Arsenal moved into the top four this afternoon as goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan secured a 2-0 win over Southampton at the Emirates.
It wasn’t all one way traffic, Bernd Leno made some important saves, but the Gunners played lovely football at times – particularly in the first half – and were good value for the three points
Read the Arsenal 2-0 Southampton match report and see the goals here
Here’s how the players rated this afternoon.
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.
Great afternoon
I love Guendouzi as much as the next man, but this Xhaka Torreira pivot is so much more solid and effective. It must continue in the league from now on.
Yeah it’s just their positioning. Every time a ball is cleared from one of our crosses/cut backs or intercepted in the opposition’s half they’re always in the centre of the pitch, efficiently spaced ready to regain possession. It allows us to keep the attacking pressure on as well as reduces the quantity of counter attack opportunities. Guendouzi is often on the left wing or wherever trying to work an overlap, but ends up out of the game if it gets turned over – forcing his midfield partner to go on the back foot or risk ending up out of the… Read more »
True, good point.
Guendouzi is a little like Ramsey in that I don’t think he’s really suited to the double pivot position, at least not yet. He’s more of a mezzala or box-to-box CM rather than a regista or an out-an-out DM.
Someone plays football manager
I always find it quite strange that there are those, most of the time English football fans, that seem to shame Football knowledge like it is embarrassing to know. The English anti-tactic mentality is still alive but that was never the right mentality.
In Serie A specialised position names appear everywhere. The nomenclature in Football seems to only be a mystery to fans who only watch the EPL or play Football Manager.
If this wasn’t your intention I apologise but that is what it read as.
I agree, he could be played in Ramsey’s position after Ramsey leaves.
But he’s yet to show that he’s got an eye for goal. I think he’ll grow into that double pivot position – it’s far easier to learn positional discipline than how to be a regular goal threat from midfield, I’d imagine
Despite the reservations people have about Mkhitaryan, it’s quite clear how much we missed him when he was out.
His goal was soooo smooth. Hard to do, absolutely calm taking it. Showed how technically capable he can be.
10/10 for Redmond’s face when Xhaka slapped him round the back of the head. Priceless
Haha, Xhaka should be careful, but they all deserved it. They were nothing but afters, shoulders, and elbows, all match long. Ref didn’t seem inclined to do a thing about it either.
Disagree with “Xhaka should be careful” comment. If there’s a feat that I like the most about him is exactly that. He’s got character and steel which most of fans have been crying about since Viera & Gilberto time.
He gives it as good as he gets.
We have way too many nice and sweet guys in our squad
One of the best performances of the season. Not as clinical in front of goal, but the whole team worked today.
Ozil, Mhiki, Iwobi…this is the standard that we need for the rest of the season. We play like this, we’ll get Top 4 and go far in Europa.
Finally Emery 10/10…no more back 3, keep it simple. 4321, with this lineup I’m very confident.
It’s 4-2-3-1…
I thought torreira was really good today. He was tenacious with his tackles. What i appreciate the most is his composure to find a quick pass right after his combative tackles.
He found himself in some really tight spots higher up the pitch than he’s used to. He was really good with getting out of trouble and keeping attacks going. Such a well rounded player and we’re lucky to have him.
It’s funny, that Xhaka/Torreira partnership isn’t a million miles away from how you’d think Jorginho/Kante would work but one seems to knit the side together and the other is a bit of a disaster
because we play torreira as the destroyer and xhaka as the conductor. sarri reverses the roles. lol.
Haha, probably right
A good result and another clean sheet. Well done everyone. We are fourth now and have a good chance to remain fourth until the end of the season.
The games against Sp*rs and United will be hugely important. After that we have by far the easiest run in.
Hopefully with Sokratis and Koscielny both available we will stick to a back 4 now as well though, I’ll be honest, I’m not that anti the back 3 in those big games away from home
Easiest run in with Watford away and burnley away and Everton away with Palace too, not the happiest hunting grounds.
We need to be there or thereabouts till the last two games to have a real chance.
I would happily take a draw against both Spurs and United(a win maybe considering their mounting injury list)
If we can’t beat Watford, Burnley, Palace or Everton we don’t belong in the CL. Simple.
If we can beat those two we will be only four points off Sp*rs. You can then put a reasonable bet on them completely flaking out in time for Europa league football in their new stadium.
Love it!
Absolutely hate when we have to face S’oton (esp. at St. Mary’s though), so a win, clean sheet and some fine football on top of that made me very happy.
Everybody put in a good shift, let’s build on that, get our confidence even higher against B’mouth and smash Spurs in what is a third home game in a week!
Cackling at the bonus rating.
Hopefully blogs this is the only season in which we have to deal with this god awful rating system which takes n^2 TIME COMPLEXITY to load.
You should ask for a refund.
Is there a refund manager?
I really like the rating system. Especially now that the bugs have been worked out. Loading time isn’t too bad, just be patient. The best things in life are worth waiting for
i am already waiting 14 years for a league title!
I waited 18 years ?
Good week, 2 wins, 2 clean sheets, spurs dropped 3 point’s, Man utd 2,. Maybe the BATE defeat was the shock we needed to get back on track
Thanks God someone has finally mentioned the Burnley result! One of the highlights of my weekend! I bet 5pur2 are glad they’ve got the window-licker back!
That Ozil flick tho!
No Ozil no flick
If I remember correctly, Iwobi did a similar flick not long ago to set up Kolasinac.
No negativity in this comment, beautiful skill from 2 great players.
10/10 for smart arse Hasslehuttel …………..who has learnt to stop celebrating Saints goals by running around like a twat face.
Oh, sorry, they didn’t score today.
Iwobi keeps proving his doubters and haters wrong, yet they persist. He’s very valuable to the team. There’s a reason Emery plays him almost every game. He makes the team fluent in attack.
He seemed more confident making passes with his left foot today and it sure did pay off!
Not quite, another game without a goal or assist irrespective of what these ratings might say
Agreed – we have to stop whitewashing average players, just because we loyally want them to be better… how many more seasons will Alex be ‘promising’, ‘more confident’, looking a little better… And whilst he may (sometimes) make the team better in attack – he remains utterly useless in any form of defensive work. It ain’t good enough for the pace and pressure of PL – not enough to storm forward occasionally, to put in a good cross… occasionally, to beat players… occasionally. And to score goals… rarely. To us as fans,he’s a little like a gambling addiction – you… Read more »
Ruminating on today’s game, I’m increasingly of the opinion that we need to keep Laca and sell Auba. It feels like Auba is our player most able to attract the significant transfer funds we will need this summer. Don’t get me wrong, I like having them both. However, Laca offers us more. He’s able to make goals from tightly guarded, bad angles, has tight control in the box, holds the ball up well, is a pest defending and,surprising to me, physically abuses defenders. Only having one of our strikers in the game also allows Unai to balance the team better.… Read more »
If Auba left it would break Laca’s wee heart. Wouldn’t be good for anyone
2 proven goalscorers is pretty critical to the squad and we have that. I’d like to keep it that way. So unless someone better is coming (and there’s not many!) then you are talking crazy Arsenalnut! COYG!
Wow, the sell Auba for lots of money idea went plop, eh? OK, let’s try a different tack. Just where is the money to cover up our obvious holes (CBs, RB, and Winger) coming from? With Sven gone I’m guessing there will be no more (high value yet low cost) Torreiras and Guendouzis.
Actually, Laca is probably our most sellable asset.
I really hope we don’t sell him, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if we do so this summer to raise funds to strenghten elsewhere.
Agree that if we are going to sell one of them, it should be Auba. I would prefer keeping both for squad depth. If we don’t resign Danny, can’t see selling either one of them. Really want to see academy youngsters getting more first team time next season, ESR, Nelson, Eddie, Saka and Willock High priced talent, Laca, Auba, Ozil, Micki coupled with youngsters from the academy will be our special sauce to compete.
Egads…another clean sheet with Mustafi starting.
And no mention of important sliding challenge toward the end.
Its Mustafi’s fault we have lost points at BHA, Soton and West Ham earlier in the season even if he did not feature.
It must be Mustafi the liability because we have two clean sheets now last two matches playing him.
Emery even prefers him to useless Jenkinson at Rback, that’s going to cost us.
Mhkitaryan did well today. We will need him to step up for us as we have no natural winger beyond Iwobi (who looks like he came off with a slight knock) We will miss Iwobi when he is unavailable. As mentioned before hit and Msilintat shoul have got Mahrez instead of Mhkitaryan but we need some sort of wing play to balance iwobi on other flank (god forbid replace him if he goes out with an injury) We seem to be regaining some fluency higher up the pitch again with Ozil and Ramsey also cycled in. Unai is doing the… Read more »
Hmmm I do love the smell of lenor
I cannot stand Soton and am delighted we kicked their arses at home on a sunny day. My only gripe is that we didn’t bloody them with a rout, which we should have done.
Leno’s best game for us so far?
Nice looks from Ozil and Auba, get them starting for our next prem game.
Good to see Iwobi take a shot, even if it was a bit weak.
PLEASE: enough with this short corner nonsense! Give it to Xhaka or Torreira and let’s take our chances.
2 clean sheets? What is this madness!
I have been a huge critic of Mhika but he was so much better today as was Kolasinac. Mhika still gave the ball away too much by trying to thread it through the eye of a needle instead of making the easy pass and keeping possession, but much better today. Ozil’s 20 minutes showed just how he can change a game. The first time pass to Auba was sublime and should have led to a goal. We were no where near as fluid in the second half and I expected them to pull one back to be honest but Leno… Read more »
I’d be happy for us to have full backs who didn’t go forward as much. It was there again to see today as Southampton went for their regular play of over the top into the space vacated by attacking full backs. Getting midfielders and forwards getting wide would be better and they wouldn’t be so relied upon to cover back in deep positions.
Man, what was that from Kepa in the EFL final! I think this is a defining moment of the effects of player power in today’s football. If that was an Arsenal goalie, I would have never expected to see them again in the red and white. As much as I hate Chelsea, and give two fucks about Sarri, I felt bad for that shit.
At one point today I thought Laca was doing the same! The number then changed to take Iwobi off.
Apparently, big Willie Cabalerro, in the time-honoured Chelski tradition, has been banging Kepa’s girlfriend …
We’re so much better when we play positive football. I never want to see those negative team selections again, hopefully Unai has learned that there are standards at Arsenal, not just results. Everyone played well today, and the players looked more confident in this system, with a bit more composure in front of goal that could have easily been four or five nil.
Always nice to beat a stripey team.
Even if they aren’t wearing stripes and try to pretend they are your away colours, you can tell the stripes are there by the way they start fouling more as the game goes on.
All stripey teams should be relegated.
Use of the word superb to describe anything Ramsey-related in this game is curious. I thought he was on the fringes yet again and looked lost on the ball. Why in the world is this lad wearing the armband?
Interesting that there’s no mention of him in the report apart from being taken off to warm applause. He contributed close to the square root of f*ck all against a team at the bottom of the table, but I’m sure he’ll be brilliant in Italian football. Juve haven’t overpaid at all.
Its a tactic from Blogs to generate discussion. He throws in a line about Ramsey, and people react. Been working for years now 🙂
Xhaka always looks good against the bottom teams because that’s his level. Mid table player at best