Arsenal couldn’t make it 12 wins from 12 but did remain unbeaten since the Chelsea game, playing out a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park this afternoon. Both the home side’s goals came from the spot, while Granit Xhaka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were the goalscorers for the Gunners.
Read the report and see the goals here.
Ratings
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Iwobi was absolute fucking trash today.
He wasn’t the only one to have had a bad game today. No need to be so insulting to a player who this season has bee one of our most consistent players
No worse than Ozil.
The whole front 4 were poor. No point in singling out any one of them, really.
But if you single out someone it should be the captain who’s by far on the highest wages and showed his fantastic team spirit again with his reaction when he got subbed.
Classy
He was poor. Lots of misplaced passes and runs were a bit loose.
BUT he looked the most leggy of the lot out there probably bc of output from previous two games plus we have no real viable options in a similar type player to throw on and have the same effect he has when on song.
THIS. He was awful. It’s not a reflection on his previous performances, but today was back to the old Iwobi. How many times did he give the ball away? Not nearly good enough at keeping possession in an away game.
Honestly was thinking Palace deserve something from this before the second penalty. We were poor.
Things just didn’t click for our forwards today and you have to credit Palace for playing a positive game.
There still seems to be something missing with our formation up front. Seems too much of a coincidence for Auba, Laca, Ozil and Iwobi to all have a bad game.
Still I thought Lucas was quality again.
Just not sure if our starting team can have even 2 of the 3 of Auba, Ozil and Ramsey. We know Ramsey & Ozil can’t work together but concerned that Ozil and Auba leaves us too exposed to the press.
For me, it’s not a coincidence that our best 90mins performance was still Fulham with no Ozil, Auba and Ramsey starting. I want to see another 4-2-2-2 again, as that’s the only performance that’s worked for 90mins.
Not that hard to look good against Fulham on attack. Tells you almost nothing.
I can’t understand why Laca hasn’t been tried in the right or left of the three behind the striker. That’s where he played at Lyon under Claude Puel before being converted into a striker.
Aubameyang has the highest goals per mins ratio in Premier League history right now and yet we’re still playing him out of position. He has to be up front.
And 99% of goals come from inside the box…. so put him in the box
Cunts
A pretty weak performance but should have been able to hold on to the lead. Hopefully a LB is available against Liverpool.
Mustafi really confuses me. His decision making is not that of a player who attends training every week.
That being said. We have played 2 more games than Palace this week. So I will take this point. The manner of which they equalised was very upsetting. Mustafi practically escorted him as he made the pass to Zaha.
I think he confuses himself
No self, just confused.
I think mostly he is ok until he has to defend, and then things don’t go so well
He’s still been part of a team that hasn’t lost in 12 games. A stupid decision to jump in but no need to be a hater.
Problem is those stupid decisions will continue. Sometimes they don’t cost us, but often they do.
He’s not the CB for us and I’m confident Emery realises this.
I think he must have magnets in is ass.
Mustafi is a growing liability. Can’t believe the hype that took place before his arrival about him coming. Damn.
Also, let’s hope we start controlling games from the off and not the second half.
Onwards and upwards!
Growing? He’s a full-grown liability! I don’t think he can hide behind lack of coaching or whatever other bullshit excuses anymore.
It will be Kos, Holding, and Sokratis before Mustafi when everyone’s healthy!
Wrong in game decisions and subs by the manager today. Should of left Ozil on and brought on Mkhi for Iwobi. Welbz should of gone on the left wing when he came on and Auba move central.
My thoughts too exactly on subs. Taking Ozil and Auba off when you are unable to keep the ball and dictate proceedings didn’t look too wise, as our best chance would be to counter attack and those 2 would have been deadly. Laca and Iwobi were misplacing passes all through the game (the effort from Laca to handle the ball was appalling) and then to bring in Ramsey was even more disappointing as we all know he doesn’t provide any cover to defense! I hope yesterday was an aberration than the norm, as I saw worrying Arsene patterns of defending… Read more »
You gave Ramsey a 6. I don’t think he made one successful pass and got in the way of a ball to lacazette as well as missing good chance. Jeez you are so bias it’s embarrassing blogs
And as bad as Mustafi was, that review reads as someone who’s just been waiting for this sort of performance. Which in someway is fair, but the same could be said for Ozil’s disappearance again away from home (many of us were expecting that too).
I gave him a 6 because it’s the default score I use. I could have given him no score but if I do, nobody can vote for him then.
I don’t understand the down votes; Blogs just explained he gave Ramsey a “no rating,” but in a way that allows others to rate him. I don’t agree with many of the ratings, but that has nothing to do with this.
Thanks for explanation. Didn’t realize that 6 was a “neutral”/default vote.
Kinda equals N/A, but gives others space to vote.
Blogs – interesting that 8 out of 9 viewers agree with A Fleeting Glance. Haha. We all love you tho, despite the Ramsey tinted spectacles. ?
Arseblog: Fan of Arsenal, Aaron Ramsey and most everything to do with Aaron Ramsey.
?
You’re pissing in the wind I’m afraid Fleeting.
Ramsey has some photos of Mr Blogs, did you not know that?
I will play the devil’s advocate this time. It was a bad decision from Mustafi to tackle like that in the 6 yard box but after watching the replay I think that he didn’t see Kouyate. Still a mistake but it was also Leno’s mistake. You can’t overlook that. If Cech is questioned for every bad pass then we should question Leno too. This is now the 2nd league game in a row that he made the same mistake. As for the 2nd goal yes Mustafi could have made a faul but we didn’t concede because of that. He was… Read more »
Completely agree on your Leno point. Really weak punch that put our defence under pressure. And another followed that could’ve got us in trouble. That said, a point is not too bad given how we played. So many missed passes, especially on the break. Hopefully this takes a bit of pressure off ahead of Liverpool. And serves as a reminder that there’s still some work to do. Maybe we’ll look back and say this was a good point.
It was not a dive per se; Zaha ran into Xhaka and took a tumble over his knee. Unfair – Yes, Unexpected – No. This is how football is played nowadays. The foul that Mustafi did not make was the one that would have prevented this scenario from playing out. So, yes I feel Mustafi needs to apportioned blame for this goal.
“Ran into” someone is a dive too. I don’t know but I think there wasn’t a contact either. I agree it could have prevented the scenario but it was also a bad pass from Lacazette, maybe Toreirra could also be more determinated, and Xhaka was a little naive… You see where am I going. It was not just Mustafi’s mistake. It was a mistake from 3 or 4 players. Everyone could have prevented the goal if they had played it differently.
Isn’t “ran into” the key phrase here? Who initiated the contact? Zaha. Where is the ball? Nowhere near him. Take a look at the replay from behind the play. This is a patently false play as the offensive player is trying to draw the foul and not advance/control the ball. Frustrated here, as the League seems to accept this type of play as legitimate. It’s not like a crap foul in the box could change anything!
This penalty would be given ninety percent of the time by any English referee; we would all be furious if it were not given for one of our players. It was not a Jaime Vardy special, where he purposely ran into a leg that was already in place–I thought Xhaka (who I rate much more highly, I think, than many supporters) pretty clearly stuck out his leg as Zaha tried to run by. Was Zaha looking for that? Sure. But that’s not the same as a dive, or initiating contact, or even of going down when you feel any contact.
It’s a good dive nonetheless. Baited Xhaka to put his leg out and he did. Exactly what Zaha was looking for i reckon. I feel like the responsibility here should be with Laca, abit more game management needed try holding the ball at the corner or something and not play a extremely risk pass in the last 5-7 mins of the match that we were winning. Also agree that with Guendouzi, we tend to lose control of the midfield. I think it’s his lack of off the ball positioning experience. This will no doubt get better with more game time… Read more »
A Dives a dive. He cheated us, just like he’s cheated loads of others. Cheating little rat.
He didn’t take a tumble he rose like a harrier jump jet before gliding to terra firma over Xhaka’s leg! Let’s sign him asap.
”not a dive per se??”
What do you call taking a two footed hop over someone’s leg?
It’s pretty a blatant but Xhaka was probably a bit naive to leave his leg out. The two players you never want to leave a leg out on are Zaha and Ashley Young.
I think you are spot on with Gendouzi. No where near PL quality
He’s what, 19? We draw one game and our fans start singling out players for other the top criticism. Don’t be a chump. He could be a collussus in a year or two.
Winning 22 of the 24 points available between the Chelsea and Liverpool games is very good – anybody would have been thrilled about that kind of a return after our first two losses. So, while it’s gonna get rocky over the next couple months, we’re not exactly shitting the bed here. Xhaka playing left back against a super fast, physical side (who had a week of rest), our attackers mostly playing poorly, Bellerin off at half, a questionable penalty, away from home, played 3 days ago…I’d say 2-2 isn’t really a terrible result?
And yet at 2-1 away from home with 7 mins left, they really should have seen this one out. I for one am gutted to drop those points and hope we don’t regret it come may.
In the Premier League, we have exactly the same number of points as we gathered in the corresponding matches lase season (if you exclude the newly promoted Fulham and Cardiff).
Who the fuck SLIDE tackles an opponent who is showing his back to the goal? MUSTAFI!! Next match Sokratis and Holding please!
He wasn’t tackling anyone, he didn’t even know that he was there… It was obviously an attempt to clear the ball.
While I agree, it is no coincidence that the quality of his performance is inversely related to the number of times he goes to ground during said match.
We missed an established LB, there were no overlapping runs and the cut backs. We need Nacho or Kola back for the Liverpool game!
We do.
We also need to look at bringing in a new LB (no idea if there’s one in youth set up, and not AMN), because Nacho isn’t getting any younger and Kolasinac is both unproven at this stage and, unfortunately, injury prone.
We got Santi Podolski Arteta and Mertesacker for the price of mustafi.
When you put it like that it really makes me want to choke, is it really true? I know, inflation and all of that but it seems unbelievable. Why did they not splurge on van Dyck when he was for sale at Celtic. Who do we have in the scouting dept?
A lot of negatives from today’s match, but also a few positives: – Torreira was fantastic yet again. He swept up well at the back and was snapping at Crytal Palace players’ heels the second there was a turnover. You also can’t underestimate his ability to play an incisive pass; often made a great pass to the forwards who were unfortunately not quite clicking today. – Guendouzi made an absolutely excellent professional foul right at the end which is something I’d expect from a much more experienced, mature player rather than the youngest man on the field. Also thought he… Read more »
Lichtsteiner is fast becoming a meme at this rate. Love his shithousery!
Definitely feel Emery got the subs wrong today. Lacazette had a really poor game and I felt he should’ve been taken off for Welbz instead of Ozil.
Despite this I can’t help but feel we probably would’ve lost this type of game last season and our winning streak was always going to end at some point.
Another 1H wasted. We did well to come back, but the tactic of parking the bus after going 2-1 up was a bad one. Having said that, credit to Palace playing some good football.
P.S. FFS please get Mustafi out of the first team.
Their goal came when we didn’t park the bus. Laca launched a “who wants it?” pass to no one in particular from the corner with everyone up. But yeah, Palace did deserve a point. They hit the woodwork twice and Lacazette’s hand may have been deemed sufficient reason to wave off our second.
Erm… Mustafi had to make the block. He made a similar block against Townsend later to good effect.
The issue is more midfield and beyond did not achieve enough dominance and we were under duress at the back again. Sokratis also makes mistakes last game and HOlding the match before.
If you are going to nit pick on one moment, you miss the rest of the good things Mustafi did the rest of the match.
1) Leno – Could have been a bit more commanding dealing with the cross for the first goal against us. Otherwise a decent showing. 2) Bellerin – Worrying that he’s now injured. Zaha was always going to be a handful but we were less secure without Bellerin even if there were iffy moments in the first half as well. 3) Mustafi – Did not put a foot wrong except for the penalty which was a soft call. He needed to put in the block. Later there was a similar instance from similar close range when he put in a similar… Read more »
Yesterday, it looked to me that we didn’t have a clear idea how to progress with the ball when either one of the midfielders (Torreira, Guendouzi) has the ball. They collected the ball from the defenders, moved the ball a little, then either passed backwards or sideways. Not much came off with vertical passes. A bit strange, because they both were quite good with vertical passes. We have players who are supposed to be good at collecting the ball between the lines (Ozil and Iwobi, even Laca to certain extend), but not much came off whenever they received the ball… Read more »
I want the old voting system back pleasssseeeeee