instruct him this? Coz his chances to shoot are really lacking in every game. don’t get me wrong I like him a lot, especially his finishing but he needs to improve and what we’ve seen on youtube he is capable to make those runs and make himself clear cut chances.