Thursday, December 5, 2024

West Ham 1-0 Arsenal – player ratings

Arsenal have taken just two points from the last fifteen away from home, and today’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham was a very disappointing result and performance. Declan Rice’s second half goal was enough for the Hammers to take all three points, and in general the Gunners didn’t threaten former teammate Lukasz Fabianski.

Read the West Ham 1-0 Arsenal match report and see the goal here

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.

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Monkey G

Emery 0/10, put him out of his misery. #EmeryOuy

Paul Roberts

“#EmeryOuy” sums your comment up for me.

goonshow

If you cannot see past a manager, who has actually brought some life into an at best average group of demotivated and confused players he inherited, to the real villians of this piece i.e. our ‘board’… then you’re an even larger muppet than your pitifully misspelled hashtag suggests.

Reality check

Goonshow Partly disagree, this squad is anything but average. Our attack is definitly better than Chelsea and spuds and can even make a good case against Liverpool’s too. We needed a culture change, bring some defensive solidity and then biild on from there. But instead, we went for a Basque Wenger. As far as Ozil situation is concerned. I think the Neymar situation is still playing on Emery’s mind or may be there are instructions from higher up to pi$$ Ozil off to the point where he asks to leave. I can’t think of any other reason tbh. Emery is… Read more »

OnAnyBlock

Apart from Auba and Laca, who are better than Morata (which is just poor investment: £75M and the club initially wanted Lukaku, who isn’t much better) which of our players would get into a composite team playing 433/4321?? Even if we want to be incredibly generous and say Torreira and Kante play together to accommodate Ozil as a pure 10, the fact is pretty much all their wide forwards would stroll into our first team. Which of our front three would displace Mane, Salah, and Firmino? You could probably argue Lacazette for the latter based on how they play. However,… Read more »

John C

Absolutely, to come to the conclusion that any of our players are better than Hazard, Pedro, Willian, Ali, Kane, Mane, Firmino, Salah or even Song is so blinded to reality it’s beggars belief.

None of those teams would want any of our attackers apart from perhaps Aubameyang or Lacazette, the rest are nowhere near those. Seriously Iwobi is generously at best a lower midtable level player.

Clive

How do you bring a nineteen year old kid in and play him at CDM where he is at best average and then surreptitiously change the system, promote him to your CM and the blind can see he doesn’t have the qualities yet to run a top 6 club’s midfield. The kid is improving leaps and bounds but what a responsibility to put on his young shoulders. When did it become good football to have sixty or seventy percent possession in your own defensive third. Not Chelsea nor Liverpool, Tottenham or Manchester City or United spend as much time in… Read more »

PoopyMccheese

Seriously what the fuck is he talking about ? Emerys done wonders for us this season so far. He inherited a team that has consistently underperformed and wasn’t given much of a budget to change things. The signings he has made though are impacting our team in a positive way, look at Torreria prime example. Leno, Sokratis, Guendouzi, have all been good and are in their first seasons so we can expect more in the future. Doesn’t help being owned by Kroenke who wont put even $1 of his own money into the club so we could buy the right… Read more »

alex alexsson

who do you replace him with? Really don’t see how sacking emery would be a constructive solution. Issues go well beyond the manager and are gonna take a good while to sort out #kroenkeout

Chmackhyungpark

What exactly is sacking Emery going to achieve? Clearly we need better players. I agree that so far Emery has not bowled us over and his team selection frustrates me. Ramsey (letting him go is madness) should start over Douzie every time and he needs to get Ozil playing. But it wasn’t long ago we were singing “we’ve got our Arsenal back’ and this comment section was full of praise for him. Let’s give him a full season before we can judge him, we seem to forget how completely shite we were last year and it is going to take… Read more »

Neil

Ramsey gives the ball away far too much. We need another solution entirely.

Alex

We were singing UE, yes, and we stopped. Funnily, we sang him when Özil was playing. We stopped when he stopped playing him. Not because of Özil but because of the results and the shitty game plans.

Chamackhyungpark

Ozil played almost all the games last year. Still absolutely pish. We need better players, that’s the long and the short of it. About 6 or 7 of the starting line up need replaced.

Mpls

At least we were absolutely posh with chances created. You said it yourself- 6-7 need replacing. Ozil was never at fault for a lackluster team balance.

Chamakhyungark

Yup. Never said he was

Devlin

Jardim is available.

Emery in Aubalaca wonderland

Jardim was sacked because they sold all his good players and Henry got stuck with the weak squad. It is all about investment not the manager.

Mpls

So apparently team selection makes no difference then?

Easy tiger

So why have an overpaid manager at all?

Jake

Arteta still an option… Was the first choice after all ?

Red-Sky

That’s a stupid choice Right there. Might as well go for henry

alex alexsson

Really don’t see how Jardim or Arteta could do a better job with no funds. Sacking Emery now would put us back to square one come the start of next season (eg. seeding out the best XI, deciding how we’re gonna play, adapting to new tactics / formation etc). Lets give Emery a bit of time to clear out the dead wood and get something of a cohesive squad together. If we’re still pants 2-3 seasons down the line, fair play at least we tried, hopefully we’ll have moved slightly in the right direction. I’m as frustrated as any other… Read more »

Bob

yes, that proven coach of Mikel Arteta wanted by diamond eye Gazidis

Woolwich Shepherd

The question I have is what happened between the early season run and today? It’s the same manager that we were praising over a month ago. The answer is Ozil. Or, rather his absence. Nobody believes he really is injured, do they? The bad relationship between Ozil and the manager has poisoned the atmosphere.

Atom

During the winning run we weren’t playing particularly well – other teams simply weren’t taking their chances. Ozil hasn’t played particularly well since he got the new contract. He’s had the odd great game but by and large has been pretty average at best. Wenger / Gazidis made a real mess of things the past few years with contracts and squad construction. This never was going to be as simple as hiring a new coach fixing everything. Ozil whole talented is also becoming the new Campbell or Perez – the longer he’s out of the team the more a section… Read more »

loose_cannon

@Atom I actually started calling it the Joel Campbell Effect; the longer a player is out of action while his team is struggling, the better he becomes in the minds of the fans. Sit out a couple of drubbings and you become a world beater.

Alex

There is no bad relation from Özil to UE. The opposite though…

Yankee Gooner

The first part of this response (“who do you replace him with?”), when said to defend Wenger, earned the commenter a rightful caning, fwiw.

Paul

Mourinho is available! (Grass greener etc)

N7 Gooner

Hilarious if intended that way

Bydeen

I am not buying this crap about Ozil not in the squad for tactical reason. For one, I haven’t seen any tactics shift. At least non that obvious that Emery can convince me is beyond Ozil’s talent and that AMN, Iwobi, Ramsey or Mickey are better suited to. Freezing him out of the team is just wise

Bydeen

Typo. Meant to say not wise

martin

Did you say that during out 22 undefeated run. Did you say that when we thrashes Spurs. Yes he has made mistakes but this is his first season so he must be given some time. To sack him after half a season would be madness. The toxicity and knee jerk reactions of some our supporters sickens me

Yankee Gooner

People actually were saying this, yes.

Casimir KnightI

I totally agree but I think there is a legitimate concern the UE has a problem with creative players. The toxic Ozil situation and pushing Ramsey out of the club may be part of a pattern where talented creative types don’t / can’t fit in? That’s a worry for me.

goonshow

I’d be interested to know on what you base your rather sweeping generalisation that UE has ‘a problem with creative players’`???

Vonnie

It’s all in the biography, he’s always had problems with intelligent players.

Daniel

This! First letting go of Wilshere and Cazorla, now freezing out Ozil and letting Ramsey go.
All the past problems remained, but now we can’t even pass, create or control the ball, let alone matches…

John Lavery

Really! be sensible, Ask your self, where are Wilshere and Santi now? Whilst we are all delighted that Santi is playing again do you really think that bringing him back is good for the future of the club? No, we need to give UE a lot more time. Remember what was being said about Klopp in his first and second season with Liverpool? Cries of OUT every week, now you could get killed if you said Kloop was no good. He is the best manager currently in the EPL and that is because he was given time and money to… Read more »

James

Frankly these marks are in general far too high. That was the worst performance of the season. How bad do players actually have to be to get 1s, 2s and 3s
And if we were marking the manager he gets 0/10.

Dave Cee

I gave Xhaka a 2..and that was probably 2 generous

Fireman Sam

We can all see Xhaka’s major weaknesses yet it’s sad but true that most of us would still have to play him if we were in Unai’s position. What does that tell us? That the squad is simply pretty shite.

Thimothé Luvungo

Xhaka is a good player but he has a huge shorcoming : his body position, xhaka always control the ball in a wrong way, as a consequence he is not able to play fast because he has to take a extra touch before giving the ball. An other consequence is that his body position makes him a target for our opponents, as it is easier to press him, that is for me why xhaka often tends to give the ball back to the player that gave him the ball, contrary to torreira who is often controlling the ball in the… Read more »

goonshow

As an excercise (and to try to dull the pain of watching that stumbling shambles today) I watched Xhaka in detail for the last 10 of the first half and beginning 10 of the second. In that time he made 14 passes, of which ELEVEN were backwards!!!!
Please can we have our Santi back?

Jack

Guendouzi – fine to play him in the league cup or maybe to keep things ticking in midfield when winning comfortably, but do not play him in important games like this.

Alex James legend

Yes your right and we need more first team quality but he was always looking for the ball, a ball between the lines a few times and a few decent efforts on goal. The one in the first half goes in were going mad for him fine lines and all that. 19 and this whole season is new for him and was still showing more than some experienced internationals. All that and he is being targeted by other teams players for the roughing up treatment. He needs protecting a bit but I’m sure and hope he will be a fantastic… Read more »

Hurensohn

Xhaka cost us the game, if anyone it should be his place in the side up for debate. He’s a total liability.

Olivije Žirod

Like I said a few weeks ago. Emery is digging his own grave with not playing Ozil. No one is questioning the result but the football we are playing. If he doesn’t change his attituted he won’t be here this time next year. Unless Ozil is doing something horrible to him I will be on the German’s side because he has been at the club longer and loves Arsenal. Emery has been here only for 8 months. It is just another job for him.

A Fleeting Glimpse

Lacazette and Aubameyang had very little service. I have to say Emery seems an arrogant obnoxious man in his interviews. He will we sacked by this time next year me thinks. What he’s doing with Ozil sums him up. Rather have Dick Emery at the moment

loose_cannon

Lacazette and Aubameyang didn’t get a lot of service but tbh I thought they were poor individually as well. As a top class striker, sometimes you’ve got to make something from nothing, you’ve got to come deep and bring others into play. You’ve got to drive at the defence, challenge for second balls, and generally make a nuisance of yourself. Neither managed that today, or managed to show much quality at all outside the opening 10 minutes.

goonshow

Laca at least always seems to make some effort. Auba was shockingly disinterested today… ambling around, little of his usual energetic pressing, sloppy passing

Vonnie

I don’t think the players are happy with the manager or the team selections. When you’re a striker having to help out the defence and go deep to collect the ball because there’s no midfield then eventually you’re going to get pissed off. Especially when your friend, the best creator, is left at home because the manager doesn’t like him. Players aren’t machines or idiots, they know who the best players are, and they know what works and doesn’t. All our players bought in to the new training and supported Unai, but they’re starting to question, in exactly the way… Read more »

Giddygun

This is the comment that tried to mirror it well, imho. When a team starts questioning a manager in their minds like the case of Mourinho’s in Chelsea(2), Real, and Man U just now, the issue is not quality of player but mistrust. This then usually results in poor focus and implementation of strategy

sambo

Doesn’t like him? I love Ozil but there is NO excuse for the weak hustle he puts in for us, Emery tried to teach him a simple lesson, work hard and you will play… but Ozil seems to be above that?

scott rice

I agree with your first sentence but I disagree with the rest.

scott rice

I was replying to “a fleeting glimpse”. Somehow my comments were placed out of sequence. Probably my fault. Sorry – fairly new to this.

Parisian Weetabix

What are you on about saying Emery seems arrogant and obnoxious? What interviews are you watching? The Ozil situation is a massive issue but it’s not one that can be placed solely at the feet of the manager. This match summed it up perfectly. West Ham started with three creative players up front: Arnautovic, Anderson, and Nasri. Three players who have the technique to carry the ball, the creativity to make stuff happen, and who can also score goals. Comparatively, we had one: Iwobi. Laca and Auba are forwards, not creators, and that was clear today. Who’s to blame for… Read more »

Mpls

Ozil and Ramsey at his disposal, neither starts. Emery IS to blame for lack of creativity.

Bob

Didn’t realise I supported Ozil FC and not Arsenal football club. Ozils so “PR” heavy I don’t honestly know what he does think, but running his contract down to 6 months didn’t exactly scream “loves the club” so much as “keeping his options open and getting a massive pay day”. The manager > the player for me, always. If we start sacking managers because a player isn’t doing it for them then we’re an absolute joke. You’re right about one thing though, emery has only been here 8 months. If you expected him to turn around 10 years of decline… Read more »

Jo Lamiri

Let’s not forget Ozil, the brand. If he is playing hardly any football, won’t his many sponsors start to be agitated? He needs to start focusing on the reason for those sponsorships, i.e. the football. I sometimes wonder if he just cares about the commercial side of things. He almost doesn’t need to play anyway…

N10

Strongly agree with Bob here.

The amount of Ozil fanbots on here is a bit annoying. Ozil is displaying a poor example for young players by being irresponsible and not fulfilling his CONTRACTUAL obligations to suck it up and put out quality play for the team.

Emery needs time. I’m not always a fan of his lineup choices. But I’m giving him a lot of slack because of the sorry state of the team when he arrived. Not enough depth and too much mediocrity in the squad to compete with improved rivals this year.

Shropshire Lad

I agree shocking display he must play Ozil and Ramsey from the start; and don’t think
AMN isgood enough for us ,he gave the ball away to many times.

GraeB

AMN is lightweight and avoids the challenges. I was watching on Bein and commentator was all but laughing at his “injury”. I don’t need that.

N10

AMN was shocking today, 4 at best. Guendouzi was overall, as well, though a bit better (5), he made several quality passes.

Woolwich Shepherd

Whatever happened between Emery and Ozil needs to get sorted out right away. The lack of creativity in the middle is glaring. Does anyone think ownership is trying to sell Ozil this window? There have been now rumors. Any thoughts?

Alex

The problem is not from Özil who has always behaved in a very professional way. The club otherwise….

Jo Lamiri

Sorry but there is little professional about the lack of effort he puts in in some games. The salary he is on brings responsibility. He should be busting a gut to prove to Emery that he can fit his system, not sulking because he’s being expected to track back, tackle etc.

N10

Ozil being professional? That is ludicrously BEYOND delusional!

Atom

I think they would sell him in a heartbeat if someone were willing to take him off the wage bill / pay a fee but at this point he’s really unlikely to have any top class suitors willing to do that. None of the tier one clubs need / likely want him (Barcelona / Madrid / psg / city/Juventus/baybern ) and his wages are too high for tier 2 (atlerico/Dortmund etc). Think this is case of new regime pretty much stuck with him baring him being willing to go to china

Spanish Gooner

5 defenders, 2 defensive midfielders and three attackers who don’t press. Protagonists indeed.

GraeB

I agree. The point of 3 at the back is to enable more attacking players in front but we rely on converting defenders into wing backs. AMN wants to solve our winger problem – laughable.

A Different George

If you are playing Kolasinac, then send him down the wing and give him the ball, wait for the cutback. This may require someone in midfield who can pick out a runner and make a pass. Too bad we have no one like that.

Dobby the house elf

You must be loving this. You’ve been dying for emery to fail since we hired him.

HopefulGooner

Exactly! Its one thing to give time to New Manager to implement his philosophy. But if he is not using the resources at his disposal correctly consistently, it begs the question of his competance. People who compare Emery to Klopp need to see that Klopp from day one wanted a better version of Dortmund style he had. There were ups and downs but it never looked lost like us.
I haven’t read/heard a single person who understands what philosophy he is aiming for. If you don’t have funds then use what players you have judiciously!

Artetasilkybush

Would give the whole team 0s if I could’ve to rate the team performance. No fight, no heart, no quality. Zero for emery too, that starting lineup had failure written all over it.

Shite day to help wrap up a personally shite week. Cheers arsenal

Woolwich Shepherd

Everyone likes a silly bush.

Woolwich Shepherd

That’s how crap today is going. I can’t even get my spell check to work when I want to compliment someone’s silky bush.

Lord Bendnter

We didn’t even deserve to win. It’s just freaking West Ham for God’s sake. If u lose at West Ham, you should be saying “we deserved to win” or “the ref cost us the game” or “we were very unlucky”
But nope, we honestly didn’t deserve to win. It was a deserved loss for such a crap performance.

Frog

10/10- the idea that you have Mesut Ozil, undoubtably one of the most creative players In The world, yet still think it’s a good idea to not play him because of your ego, as you sit and watch us be absolutely shit, with ZERO creativity.

Emery needs to go.

Red-Sky

a stark example of how everything in and around this club is bad.
fans think the problem is not playing a certain player here or there, the usual clueless-ness about how football is played.
emery needs to “go” because he’s not playing fan favourite M Ozil. not the correct statement.

Frog

It’s not one or the other. We have both and for The Arsenal FC to succeed we need both to be doing their jobs to the best of their abilities. It’s really quite simple. Play your best players.

OnAnyBlock

@Red-Sky is 100% correct; it is toxic and too many people are simply clueless. ‘frog’…please understand “Play your best players” is not a tactic, system or strategy! It is incoherent to just put big names together and hope for the best, even Arsene didn’t start Auba and Laca together and yet everyone keeps crying out for it. Real Madrid are the only team to collect the ‘best players’ like infinity stones and firstly, they have a level of performance that doesn’t include at least one brain fart which leads to an opposition goal every game. (We have at least 5… Read more »

Cechmate

This is in fact shows what’s wrong with the club – if Emery fans think by not playing Ozil he is proving a point and getting more out of others then you are wrong. Everything started unraveling due to this feud and Emery needs to put his ego aside for the sake of club and let Ozil play. It’s not just Ozil, I just don’t see anyone in this team pressing or snuffing out attacks early. You can’t just get into a club and say ‘I want to change all players to fit my system’s as the club would have… Read more »

Canador

Ozil to play or not to play is not the issue here. Ozil wasn’t all that great in his last games since his injuries. The players Emery inherited are shits. You will only start judging him when he has all his players in place, probably next season. Will you blame the manager when Xhaka is shit or Kocieney aging. There so many factors, which I don’t think are manager’s fault.

Alex

Burnley

Devlin

I think the lack of a route to goal Is more concerning. Yes we have Ozil, but we should still be able to show a semblance of quality in our attacking without him. If we only relied on Ozil for creativity, teams would justinjure him and Arsenal are done. Emery has to come up with an effective and identifiable way of playing for us. He has to startworking on improving our attacking players in attacking. But having Ozil available and keeping him on the bench or out of the side, while your team is lacking what he is actually good… Read more »

NigelTufnel

Not starting Ozil is one thing but it’s difficult to understand the decision to not even have him as a bench option. I mean, you’re down a goal in the dying stages and Bellerin is the best sub you have?

Dobby the house elf

Same as last season though. If Ozil wasn’t starting he wasn’t in the squad at all… this isn’t all new

Woolwich Shepherd

There’s obviously something more to this Ozil absence. I have mostly liked what Emery has done, but man management is part of coaching. If he knows Ozil is not going anywhere, he’s got to get him into this team.

californiagooner

Since when has Ozil been “one of the most creative players in the world.”? Ozil is an average player capable of the occasional good performance, living off his reputation from Real Madrid and his impeccable PR machine. I compare Ozil to players like Hazard, De Bruyne, Eriksen, etc. and there’s no contest. For £350k/week that is the standard to which he should be held. Instead he routinely fails to show up in games and throws a tantrum when the system isn’t perfectly set up for him. Emery is right to either hold him to a high standard or get rid… Read more »

MikeSA

“Throws a tantrum”

Where did you pull that from?

Don’t tell me, let me guess……………..

John Lavery

A simple question, giving that Hazard and Ozil are “creative” players, what is the difference between Hazard and Ozil?

scott rice

Hi John. You asked for the difference between Hazard and Ozil. Just a few thoughts. Hazard scores more, appears to work harder, and less likely to avoid using his weaker foot. There may be other differences but these are the ones that spring to mind.

Dan P

Ridiculous these Emery out comments. The biggest problem with Arsenal is the fact we have an owner that does not give a crap if we suceed or not. The only way we will progress is for Kroenke to leave and that will only happen if he stops making a profit out of the club. Don’t buy the merchandise, don’t put money in his pocket and then maybe he will lose interest and sell to an owner that wants us to suceed.

Jo Lamiri

Yes, Mesut is a joy to watch and utterly creative ON HIS DAY. I can see that Emery wants more consistency (and so do we fans) from a player who has broken the wage ceiling at the club. Not sure he cares enough.

Mike D

‘his day’ is usually against Ludogorets or Leicester…

DAvid

Or west ham

Paul Roberts

Iwobi was a positive again today. Either he is getting better or the players around him are getting worse…hmmmm

I AM ARSENAL

Frightening that he is our most ‘dangerous’ player after Laca and Auba.

Dwayne James

Don’t know if it should be “frightening”. Should take it as a small positive, hopefully hemisphere performance level remains and th rest of the squads pick up. He’s had a good run of games recently

Fireman Sam

Auba would be more dangerous if he didn’t sky the ball half the time he’s near the goal. If he took more of his chances more accurately we’d be higher up the table.

Don’t quite know what to think of Auba.

Clearly he’s doing something right to be joint top scorer in the league. But he fluffs so many opportunities!

Deano

As poor a match as some of the turkeys that we have offered over the last Two years. Seriously couldn’t give a single player over a 5 and our future is not looking bright.

BigArse

So is Xhaka in the Pirlo position now? I think I like Torreira as our deepest midfielder. It seems to me the back three is to compensate for Xhaka as the screening man and his lack of athleticism, and his role is to dictate from deep, compensating for the lack of a true 10. Problem is he isn’t Pirlo, and we’re short on Bonuccis and Chiellinis too.

poldimacht

Xhaka is an awful footballer. The more I watch him, the more I’m convinced he’s mediocre and shouldn’t be here if we want to make it ever back to the elite level. What a waste of money he’s turning out to be honestly.

BigArse

Not sure about that, he can really spray it about and is great on the dead ball. But he lacks speed and defensive instincts. I think his position in this team is in a central 2 just in front of Torreira if we play a back 3. Or on the left side of midfield in a 4-3-3. Or as a number 8 in a 4-4-2. But having him screen our centre backs is just weakness covering weakness. Not a good strategy. Really he is a bit of a defensive liability, as is Ozil, as, to a lesser extent is Ramsey.… Read more »

Awesomesauce25

The back 3 is to accommodate Kolasinac since while Monreal is out. He can’t play LB. Needs to be attacking too be effective. Can say ther same for the fact Bellerin has been out.

Bendtnerschristmastree

Seems we’ve completely dropped the playing out from the back since we changed to a back three.

The defense and midfield is so fucking slow. If you can’t find a progressive pass within a second or two, move the ball on. Don’t just stand there with the ball for 3-4 seconds. We’re so predictable right now.

Bob

Playing out the back died with holding getting injured and monreal as well. None of our other defenders, except Bellerin, are remotely competent at that

goonshow

Watch some of the games when Santi had been move to his deeper position – took him a few matches to adjust but he was then brilliant… aiways looking up and always looking FORWARDS. And with the feet to confidently beat that first high press almost every time.
It’s not coincidence that the real decline in our game coincided with his injury… Imagine him feeding Auba and Laca

Leemillion

Look, I get that Ozil isn’t an ‘Emery player’ (whatever the fuck that is, apparently a Ligue 2 19 year old), but we have to use him in some capacity. I get Emery wants industry in his teams, but it’s not working. I would also understand the formation and the selection if we were an absolute defensive unit – but we are miles apart from that. It’s just not working. We’re not going to be any less defensively stable with Ozil in the team, so why not just play him to try and outscore the oppositions? Imagine being Auba and… Read more »

Bob

Ozil seems to get a lot better when he doesn’t play. Our away record was atrocious last season and he was no small part of it. His numbers have been bad since he signed his new contract. I don’t think he’d be the difference maker today because he so rarely is ever and that isn’t an emery thing.

Red-Sky

When things don’t work out, every player benched automatically becomes a hero.
No one wants to remember how this punch of overpaid mediocre footballers were just as bad last season when there was no pressure what so ever, and a manager who was too generous with giving them chance after chance after chance, and who prioritized style over result. But still they failed miserably.
Emery is at fault, but let us not pretend that one player will turn this team around.

loose_cannon

It’s a difficult one. I think it’s totally fair to point out that Ozil started games like this last year, in his best position, and we still lost them badly. And it’s also very fair to say he’s come nowhere near justifying his new contract. But on the other hand, you can’t look at that starting line up and say Ozil (or Ramsey for that matter) wouldn’t improve it. Take out the two strikers, and it’s barely top half of the table. Leaving him out of big games for tactical reasons makes a bit of sense, he was left out… Read more »

Devlin

This is our first loss away to West Ham since 2006. So yes we have lost games, but you are also making the mistake of forgetting his quality. This is the most prolific chance creator in English football history, he didn’t get his stats on the bench or at home. I won’t let hatred of a player blind me from his contribution to Arsenal over the past 5 years. I wonder why Sanchez had never been blamed for our defeats. What people are saying about this Ozil and Emery situation, is akin to having a gun, but fighting using a… Read more »

Irrational Gunner

Have to agree. Very uninspired performance, and that can be laid at the feet of the manager and, ultimately, the players. It seemed like we played as if there was a Liverpool “hangover”, with a lack of confidence and without trying to impose our will on the game. Still hoping that this malaise has been caused by the lack of player rotation due to injuries, and the amount of games played (especially by our newcomers) over the Christmas period. If not, we may have a bit of a crisis, as it does not seem like we have a lot of… Read more »

Deano

Bob you don’t like Ozil we get it.

Bob

I do like Ozil, but I don’t think the root of our problems is “play Ozil” when we were quite capable of churning out stinkers away from home like this all last season and he was playing then. Even Mustafi’s reputation benefited when he was injured during our injury crisis and, sure enough, as soon as he’s back we all remember he’s a terrible defender. How many assists did Ozil get last season? How many away from home?

Leemillion

I’m not saying playing Ozil would make a difference, but we’re so defensively inept and been unable to sopve that, so why not try and just outscore the opposition. He’d do absolutely no worse than Guendouzi, so at what point do you say “fuck it, it’s worth a go”?

How do you reward Guendouzi for being bang average? Just because he’s 19 and isn’t on a high wage? At least be reasonable and say Ozil is worth a shot as a fucking substitute. Jesus man. He doesn’t even make the bench over half the shit we have on it.

OnAnyBlock

I understand the rationale…but how did “fuck it, its worth a go” work out for the last manager?? The we will outscore them attitude makes absolutely no sense and it is part of why we now have this change of management.

The squad is very poor (acceptance is the first step), so let Emery & Sven do their jobs and tear out the dead parts of this squad to implement change.

Leemillion

Because there is a way to do this thay gets Ozil in that team. Even if you don’t like him, we lack creativity and we cannot even trouble the opposition. I was reading the play by play by blogs and from the 66th minute to the 88th, there was no mention of Laca or Auba. At least Ozil would come back and get the ball to try and make something happen. We need either him or Ramsey in the team, and Ramsey is gone, so if we’re gonna spite ourselves (in some others opinions) let’s do it with someone under… Read more »

Bob

But that basically sounds like doing what we did before under Wenger which would surely be a damaging way for emery to go and just be delaying the rebuild we need. I don’t think there’s easy answers, I’m only saying playing Ozil won’t even paper over the cracks in this squad and I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I never said Ozil wasn’t worth a shot as a substitute, it’s insane to me that he isn’t on the bench but without knowing the situation I don’t want to jump to conclusions. Ramsey is leaving too but he’s still on the bench,… Read more »

Awesomesauce25

Ther beat players get more criticism than deserved when things go bad and more praise than deserved when things go well. But ther fact is he is our best player and i would bet the rest of ther team would agree with that entirely. So it’s the managers job to figure out how best to utilize the players at your disposal, and Emery has failed to do that so far.. even when results weren’t so bad we looked poor. But he seems to prefer dribblers rather than passers, so we either need to get rid of Ozil and use that… Read more »

Mr.TP

Who dribbles in Arsenal?

A Different George

Our home record was fantastic last season (yes, fantastic) and I thought he played a role in that. Maybe we should play away just as we play at home. We looked about as good as Liverpool at home, very little to choose, and obviously miles behind at Anfield. Today, I thought we did not look as good as West Ham. We had no one as creative or as technically gifted as Nasri in our midfield (God, that hurts to say).

Goonerooni 48

No one is bigger than the club. Not even Unai Emery. I pointed out his flaws several weeks ago and now others are also beginning to notice them. Zero creativity on the pitch. Zero creativity in Emery’s mind. 0/10 from me.

Magnets4us

Might not be a popular opinion, but what exactly has Leno done to warrant the position of being our no.1? The general opinion is he has better passing than Cech, but that’s it. To be fair, I haven’t seen his Ederson/Alisson like distribution in the last games. Nor have I seen him organise the defence in the same manner, collect crosses with ease, or produce a world-class save. What I have witnessed is another goal conceded where he just stands still and doesn’t even attempt to make a safe(on his near post).

Timsh

As if that’s anywhere close to being one of the bigger problems today. You don’t just keep changing goalkeepers throughout the season. He didn’t have any howlers recently and played ok recently. The goals we conceded recently were in no way his fault.

Give me a break. Leno or Cech, it doesn’t matter.
GK is not the issue at the moment.

If you saw the Man City vs Liverpool match you will have seen both great goalkeeping but also errors from both those worldclass goalkeepers.

loose_cannon

I think it’s fair to scrutinise Leno, but tbf he wasn’t at fault for the goal at all and was generally solid today.

Bob

His distribution has been markedly poor though, but I don’t think it helps when our current options in defence seem so bad on the ball themselves. Maybe I’m building his importance up in my head because he’s out for the season but holding seemed so crucial to us being able to do that

NigelTufnel

It’s tough to play out of the back with no creative midfielders to set up the attack.

JohnRambo

Although I think Cech is a better goalkeeper than Leno, there was nothing he could have done about that goal.

Red-Sky

he’s average, not only because of today, but since he came he’s claim ability of playing playing from the back is absolute bollocks. he can’t get the ball to a player any further than 20-25 yards away. most of his long sideway pass go out of the pitch. he’s reaction and reach are very average. might stop shot close to his body, nothing more.
We should do much better than him.

Gunnerthesaurus

Almost any and maybe every goalkeeper will conceed goals from the shots we allow. If anything, I feel bad for him that we’re never ever good defensively. He made a couple of mistakes and has saved everything that you can expect a good goalkeeper to make. And anyone who questions is passing is just completely taking it out of context. He has immensely more pressure on him when passing short simply cuz he’s the gk and if you look at the passes he receives compared to Alisson or Ter Stegen or Ederson (ball playing gks), the difference in quality is… Read more »

Pat Rice and Beans

Blogs just nailed it on Bellerin comment and bonus rating.

Aleksander Włodarz

Fucking terrible

Woolwich Shepherd

It was painful because West Ham just straight up beat us. Anderson and Creswell were pushing us around and their defending was good. Nasri played well and that was like getting salt rubbed in with vinegar and razor blades. Torture. No creativity until Ramsey came on and…. Ah, screw it…. We’re flat out not good enough.

Paul Smith

Where is the high pressing game that we were promised? We look like 3 separate components of defence, midfield and attack but not a team. There is a disconnection between the 3 areas. Personally I would go to a back 4, drop Guendouzi and Auba. Without Ramsey in the team no one runs beyond the front 2 which makes us easy to defend against. Everything is in front of the other team.

ClockEndRider

This. So what are we practising in training exactly because it doesn’t appear to be pressing, playing it out from the back, or any other form of consistent strategy. I appreciate that 6 months isn’t long enough to turn round the eff up of the last 5 years or so but surely it’s enough to begin to see some semblance of a change to playing style and development in our obvious defensive weaknesses. Is Emery just Wenger wearing prosthetic make up?

NigelTufnel

The disconnect is the lack of creative midfielders to stitch everything together

Oh dear

Drop the leagues top scorer?

Flash

This is why football is so popular…

On the long run: You get what you deserve!

Just take a look at the table!

Hitman for Kroenke

Only two points from last 15 away from home? I thought we won 4 times away this season

Deano

Kroenke will remain alive and well as long as you’re around.

Billy Enfield

Has he not got an helicopter?

Rebeldispatch

I think we have 2 choices
A react to each game As If its a one-off praising the match winners as potential superstars and castigating eiher the manager and individual players if we lose which of course a run of bad games means a sacking and a new plan
or
2 See this as a long term project where we need 4 or 5 more transfer windows to come anywhere near the top2 with no. promises of success
There the only shows in town foks

Vonnie

This manager is not showing that he’s worth keeping for 4 or 5 more transfer windows. Maybe the club have realized that and it’s part of why there’s no money for transfers. We have some top players who won’t waste their careers if they’re not going to be competitive, and financially we can’t afford to drop to mid table. The football is horrible, the next few months are going to be very interesting.

Bob

That logic doesn’t hold up at all. We have a recruitment team outside of the manager that bought players before we even hired emery. They didn’t view Wenger as worth sticking with but they still bought Aubameyang that January. Put down the pipe, Christ.

John C

Who are these top players?! I don’t think we have any

chuffy

The Guendouzi situation is starting to annoy me. Is he really any better or more productive than say Willock? He’s played nearly every game this season and he is only 19. He’s potentially going to be good, but for heaven’s sake he’s not ready for this level. I think this is Emery’s signing and I feel like he plays him to justify his decision. All the while we have a 350000 pound a week player who seemingly doesn’t fit Emerys system, whatever that is because it changes from week to week.

pile of...

Arse by name
and that was a pile o the stuff that comes out of one…

poldimacht

I have to firstly start by thanking Arsenal for making my weekend terrible and making me miserable. I will not be spending a single penny on Arsenal any more until I see something that shows me promise that we want to improve and move forward. Secondly, I’m going to rate everyone including the manager 3/10. Because we were shocking. Change can only start with doing it better on the pitch if you don’t buck up your ideas you cannot expect investment because that is a risk. Firstly, stop treating the Premier League like Ligue 1 or La Liga and playing… Read more »

Bob

Embarrassed by our supporters at this point. When the manager came in we all thought it would take time, now suddenly we want to be the finished article already. “We got our arsenal back” and then straight back to getting on the managers back as soon as there is a dip in form. Utterly pathetic. Feels like there’s a sizeable amount of people willing the manager to fail so they can beat him with the “Ozil” stick. Well, to that I say Ozil has been shite since he signed his contract and was very much part of our atrocious away… Read more »

Leemillion

Nobody expects the finished article, but people expect some progress (or signs of it). We are no better than we were last season imo. At least we were attacking decently then, even if the defending was shit because now we can’t attack, defend or midfield (whatever that is). You seem to have a really warped reality and are trying to push an agenda that we’re all bastards – when all we really want is to understand what the plan is here. I’m not seeing results of training here, because nothing about this team looks any different than Wenger. You can… Read more »

Dobby the house elf

Progress has been seen, surely, albeit it in flashes. 4-2 against spurs showed progress, our game against Liverpool at home for example. Two holding midfielders, fullbacks that provide width, interior wingers that occupy the half space, a number 10 who instigates the press and playing out from the back are all things Emery has obviously been trying to implement but personnel and injury has affected that. The playing out the back improved, then holding and monreal (and then Bellerin) got injured and we couldn’t do it anymore, he tried Ramsey as the 10 he wants but he didn’t suit the… Read more »

loose_cannon

I want to say Emery needs as much time as Klopp. But whereas Liverpool sold Coutinho for £140m and reinvested it in the squad, we’re letting Ramsey go for free and then saying we don’t have money for signings! And boy do we need signings. If we don’t win Europa we’ll need to get used to Thursday night football for the foreseeable future.

ClockEndRider