A late header from Olivier Giroud rescued a point for Arsenal today, securing a 1-1 draw on a day which could have been a lot worse.
Defensive frailties were evident again, key players under-performed and in truth we were lucky to get anything from this game.
Here’s how the players rated.
shite
sums it up
Bellerin & Xhaka terrible all season but never dropped. Wenger OUT!!!
Combined age of our centre backs today = 96. And they looked like a group of pensioners I saw today pigeon stepping across the snow. Wenger OUT !!!
Why Arsenal teams always start these early games like rabbits caught in the headlights? Poor management and poor preparation. Wenger OUT!!!
We all hate the truth, maybe I should say we are perfect that should get thumbs up with the deluded #wengerout
This is for all the fans that have forgotten including our manager who the real boss is in midfield (Xhaka you are having a laugh) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDWZXHYUjc0
Agreed – problem is he can’t play with Ramsey
Or rather Ramsey can’t play with Jack.
Still with Ramsey now injured, Jack and Xhaka are the new midfield duo. Expect Xhaka to improve with Jack on the pitch!
I doubt Jack works within xhaka. All 3 are creative players.
We need a defensive powerhouse next to either of them. Xhaka in particular.
I don’t know as we do not really have that defensive powerhouse in midfield but Jack certainly has the ability to improve our midfield. Xhaka is not good enough as well as El Neny and Coquelin – all third rate. Wenger should of replaced Santi and also bought a solid defensive midfield player as what we have is quite inadequate. But for me Jack on his day is our best option. I think he could play well with Ramsey as they are both versatile and next season could be Maitland Niles turn as he looks very effective in central midfield.… Read more »
Xhaka creates problems as he passes to opposition players. Simple really plus he is a red card waiting to happen
Xhaka is a nightmare maybe he will be better with Jack let us hope so
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb382au4_qc
He worked hard for this
Wtf happened to Bellerin? He looked awful
Bellerin would better focus on training instead of posting crappy pictures on social medias…
And I am fed up with him getting knocked off the ball and seeing him sat on his arse whinging to the ref. Not good enough and he should be told. Drop him. Go to a back 4 and bring in Debuchy.
Yep… Debuchy deserves a run. Young Hector has let it go to his head and seems to have forgotten what got him his chance in the first place!
Bellerin is much better in a back four anyway. He’s really not suited to the wing back role because you’re sort of playing as part of the midfield; there’s more possession play and less overlapping going on.
I agree with this about Bellerin. I’m not in this AW in or out stuff. It really does bother me sometimes that if he knew that he was going to stick to the back 3 formation why he didn’t build the team for that instead keeping most of the players that fit better in a back 4. You could understand during the season you do the best you can but AW had all summer to build around that formation. I think as the stories that came out this week he never was committed to that formation and wanted to switch… Read more »
Belerin is in confort zone .why should he play well when he knows Debuchy is on bench??
Bellerin been a bit pants for a while now
Didn’t he get an 8 year contract or something like that?. As stated above, he got comfy.
Yeah his final ball is terrible.he may start cocentrating on his training rather than trying to look like jon snow.
He knows nothing when it comes to crossing.
Not a lot, apart from… he can’t defend, cannot dribble and can’t cross…
Can’t head either
Debuchy should be knocking on the door
We have two wing backs who can’t defend or attack with conviction. Two centre halves who can’t defend or pass with conviction. Two midfielders who can’t defend or attack with conviction.
I’d prefer Theo instead of Hector, at least he can attack, shoot, score. Holding instead of BFG, both can make mistakes, only one can have a future. Jack and Mesut together even if both so left footed. Giroud and Laca together might give us someone in the box.
Return to back four if we can keep 3 back at a time.
Go for all three cups this season.
Reverse Samson – the longer the hair, the more inconsistent he gets! XD sure he can bring his game back soon
Sanchez needs to be benched, and probably laid off in Jan. He has become really unbearable and annoying.
It’s amazing how we see Alexis now just because he wants to leave.
He has created the most chances against southampton, united, burnley and spurs. Top in each game as well as overall.
What was bad today was that Ramsey and Ozil didn’t create a single chance.
You’re right on Bellerin though. He is too comfortable and needs a lesson. I also think Cech is very weak. He probably has the worst saves rate. I’m sure stats don’t lie.
He’s always (at least for the past 18 months) given the ball away a lot – but in the past he had enough moments of brilliance to put up with it. This year at least the end product has been pretty few and far between so really he’s a player where at least currently the negatives of his game (often losing the ball in bad spots) aren’t being offset by the positives. If all parties would do it I would love to see a swap with PSG for Draxler in January.
Controversial thought. I thought Ramsey was alright. Sanchez, Xhaka and our defence looked awful.
Ramsey was fine, but he can’t play next to Xhaka AND Lacazette at the same time.
This. So true.
to clarify: the comment from DWWLB
I’d like to see us try something a bit different l, need to address those out of form (Hector and Xhaka) and rest Kos, he’s looking like a liability recently! Perhaps a 4-3-1-2
Cech
Debuchy-Mustafi-Monreal-Kolasinac
Ramsey-Coquelin-Wilshere
Ozil
Sanchez-Lacazette
Giroud instead of Alexis for me. And even though Kosc has been really poor in the last games, I still think he’s our best center back.
yep (though I’d probably keep Xhaka in the team ahead of the Le Coq (in the future, I’d consider AMN in there)).
Sanchez is far from his best and does give the ball away but yet he plays the key pass in so many occasions. I just wish Wenger rested him for a couple of games just so that everyone can appreciate how important he is to the team. I think it’s a case of “you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”. Doubters will get their wish. He will be gone and let’s see how we get on without him.
You know, Arsenal existed before Sanchez and won cups and finished higher in league than we did in his best year in football. So, let him go, I don’t care. But, when he plays i’ll rate as per his play not as per his star value. One assist but so many errors is just frustrating – I was screaming at him to get into the D but he was always outside the D and passing into crowd. He is not getting into scoring positions nor is he creating space for Laca! You can cry all you want but my club… Read more »
Sure you can be moralistic about it if you like. But the truth is before Alexis joined we had just won an FA cup which we tried very hard to throw away against Hull and nothing else in a very long time. The fact that there is so much more competition to win the PremierLeague and so many more rich teams I wonder when we will win our next big trophy. I am afraid the way things are going we are going to have to happy with fighting for the last spot in the top 4. Losing our best player… Read more »
Let’s all bow to The almighty Alexis Sanchez. Sanchez is the reason Arsenal exists. ? I’m sure that I’ve felt like punching the feking lights out of Sanchez, every single game since last December (2016). From that time until today, he hasn’t done anything to deserve anything close to our best player! Will you lot stop living in the past or just reputations? Someone before me summed Alexis up… He gives the ball away systematically, makes the wrong moves (recent year) and falls very easily and moans at the ref (together with Giroud) at any opportunity of being touched. Just… Read more »
I have just looked at the numbers.
This season he has 4 goals and 4 assists in 13 (of which 2 games he games 15 and 24 minutes).
From January to the end of last season according to my figures he scored 15 goals and 5 assists in 25 games.
This season’s numbers aren’t fantastic but they’re no terrible. Last season’s January to end of season you really can’t argue with!
Yes but he’s also given the ball away 66 times in the last 2 games alone. He’s arguably causing the team more problems at this point than benefiting the team.
Alexis at this point in time is looking like a poor mans Eden Hazard
There’s no shame in being a poor man’s Hazard. Hazard for me is the best player in the PremierLeague
There’s a kid at Man City that might have something to say about that.
Did we miss him in the community shield? Hell, no.
I think u were watching a different game. Everytime ozil brought the ball the the front line lost it. alexis couldn’t pass a decent ball today. Why cant arsenal players attack fast? Why do they have to take a break when they approach to 18 of opponents? They have to be blind not to see the 5/4/ two level defense set up of southhampton when they approached them. Thats one of the reasons why they couldn’t go thru to score.
Spot on. I have thought this for some time but now it has become more and more evident in recent weeks due to the goals for Alexis drying up which have covered up for a long time how much he gives the ball away. He also slows the game down by turning, cutting back or just losing it by being dispossessed.
You can now see he doesn’t play with the same passion anymore. His wining mentality and fight to make things happen has gone and he is just going through the motions.
Fine them all a week’s wages and donate it to the hospital they visited last week. Only way to redeem such a shit performance.
This was so painful to watch…
Alexis, despite late assist, should barely get a 3
Bellerin needs some bench time
Kos needs some rest
Would love to see a 4 3 3 with Wilshere in the middle and Ozil-Lacazette-Giroud upfront
…..
So depressed about the way we play… And as I don’t believe in Santa Claus anymore, I wish we were in may 2018 already!!
Agreed on Bellerin, I’m a big fan but he looks far to comfortable. Needs to be dropped for next couple of matches, slight kick up the arse could be just what is needed.
Also the big man sadly looked like a player retired already. Maybe being a bit critical of him but I’m so sick of stupid mistakes leading to goals.
But who would take his place? He vad no competition and that might be a big part of him being complacent.
I want to order some replacements for Sanchez , Bellerin , Kos , mert , Nacho and Cech. Please.
What about the manager and his coaching staff, no replacement for them?
Looked like they had their Christmas Party last night!!
Xhaka looks so exposed because Ramsey keeps moving up the pitch without providing the Swiss with any help! It’s ridiculous how undisciplined the Welshman is. Most of the time he was ahead of Lacazette!
Because Ramsey thinks he’s a center forward, Ozil has to come deeper too at times.
Always find it funny when people say this as if Xhaka is a model of defensive discipline and awareness himself. Truth is he’s no more defensive than Ramsey really, both suffer from not having a true DM behind them. Of course if we played with an extra DM, Xhaka’s place in the team would be under even more pressure from Wilshere. We noticeably improved when he came on…
Everyones talking about wilshire.yeah hes a good player but i think he make us to narrow and trys to play balls through the eye of a needle,he also takes to much out of the ball.
They were parking the bus today towards the time Jack came on. Of course all the passes he attempted were going to be the type you thread the needle with. Thats not fair to say that as a sub that came on.
Well, someone on here said that Ramsey pulled his hamstring.
That means that (long awaited for) Jack can have a run in the team now. Would be interesting how Xhaka and Jack will fair together.
Agree with you about Xhaka as DM. He ain’t any better DM than Ramsey but just stays a bit further behind. Doesn’t mean that he wins any tackles or wins the ball back for us, cuz Xhaka doesn’t track back. But it looks like he’s more disciplined than Ramsey.
Ramsey was poor last week against united but blogs will tell you he was great. He got an assist, same as Sanchez did today. An above average player who is not good enough for the Arsenal. Some John terrys like lil/sanogo will tell ya that’s hate ?
You spout some real shit
Thanks Jimbo ?
I know you really don’t like Ramsey from your past post. You are allowed your opinion of course just to counter I do think he was good last week against United. OF course thats just my opinion. I don’t see it as a hater thing. Just an opinion.
He’s more disciplined in that sense because he knows if he isn’t he would be toast with his lack of speed and quickness.
I still picture what it seemed like slow motion tackle attempt that he got lucky that he got the ball because it looked like disaster coming from a mile away. That was so ugly.
Its just unfortunate that AW doesn’t see it that way. Especially playing with a back 3. I’m getting sick of seeing DM combo with Xhaka, AR, Coq or Elneny. None of them work well together consistently over a stretch of games. Its so frustrating.
Very generous for Hector.
Though he did make mistakes against United, the difference in how Mertesacker plays and how Mustafi is massive, asking the same from a player who has admitted himself is on his last legs is foolish from the Boss. We need to start trusting Holding and Chambers, especially with all the potential departures from defence.
I hope he has a great future with us but I 100% don’t trust Holding at the moment. Every time he has played this season he has been poor
In the long term, if he stays, Mustafi will be one of the best centre halfs in the league. On the Holding/Chambers issue–we don’t know how they (and Mertesacker) have looked in training. I think Holding has a fine future, but he has looked exposed in almost every match he has played this season.
I just want them to have an opportunity already especially Chambers. I’m sure Arsenal scouts got to see him play at Boro last season. At this point if AW doesn’t think he’s good enough to play or good enough to have a chance when players in front of him are out of form or hurt then he should be transferred out. Stop holding on to players you have no use for or not confidence in using. Its scary to think last season AW in the back 4 was going to use Kos/Mert, Gab/Chambers/Holding as his CB. I know he had… Read more »
I was at one of the games recently………..I have to say Chambers and Holding look really dapper in their high street suits.
Obviously Mert is a better choice than either of them, I mean hes so mobile, young and is so comfortable with the breakaway game our opponents strangely favour against us.
Btw, if Mert or Kos or Monreal had to come off (if we werent 1nil down), did anyone note our fucking bench…….not one CB available.
Its maddening.
Oh and Please, Please, stick Debuchy in at rite fuckin back, rite fuckin wing back or anywhere instead of Hector.
This is why when we finally want to transfer some of our players out that they don’t have any value. We keep them for so long and everyone forgets about there potential that they once had. I’m not saying Chambers is going to be a future starter or star in this league but hasn’t he earned his opportunity? At least while on loan he actually played at Boro last season while it seems like most of our loanees don’t play.
Crap performance but not losing. That’s actually rare for us.
Wilshire may actually get his chance now Ramsey’s out. Debuchy looked surprisingly good the other day, maybe a ‘rest’ for Bellerin is due?
Drop Sanchez immediately, a liability now, he quite clearly doesn’t give a shit anymore and it’s laughable if he thinks he’d slide even onto Pep’s City bench on present form.
I understand how people feel about Sanchez’s performance, or even that he should be benched (which I think is laughable)–but why do you say he “clearly doesn’t give a shit anymore.” I saw absolutely nothing that fits that description. I think this is just lazy pseudo-analysis–if only players cared more, we would always win. My short analysis is: Horrible defending, especially early; a terrible game from Bellerin. I thought Xhaka was fine, given the way Southamption defended. I thought all of our attacking players, including Ramsey, played well; Ozil especially continued to impress, especially on tracking back and preventing breaks.… Read more »
It looks like Alexis and Hector are no longer with us mentally oh boy what a summer coming up
Sell Alexis. Can’t take much more of this crap
Sanchez can fuck off if the last few months are anything to go by we won’t miss him
Ozil on the other hand has been class hope he stays
woeful today. That spurs performance seems so long ago
Is there a more divisive figure than Aaron Ramsey?? I like him but today he basically became a forward.
what do you mean ‘today’?
I didn’t see a problem with that today. We basically were playing against a club that was parking the bus.
So sick of watching Sanchez lose the ball.
Not only did Ramsey’s hamstring bust at the busiest time of the year, it was also at a time when we had a decent counter attack and could’ve scored had he been able to make the run
0 for everyone apart from giroud who gets a 10, Wenger just gets a fuck off.
What is not acceptable at this level is that we concede not because of the opponents superior skills,but that we don’t follow even the most basic rules of defending. And when all of our offensive play consisting of houndreds of meaningless short passes it lead to us dropping points again..
Literally everytime Alexis had the ball.. I was going like fuck another time he is going to get dispossessed. It was almost that obvious, how bad he was or has been recently.
Personally I would give a big zero to everyone of them except for Giroud who happened to save us today.
That game literally was piss taking.
We shouldve sold Alexis in the summer. Poor decision to keep him
Re-posting from the match report: I don’t get the point of playing a back 3 unless the other team is also playing a back 3 and we can go man for man like against Spurs. It doesn’t improve us at the back and means we’re often outnumbered in midfield. This could all be forgivable if we attacked with any kind of width (that’s the whole point of wing backs!) but that’s clearly not our game plan. Sideways passing in congested areas, no movement off the ball, no one taking anyone on successfully (until Wilshere came on), Wenger making subs 20… Read more »
Completely agree. AW seems to stumble about until he finds a formation that works. Then he keeps playing the exact same formation time & time again regardless of opponents. Absolutely maddening. it makes us so easy to plan against & nullifies whatever threat we may be able to mount.
I have no problems sticking with a formation. What I have a problem with is that unlike late in the season last year changing on the fly he had all summer to build the team around this formation. He failed to do it. He obviously really doesn’t like the formation and just using until it fails so he can go back to his back 4. I’ve said this in another post. Just do it already. This team is not built for the back 3.
Our defence was a static 2D straight line, one push and you are through. What kind of defence formation is that?
It’s become an alarming side effect as Arseblog said on Twitter. Many years with the same rhythm of the CL grind and the change of Europa has been destabilising more than anything, unable to build form. What is this team’s motivation? We have a couple of players with clear individual motivation- Giroud for France and Ozil for his future. Petr Cech is inherently motivated, so is Sanchez. But as a team of players, there doesn’t look to be any overall drive from game to game. We found some against Utd, and we often do in the big games or when… Read more »
I gave Cech a 6 due to the constant passing of the ball to his defenders instead of just mullering it upfield. Seriously, can someone not say to the defenders + Cech that if you’re getting closed down like mad that maybe you should just get rid? We had about 3 minutes of constant pressure from Soton in the first half because Cech didn’t do just that.
I’m not saying to belt it away at every opportunity, but rather to assess the situation and act accordingly. That is the big problem with the team: a lack of adaptability.
We are too nice!!!
I think most of the issues on this team are fixable. Kola and Bellerin simply cannot be counted on this much – they need to be spelled occasionally. Their performances have grown stale, but I have no doubts about their quality. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone with Maitland-Niles pace and eagerness out there? Alas. I think any rational fan would not say the same about Alexis. It’s simply not there anymore. As a coach myself, there was about 15 times in this game where I thought “WTF” on a decision or poor pass made by Alexis. This is… Read more »
More of lacazette. Want to see him paired with giroud , the both really hold up the ball well and clever in their runs. Him and ozil really stoodout from the rest.
Yes please! France have shown time and again that Giroud works best with a striker to partner with.
Hilarious that everyone is so fickle in their assessments of players. Alexis’ game hasn’t changed, hes been running around like a moron for years. He gave the ball away all the time at barca too. He’s trying to be like messi only his decision making is painful to watch. But he does play direct which is the reason he scores. The fact that we ignore the space behind our defenders is the problem. We dont stretch the field vertically like pep does. We commit too many players up the field and leave too much space in front of our goal.… Read more »
Relax and enjoy the Manchester derby
I don’t give a shit about them , i only want Arsenal’s problems to be fixed.
We just keep falling short, year after year after year… Fed up. Period.
Yep same old mediocre shit year after year.
But what can one do?
Sigh….
Wenger… Please… out… go..
Bellerin should be bench I think is time to give debuchy a start in the premier
Bellerin been rubbish for a long time now. Id rather have a fucking hard working Andre Santos than bellerin at the moment. No idea how we have so players who get away with mediocre performances. Sanchez doesn’t care anymore, clearly. Keep ozil and get someone good for Sanchez sales. And do something with out awful defense will ya. Europe League lets go!…..
I’m really disappointed in Alexis. I thought that even if he wanted to leave he’d be an Energizer Bunny.
Mesut Ozil, on the other hand, has been great for the team, whatever his future plans.
Giroud is still the best striker we have. Laca has been hailed as a clinical striker but he hasn’t shown it yet – certainly not today.
Lacazette needs service. Giroud needs a ball in the air. Much easier to get a cross in the area than to play it on the ground in space for Lacazette. I like both of them and it would be nice to be able to see Giroud hold up the ball and pass it off to Laca but that would require playing Sanchez out wide.
Same here, would like to see them together. I do like Laca, but when he does get service he needs to be more efficient.
I only got to watch bits and pieces today. What happened to Ramsey?
This is typical arsenal. Crap at the back. Could have been much worse. No defensive mid Back three is so great then why have we been out offthe title race since November. Actually by the end of Oct. Again dropping points on the road to a crap team. No fluidity in attack. Could have made all those substitutions after ten minutes. That’s how bad we started. What we are really good at is dropping points in matches we should win. We excel at that. We are a club whose only ambition is to finish top 4. Spend enough to accomplish… Read more »
Bellerin , Xhaka , Sanchez,Kolasinac they are so poor … why always play them??? What’s wrong with the old man ??
I think the season is probably done now time to try something new.
-Holding and/or chambers needs to be playing
-bellerin needs to be dropped for maitland niles he will be even more determined than debuchy to get his career going
– our midfield does not benefit xhaka or ozil needs to be a three with xhaka,coq and wilshere or ramsey
– drop sanchez he is barely a threat, why does he never push into the box like chambo used to
– reward giroud play both him and laca up front, give opponents something to worry about
4-3-1-2
I remember when I used to be able to comment on this site.
Bellerin, Monreal really poor defensively. I don’t understand why Wenger can’t get a decent defensive coach. It’s clearly a major issue and he’s supposed to be an intelligent man. Things like mark the wide man and stay goalside of your attacker are fairly basic stuff. Same old issues. Depressing.
With Ramsey the clown or injured, Wilshire may find a way back into the team
These ratings are WAY too generous
Given Ramsey is now injured and Xhaka in poor form would it not be interesting to see Jack line up alongside Coq?
They both won the FA youth cup together and I can see that Jack is the closest thing we have to Santi who, in turn, seemed to be the only player before who worked perfectly in tandem with Coq.
Kos looks like he needs a break to get his legs back, but we have nobody to go in for him. The BFG looked like he was going to fall over constantly, not sure what was up with him. Bad pass leading to the goal and then of course tripped over himself. We were lucky we didn’t give up more than one. I think Wenger needs to go to a back four for a while and get Welbeck into the lineup and move Ozil into the middle.
0/10 for David Prutton’s commentary. That guy is a weapons-grade twat.
Xhaka is the worst DM we can ever have
Ambitions of winning the title, and arguing about the defense and midfield mould mid season? I cant understand where the problem is. We are shit. Period.
Wenger should give some academy players a chance
Sanchez was utter kak, but then they all were.