It wasn’t the prettiest night of football anyone will ever see, but we needed three points and we got them. It took until the 60th minute to have a shot on target, and that was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s penalty! Alexandre Lacazette made it 2-0, and of course we couldn’t do the simple thing and keep a clean sheet, but in the end hung on to take the win as Manchester United dropped two points to Burnley.
Read the Arsenal 2-1 Cardiff match report and see the goals here
Here’s how the players rated tonight.
Ratings
The ratings are now hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Bernd Leno. Also, give the ratings a few seconds to load.
I fuckin’ love Guendouzi. Dunno why, I just love the way he plays
I feel the same way. He is a competitor that does not like to lose. We need more like him.
He was good. Some great through balls as well first half.
BUT Iwobi the difference when he came on today.
And Mustafi with a VITAL block first half.
Santa just get over your nerves and ask Alex out ffs!
I love me some laccazette as well. True fighter. If i’d bet any guy to make the difference for arsenal i would bet on him
Also, lacazette’s attitude is excellent. Getting along with auba, refusing to goad the fans’ booing when he’s subbed off early, tracking back like a champ… love the guy!
I would go as far as he is the only player in the team that is not replaceable
I see where you’re coming from but I’ll definitely add Torreira to that list. Just the two of them really.
The first paragraph of this article is the best summary of a football match I’ve ever seen ?
I don’t think Ozil will start against City with that kind of performance
With the number of games he get to play and formation, one would almost think Emery is out to sabotage Ozil in making him not match fit and not employing his strengths.
MOTM in my humble opinion.
Can’t understand the vitriol towards the boy. He’s only 19 yo, coming from the darkness of Ligue 2 right into action in the so called best league in the world, so it’s normal to have a couple bad games. Think he’s one of the best players of the season so far, behind Auba, Laca, Bellerin and Torreira .
And f*ck you Mike Dean.
For all the negativity with the United result brings back perspective after their hilarious points dropped at home to Burnley haha. So much for their fans typical goading. Came back to bite them back in their stupid arses.
I think jenkinson might be our best option right now…..scary
We actually looked a lot better with him on
Lord Jenko came on in the 60th min & first goal came 6min later, says all. Game chenger.
Changer*
Still think AMN deserves a good chance there. It’s obvious Jenko is off in the summer and it might be better for us in the long-run to invest that playing time into AMN who may still have a future at Arsenal. Hope AMN comes back from his small injury in time for City!
Boo to wet blankets.
Hmmmm
Better Jenko than Stephan
Yay to Arsenal bed quilts!
Is Jenko the man without a face?
Just a level too high for him.
He tries his best.
BUT just not the quality we need. Still Lichsteiner for 90K…
Would like to see him more on the pitch
Mike Dean is always a twat
Did we not petition that he never ref another arsenal game again… why wont he retire?
He’ll have to retire soon, to Cuntsville-on-sea
Cuntsville on c
Cuntsville with a c
How about Cunthorpe
He gave us the penalty and refrained himself from giving Laca a yellow for being bundled over second half. Remember Laca already on a yellow for too much talk at half time on his way to the tunnel.
So Mike Dean MOTM for me.
He did get booked for simulation.
Guendouzi was the player booked at half time.
Do you watch the game with the sound off?
And – if we’re honest – missed one for them and another 1, arguably 2, for us… Maybe you can double date him AND Alex?
I think Emery was just rotating. Also with Ozil playing he probably needed more combative players to deal with the obvious lets get stuck into Arsenal tactic.
Because Ozil played we needed 3 defensive midfielders around him? Are we Burnley or what?
We were playing a team that has a tendency for orcness. I could see the thinking behind it.
We’re a team with 2 fullbacks and a wing back in a back 4
Exactly, along with on and off defending from Ozil himself.
Ozil with most chances created.most key passes,successful cross,pass and MOST TACKLES.Guy gets a 6…Kudos for being unbiased as usual with the ratings 🙂
Checked out the statistics on whoscored, and seems its only tackles youre right with (shared 3 with elneny and mustafi), the rest are just blatant lies. Please stop spreading misinformation because someone gave your favorite player a very understandable rating.
Also not sure where to check for crosses but, since there werent really any crosses of note, from the whole team, im just going to ignore it.
Checked the crosses, and Ozil had one accurate cross, and shared first with Torreira who also had one.
Any player looks good when youre just picking out statistics where they rank the highest, completely ignoring the context (a single accurate cross is really insignificant to the overall rating of a player).
Auba had the most key passes made (3), Matteo had total passes made 83, Torreira was had highest pass success % 91.
tbf Ozil attempted highest number of tackles 6, succeeded in 3.
I’d say he was really trying to play like his coach demanded. and for that he deserves a nod.
Elneny and Torreira did not exactly make us any less vulnerable first half.
Can’t blame Mustafi either as he dug us out a number of times with vital blocks.
Unai probably decided to throw caution to the wind come second half.
Iwobi coming on made a MASSIVE impact.
Just ask Alex out, so we can move past the obsession/adoration phase?
Ozil captain… personally I’m all for that however, I know against city he will have a slight knock and will not even be in the squad. Ever Ozil stays and plays or goes
The forecast is minus three in Manchester Sunday, possibilities of snow and some wind. It is maybe harsh on Özil, which I think is a great player, but he has been known to call in sick on away games like this.
I hope he starts the city game and turns it on, it would completely change the outlook of our season.
Oh also, fortnite has introduced variable conditions to the game like snow which could help Mesut prepare for games like these 😉
Its been how many years now and people are still hoping Ozil turns it on away from home against a top side…
Well they lost today so anything is possible.
Laca’s goal and celebration – 10/10
In my mind’s eye both were the same surging run, just stopped to score a goal halfway through 🙂
Hahahah love that.
comment of the week mate!
Did anyone see the Ozil goodbye wave??. Last game, this season definitely!!
Or maybe saying thanks to the crowd for keeping faith in him maybe?
He was thanking the stands for positive support. He did so again on social media after the match.
Feel sorry for Iwobi, blogs was a bit harsh me thinks? Okay elneny didn’t have a good game but I think Iwobi is one of the positives of this season – he keeps trying to make things happen and I thought he looked a menace in the first half against manure
I like Iwobi, thought he did change things because he is a positive player, even if not everything works. 6.5 pretty fair I thought!
For me his role in this game was perfect- brought on in the second half to shake things up when plan A wasn’t working, and he did just that. The problem is expecting him to be a regular starter. He’s just not there yet in my opinion, unfair to him to expect that. The fact we don’t have any other wingers is part of the story no doubt …
Another one who doesn’t see the match for what it is.
Iwobi coming on changed the game.
He provided the pass last game against United for Ramsey.
Today when he was brought on Kolasinac immediately sparked to life and again his pass to the Bosnian earned the penalty.
Iwobi also protects the ball well and creates space for us bc he pulls players out of position.
Almost everything good at the moment comes from the left side for a reason.
Are you watching the match or deciding it before hand?
JUST ASK HIM OUT!!!!!
I dont even think playing wide suits him. He has to play there because he is one of our quicker players and has a fair amount of trickery
Yeah I think the no.10 role is his best position and I hope one day he gets the opportunity to have a run there
Perhaps the conservative selections also stem from the obvious fragility if this squad. Dominate Chelsea to plumbing the depths in less than a week. I much rather have these turgid wins than a gloriously typical defeat. Also no matter the injuries our defense is rubbish.
The amount of times we’ve set up against a relegation fodder side at the emirates on a rainy and cold day, huffed and puffed and been done on the break or a set piece is too many to count. Think people are too quick to criticise the manager for the selection for the reasons you say but, also, these types of games are always turgid affairs
We can 4get about the performance today, this season all that matters is the win and and those points. Anyways both our strikers on the score sheet is encouraging, hope they motivate each other even more
That said, I wonder what is team selection in defense is going to be against city, may be mavropanos can be tried at RB, lich is out of breath and ideas, jenko is high spirited but shaky with the ball, all in all a very tricky job for emery this weekend
Hope AMN is back in.
Lichsteiner is a bridge too far and Jenkinson as much as he tries is just not up to level.
If Ozil doesn’t play well with 3 defensive midfielders giving him unlimited freedom… what more do we want? I feel like he is searching for the goldilocks zone.
This spectacularly misses the point of playing a creative player like Ozil. 3 DMs is ridiculous, it doesn’t give balanced midfield players for our forward line to combine with. It’s at home versus Cardiff, we should be playing that like we own the place (because we fucking do), not like we are scared to be in a game of football.
I see your point, but we regardless, we were very suspect at the back in the first half… what might it have been like without the 3 dm’s?
We would have score sooner?
Emery recognized we were playing a bunch of orcs
I wouldn’t actually say Guendouzi is a DM or even defensively minded, he is more box to box and Lucas may play deep a lot and is great at wink NG the ball but he always looks for a forward pass. Perhaps Elneny is the only one who is really restricted offensively. Like who is the attacking minded option?? Ramsey maybe? But he plays Ozils role really
*good at winning the ball*
Did the last however many seasons get wiped your memory or something? We’ve gone out there against these sorts of teams with that attitude and lost numerous times from a set piece or a counter attack. Our defence is threadbare and we had 3 fullbacks in the back 4, one of whom is basically a wingback and the one centre back in the line was Mustafi. Think the manager can be forgiven for trying to protect the back 4 with his midfield. I have to say, I’m really enjoying how quickly it took for arsenal fans to start hankering for… Read more »
Well said.
You nailed it there Dobby
False dichotomy.
Surely there’s a balance between late-Wenger casualness and foolhardiness on the one hand, and Emery cravenness on the other. Wenger would jam as many creative ACM types in his side at once, which was a mistake. But Emery goes to the opposite extreme, which is just as bad.
The real dichotomy for Wenger was home/away–brilliant at home and awful away. Ideally, we should play away as we play at home, which no one (except City last year) can really do. But I worry that, from what I have seen, Emery’s solution is to have us play at home as if we were away: carefully, cramped, eking out a win against relegation strugglers.
Actually we have very rarely lost at home, to anyone. Forty-seven points at home last season, compared to Man City’s fifty. Short memory.
It was hardly three DMs anyway. Guendouzi isn’t a defensive midfielder, and even Torreira has an eye for a forward pass. The idea that Özil was isolated because of the team selection is baffling, especially as both Laca and Auba are capable of creating chances too. Besides, Iwobi came on for the second half and Özil still struggled.
He just came back into the team, takes some time to sync back in. I thought he was involved enough today particularly as we were still quite flat first half and had to struggle to keep focus.
We missed the passing range of Xhaka who would also have helped Ozil
Lacas goal was a bit like an angry Walcott versus chelsea
There is no striker in the world more overpowered than an angry walcott vs chelsea and newcastle 🙂
Laca makes his own goal.
He was in the war today and I was worried he may get sent off (with Mike Dean). But that goal was sheer determination and power.
Between Laca and Auba, I feel Laca brings so much more at the moment but hey, for all his ills, Auba always seems to be there to tap things in.
True – and how long have we collectively ached for a bloke who just seems to tap things in?
Franny Jeffers anyone…
Iwobi changed the game for us IMO – looked much more like it after he came on.
Can open the game up with a pass, can get in behind with pace, presses strongly and tracks back, and can score – got a lot of attributes.
Thought Iwobi should have done more to stop the shot from which we conceded. Otherwise he was good but defensively he needs to improve a lot, I think.
Tracks back???? What season(s) have you been watching? The lad has most certainly improved on the ball but he still offers almost nothing defensively. For such a quick, strong fella – he ambles back on ‘defence’ and just squizz his tackle stats… abysmal
Mike Dean is definately a twat. But tbh, a club the size of Arsenal, should be able to rotate players against teams at the bottom end of the table and still get the result. It mighta been ugly, but a win is a win and regardless of tactics, if it produces the result who gives a rats @rs3!
Fair play blogs. 1) Leno – OK. Agree maybe he could have done better for their goal. Unsighted I presume. The Burnley keeper made several wonder stops today against United. Can we get him? 2) Lichsteiner – Nothing. Just a man one season too far. Chambers scored by the way for Fulham. Has been playing both at Cback and as a holding player. Remember he also played for Soton to some effect as a Rback. Surely could not have been any worse for pace than Lichsteiner. 90K 3) Mustafi – Well done. Finally some objectivity. Aside from the block he… Read more »
I thought Laca was off tonight. His passing was poor and when he had a couple opportunities to shoot he didn’t, and when he was open for a shot in the second half he put it well wide. The dive was embarrassing too, but he took his goal well to thumbs up for that.
Thought Guendouzi was excellent and not sure I agree with the generally received wisdom that he’s too naive at times (aren’t we all after all)? Great to see Lacca staying on for 90 mins and interesting to see in what minute he scored his goal… perhaps we can stop sacrificing him too early from now on. Ozil was very Ozil. I really do like him and can’t help but wish I could do what he does on the pitch, but I totally get why people (including Emery it seems) get so frustrated with him. If I knew what the answer… Read more »
I don’t really have any issue with the way we set up against Cardiff. Why do we keep saying Guendouzi is a “DM” when he’s a pretty creative minded midfielder? Anyway, I think the manager just set us up to grind out a result and he tried packing the midfield to cover for the bad defence which seems preferable to the back 3. We’ve seen us lose these games a hundred times so I don’t really mind that it was turgid when we won, it’s better than drawing to Burnley at home anyway haha
Definitely more of a box-to-box. Plays the role Ramsey used to play before he morphed into a #10/striker, but is a bit more strong and physical.
Guendouzi will be an effin’ and jeffin’ baller in a year or two! I think he’s that good!!!!!!
Still shocking to see the vitriol spewed at ozil from fellow gooners. Beggars belief. Bring back the old days of supporting the players wearing the shirt. No matter what. I don’t get the younger fans.
Yep. One can be a bit dissappointed about a players performance but ya always support them. These days, if the team isnt winning 5-0 and scoring 5 spectacular goals every game, some fans just arent happy!
There goes Lacazette again…making goals out of nothing.
“Not sure he should have been beaten for that one.”
I stopped reading after this. Clueless comment.