Arsenal have a bit of a mountain to climb to stay in the Europa League after a 3-1 defeat to Rennes this evening. The home side took full advantage of a red card for Sokratis, scoring all three goals after the Gunners were down to 10 men.
Alex Iwobi had put us ahead early in the game, but we couldn’t build on that and the game took a hard turn in their direction following the Greek international’s dismissal. 15 of their 19 attempts on goal came after the second off, and Unai Emery’s in-game management did nothing to stem the tide.
Read the Rennes 3-1 Arsenal match report and see the goals here
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
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 Petr Cech. Also, give the ratings a few seconds to load.
When it Rennes it pours…
You win.
Rennes it wains it pours.
No
Don’t worry we’re just setting ourselves up for a brilliant comeback in the next game
You’ve not watched Arsenal before have you? We are going out on away goals after a valiant and compelling home performance where we finish just short!
Only this time to Rennes. Not Barca, Bayern, or Barca or Bayern.
Obviously
…and giving United false hope. Watch us turn up the style on Sunday and blow them away. Well played Emery.
Yeah – with Eddie and Baku as our strikers….
The summer of 2016.. What a disaster
Mustafi and Xhaka have been like a plague to this club.
What a disgusting waste of over £70m
And our manager thinks they can do no wrong either, hence he picks them no matter what, even if we have other options.
Instead of signing those two duds, we should have been renewing contracts. Chamberlain, Alexis, Ozil and Rambo all could have been tied down. In Ozils case maybe for less money than he’s on now.
Saddest thing is there’s no one in the team who’s fun to watch anymore. Cazorla’s magic feet, Rosicky’s incredible dribbling ability to Guendouzi’s ability to win a foul and Suarez warming of a seat.
Genuinely feel sick at what we wasted on those two clowns
Awful management for years, and awful management this year too.
Shambles
Transferring in new players and giving contract extensions or new deals aren’t against some kind of rules? We got mustafi because Mert and than GP got hurt right before the season. Xhaka was liked by majority at least here when he signed. I’m not defending it but the signings were needed. AOC coming off injury that summer. I think same with Ramsey. Ozil and Alexis I believe we’re askimg for less than they eventually got but we’re still asking for more than arsenal wanted to give. Whomever is at fault for that I don’t know but working with hindsight is… Read more »
Mustafi did not cost us today.
Nor against BHA, Soton wawa or West Ham where we shed 8 points.
Sloppy thinking.
Watch the games and watch him and you’ll see exactly what he costs us.
FFS what’s up with you and bringing up the same cut and paste bullsh*t.
Do I need to ask you for permission before I comment?
I’m on my phone and I’m replying to santori
Not you lol
Sorry fella
@ Jai – he’s replying to you if he’s in your comment window… that’s how it works, simple but effective.
Easy tiger.
Mustafi always costs us mate – think of the defender we could/should have gotten, that following summer window, for that money ffs! That’s the real ‘opportunity cost’ of Shoddyran
Yeah and to think that we could have got Kante and Van Dijk possibly for the same amount or a bit more.
Clowns here will say they wouldn’t have moved to Arsenal, when Kante went to a side finishing 10th.
Precisely the kind of fans that are suited for an ambitionless club. They’re a good match with current Arsenal
Didn’t Kante turn us down?
Chelsea and kante won the title in his first year….
Kante didn’t even complete his transfer until almost the end of the window after euros iirc if we waited till then for a CM and struck out on him we would have ended up with nothing not that I’m saying that would be good or bad but xhaka is a quality player not perfect. We would have roasted AW or whomever we think is in control for another lackluster summer for waiting on kante lol Remember the summer before where AW blew it with gettin just cech I think influences him into getting xhaka early. If Mert and GP didn’t… Read more »
Exactly – see my previous comment above. Look beyond the immediate cost of his on-field bumblings to the opportunity cost of what we could have had for that money. Worst is the way he always finds his ‘balls’ to shout at teammates AFTER we concede… better to use his energies to stay on his bloody feet!
Hindsight is foresight for gobshite!!
Yup, two players in very important positions who could have been long term solutions, instead they’ve both shown they have unfixable flaws – mental ones as much as anything.
I’m sorry but you just cannot have an attitude like Monreal and Kolasinac were seen for that third goal. Shocking
Aubameyang was really poor and we must drop him for United.
And PLEASE DON’T START GUENDOUZI. I love the kid he’s going places with us in years to come. But he’s extremely sloppy
If Guendouzi was putting in as much effort as Ramsey to get back for their third he would have at least been able to challenge for the header… SPOT THE DANGER. Hopefully he’ll learn
Nah. Guendouzi has learnt alright. He learnt he will always get to play for some reason. Maybe it’s because he is Emery’s love child.
Two left backs on, and the opposition right winger scores with a free header.
With Ramsey as a false 9, the only player trying to get close to him
More damning is that the only bloke busting a gut to get to him was the fella we just dumped as ‘surplus’
Agreed on Guendouzi – he was way too careless when dealing with the ball in our half. I’d have thought he would stop doing that but he repeatedly gets caught in dangerous positions. Needs to put it out of his game.
He’s a kid and we shouldn’t be relying on him simple as that. Emery doesn’t get it. Although I want him to do well when he comes on. But he’s been so so careless in recent games
Lacazette should and probably will get 90 minutes on sunday. Wouldn’t drop Auba for Rennes at home, but I do believe Eddie would’ve suited tonights game better.
Auba needs to be dropped. Henry used to experience droughts as well ( rare but it happened) but Henry was always giving assists to others, was always important in the game.
Auba isn’t Henry lol auba next strength after scoring goals is making runs to create space or pressing to get the ball back
How many strikers at his price range is better?
What qualities have we seen from Nketiah to think we can start him in a QF? I’m sorry but i don’t buy into this bullshit where he’s some sort of saviour. He’s been massively out of place in the first team squad and he’s simply there because we don’t have any strikers at the moment. If Emery started Nketiah instead of Auba, you’d be furious and don’t say you wouldn’t be. He’d start a kid instead of our top scoring striker? Nah. You’d go mental.
I haven’t seen anything from him to suggest he’s any good. Maybe I’m being harsh, but the only two youngsters that look like potential first team (at least squad) members are ESR and Nelson. I don’t personally understand the fuss about AMN, either, but at least he has really good physical attributes, Nketiah is puny as well as not particularly gifted.
After the spuds this was a huge let down.played well and we’re the better team before the sending off. But man what a terrible way to manage the 2nd half. Who knows how were gonna respond Sunday now!
Not ex I ecting too much on weekend.
We have Attention Deficit Disorder.
Those who think it’s just Mustafi need to get their heads seriously examined.
Man your pro-Mustafi and anti-Elnenny agenda is super boring. Also, Mahrez’s “unpredictability”
That’s why he likes Mustafi: you can never predict what stupid mistake he’s going to make next!
Sokratis did his best impression of him yesterday to make up for the fact that Mustafi was ok.
(I do agree with santori to an extent. Mustafi does get stick over anything he does, even when he has a decent game. Imagine the outrage if he’d done what Sokratis did yesterday?)
I long for those days when it was pretty difficult playing against a 10-man Arsenal. In ’06, it took a marginally offside goal from Etoo to breach our backline in the CL final. I remember us coming from 0-2 down with 10 men to beat Bolton on their patch in 07.
I remember one NLD at WHL, circa ’09, when we lost Eboue around the 20th minute; we held on for a goaless draw!
Sadly, immediately Sokratis saw red today, I knew we’ll lose the game!
Sigh!!! Smh.
There is an air of arrogance amongst the fanbase at the moment and it’s come back to bite. Not once before the game did I hear anyone even suggest we should be wary of Rennes. If anything people were suggesting we should rest players for Saturday. Today was just as important as Saturday but it seems noone realised that!
Whoops did a Mustafi – by Saturday I mean Sunday
Why should we be wary of a team halfway down the French league table?
Because our away form hasn’t exactly been fantastic. Whereas they’re not far off the top 4 (in terms of points and have a game in hand) and they’re one of the form teams since the turn of the year.
Some people like to wank off to certain players as if they were the dogs bollocks.
Torreira cost us 3 goals from 6 or more giveaways in midfield against BHA, Soton away and Liverpool.
This isn’t the first time Sokratis has over committed in the box, he practise Greco-Roman Roman wrestling before which had it been a diff Ref could have been punished.
Nor is it the first time Monreal has been caught too high up.
Some people like to blame Mustafi.
Reality check.
This is exactly right (and a reasonable length). I’m not sure Mustafi will improve his propensity for making occasional big mistakes enough to trust him as a first-choice centre half. They happen too often–but not tonight where, as in many matches, he played well. And he is certainly not alone in serious mistakes, as Santori points out.
This season: In 22 PL games Mustafi has made 32 fouls, conceding 2 penalties, acquiring 6 yellow cards. In 19 PL games Sokratis has made 29 fouls, conceding 1 penalty, acquiring 8 yellow cards. Similar, though admittedly stats don’t tell the whole story. It was well known that Wenger struggled to find a partner that Mustafi could play alongside to a consistently high level. Sokratis, however, is in his first season and due to injuries has had to, and do so relatively impressively, remould his approach to defending depending on who has been available. Despite a few early wobbles he… Read more »
Yes, yes, very interesting, but what we really want to know, Mrs Mustafi, is how many times exactly did you drop your son on his head?
Also, Torreira isn’t registered as making a single error leading to an opposition goal in the PL:
https://www.premierleague.com/stats/top/players/error_lead_to_goal
Quit the bias, and chill the spamming, we’re all here comment on Arseblog articles, not ‘An Evening with Santori’, and calm your egotistical self-referencing, we’ve all had claims proved correct so don’t act like you have prophetic visions, please.
It’s not your duty to respond to everyone’s opinion.
On the subject of player-wanking… have you asked Alex I out yet Santa?
If he blocks you, try Shoddyran
We were completely in control of the game before the sending off and at that stage should have been 3 up.
What troubled me most this evening was the total loss of Arsenal bottle once we went a man down!
We should be murdering teams like Rennes and if you think that’s arrogance then you are obviously blind to the fact that Rennes are a Championship level team at best.
Good luck to them! They deserved their win but we really made it easy for them by showing an horrendous lack of character.
We are a mess.
Yes I agree and I was the chief of them. I came here to say we were going to trash them 5-1. I now need to go bang my head against the wall to teach myself a lesson.
0/10 for the fans in the stadium who were throwing things onto the pitch. It made no sense either, their team was winning and really had us on the backfoot for the most of the time following the red card.
Really hope UEFA book them. And that we spank them when they come to our stadium. 10-0 would suffice
What munters
A bit harsh on Mustafi, who was indeed sloppy once or twice, but overall was no less effective than Koscielny. I thought Ozil was brilliant before the sending-off.
Where was he when Sokratis made the stupid challenge that got him sent off? Mustafi’s lack off cover affected his decision
Are you actually blaming Mustafi for that tackle? Insofar as you are serious, the answer is that Mustafi was playing as a fullback before Sokratis was sent off; if anyone should have been there it was Torreira or Xhaka.
I agree ozil was brilliant when he got the ball. He made good passes and created good action but his teammates just aren’t good at continuing the play or finishing
That 3rd goal defending mentality is sickening…Only Ramsey knew what was going on and I’m not Ramsey’s biggest fan. We played without a striker to see the game without conceding a 3rd one and yet this happens on the 88th minute…
Yeah. Ramsey being far advanced than both the clown Monreal and Kolasinac, at least tried to cover back (in vain)
Not just the 2 players who normally play LB but also Gendouzi. After a good season with us so far, he had terrible game, although coming on as a sub, when we were a man down, didn’t put in a shift
I think Ramsey made the effort particularly because it was his fault we lost the ball up the pitch. Watch Monreal’s reaction to him when he tried to pass him the ball. I’m not blaming him for it though, if you make a mistake you try to make up for it and that’s what he did. Fair play.
0/10 – Emery subs
Absolutely agree. This much is on the manager as well as the players. They better re-group fast because we have a buoyant Man United to play
Agree totally. Could only read the liveblog, but every sub announcement Blogs made I was like “What the fuck???!!!”
Agree, the subs were horrible. I thought bringing on Guendouzi made us worse
Totally agree. Breeding youngsters is one thing but to throw them at the deep end when other more accomplished players are available is baffling. Especially when the said youngster is already struggling with composure.
Yes but he is a genius if it worked? Unai has been making questionable subs for awhile now and he’s gotten away with it
Really wish someone would’ve taken down Sarr, badly. That guy dived at every opportunity.
Wished one of our players left a mark on him to remember.
That’s not classy dude
Right. Because diving is super high class
So what you’re advocating is, because they’re acting like scum, we should too?
They’re looking for new supporters up the Lane, mate.
I’d love to see a stat for how many games we’ve lost this season wearing that ridiculous blue (if you can even call it that) kit. It’s an absolutely pathetic excuse of a jersey. Much like many of our performance that we’ve been wearing it.
Feel like we lack a big guy up front, someone who can hold the ball up in those situations, be a target from crosses. Needed an outlet tonight.
Also did anyone else find it strange Maitland-Niles wasn’t brought on? Mkhitaryan did his best but Ainsley would have given us some shape, and a bit more defensively.
Oh, you want Giroud back, don’t you?
When are we going to get a manager rating option?
How some people can think we had the luxury to play Suarez against Rennes or Guendouzi in lieu of the often unfairly derided Granit is beyond me.
Emery really got it wrong today. Their main danger came from the wings and we went with a romb in the 2nd half. With that he exposed Nacho and Mkhitaryan. They were stretching us with ease and were getting behind us. As soon as Kolasinac came on and we went flat they weren’t as dangerous as before. The third goal was just plain stupid. Of course Monreal has to take some of the blame but he never really was in a position to save the situation. The main fault came from Guendouzi who was aware of Sarr but was just… Read more »
I would also like to add that it is clear this team was built on Giroud (on a target man). We are much better when Lacazette plays because he knows how to play the role. Aubameyang is not that kind of a striker.
I miss Oli.
Only thing I can say is auba and laca are perfect for ozil because they are better at making runs especially AUba that ozil can make those passes in the lane. Love OG but he just wasn’t good with ozil because ozil wasn’t one to make a run off of OG holdup play.
The guy who was best with Giroud was Alexis. The guy who was best with Ozil was also Alexis. He may be a world-class jerk, but he was also a world-class player.
I disagree. Giroud and Ozil had a great connection between eachother. He is the player Ozil assisted him the most at Arsenal. Giroud is like Benzema at Real Madrid – around 15 goals in the league per season. They compensate the lack of goals with their link up skills. What we needed the most is another goalscoring winger like we had in Alexis.
Gervinho then?
I think Guendouzi’s been taking defensive tracking lessons from Iwobi!
Uni Emery. 0 out of ten.
You are even worse than Wenger. We aren’t moving forward at all. We have seen some truly woeful performances this season. Apart from two games nothing excites me about the way we play
Calm down, dear.
It ain’t over yet.
What has really pissing me off recently is how half-assed our performances are. As much as you fancy that drawn against Spurs, where is the corageous Arsenal? The one that has the guts to play with the ball on the ground, with swift passes, with attacking thrust? The impression I get is that, in order to fix the defensive problems, Emery is making this team more and more of a cowardice act.
Is it renning in Kent?
What is it about all the debris being fired onto the pitch from the terraces?
Have this crowd got different rules to everyone else?
BT ignored it completely ( not surprised), ref and linesmen ignored it!?
I feel as if I’m living in a parallel universe and I’m witnessing weird stuff and that nobody else can see….
You should watch Russian Doll on Netflix
The recent indiscipline has to stop. It could potentially derail our season now. It’s lucky we have an away goal to work with because it makes the chance of a turnaround more possible, but we’ve still got a task on our hands against a team we clearly underestimated. We have to go all guns blazing in the second leg if we’re serious about winning this competition.
I’m not so confident of our chances against United now given they are reverting to their flukey old ways. We need a convincing performance at the weekend. A loss could be severely damaging.
Have to agree.
After the NLD – no red for Rose but red for Torreira?
That ridiculous manyoo match – a handball call on a man twisting away from the shot w/his back to the ball?
Tonight – that second yellow for Socratis was not only harsh, but nonexistent.
Its like the FA and the Uefa twats … don’t believe your eyes. Believe the refs. Well, fook them.
Anyone who says Arsenal gets all the luck or the calls is a fooking idiot.
Sorry but that was definitely a penalty for United. The player jumped to block the ball, turned his back and it hit his hand. If you turn your back and can’t see the ball you remove your ability to get your arm out of the way therefore making it deliberate. 100% penalty
So you’re saying that by not being able to see the ball, you optimise your ability to move your hand towards it?
We were playing like a clueless, thrown together team of amateurs. We’ll crawl through with a 2nd leg win, but that’ll be as far as we can currently go.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when the opposition’s midfield players just run right past Xhaka. I know it’s not Xhaka’s fault that he’s slow. He’s a terrific passer, but come on.
It boggles my mind at the types of goals we keep giving up. What a mess.
What a clusterf__k that match was. Sokratis has got to be smarter after picking up his first yellow, but you wouldn’t expect us to choke up 3 goals in 50 minutes down a player. We certainly did not manage the match well, especially late when Emery was obviously trying to keep the damage limited and the players on the field were pushing way too many forward trying to score when we pretty much had an all defensive lineup. Not out of the question we can win 2-0 next match, but we are going to need more from Aubameyang if we… Read more »
Don’t know what’s up with Aubameyang. He’s gone full Gervinho.
Enter Gervameyang!!
Agreed Mark. Commonsense said to keep it tight and come away just one behind. 10 men and we’re pushing defenders forward like it’s the end of the second leg and s.. t or bust time.
Can you imagine a GG team doing that? He actually got the defence practising being a man or two down. Oh dear, memories of defending – it’s an age thing?
Bunch of cry babies on the comment section. We should have finish the game off earlier. We were really unlucky with the referee piss poor performance and the own goal. I saw the game and I have confidence we’ll smash them at home. As for the comment on Xhaka and Guendouzi please keep drinking on your sofas and play playstation. Ozil was ineffective and Ramsey despite his energy ran like a headless chicken.
A horrible evening by the looks of things, how can we be in charge of the game and then we lose the plot within 20 minutes…
Aubas penalty miss is haunting him.. Could see Rambo really wanted to make a difference.. Think he really wants to win one more competition before he goes
It’s haunting me too……
Headless chicken.
I wonder if we can/ should sell Auba this summer? I.m just not particularily convinced by him and it would free up substantial funds for reinvestment.
I can see your thinking DC but it’s a bit of a kneejerk reaction. Can you imagine the feedback here if we sold yet another top scorer (after Anelka, RVP, Henry, Sanchez even Giroud)?
Laca is the far better central striker but we look better with Auba playing off him. Maybe 2 luxury players in a team, Ozil the other, is too much in these pressing days.
Yes we should sell him.
Then find us a 10m young striker who can score the tap-ins. Invest the rest elsewhere.
Why not just re-sign Welbeck? I don’t think he’s horrible as a back-up striker, plus he can play wide if need-be.
And also, we’re running out of home-grown players.
Having to watch that shit was hard enough, having to listen to the wank stain that is Jonathan Pearce was a step too far. Hate that cunt!
I will never forgive myself for inflicting the pain of supporting Arsenal to my own son. He is too young to remember the good old days and I think last night broke him for good. I will never forget that “why dad?” look in his eyes.
Fortunately I was raised on Arsenal when they were even more sh*t – take a look at the 60s – so was overjoyed to be winning early 70s, then sh*t again to late 70s, and the later double and invincible eras. Its always been a roller coaster ride.
Tell him you have to suffer the bad times to really appreciate the good. Citeh had decades of it, Spudz are on a high now but still can’t win anything, Scousers have still never won the PL.
Well said mate. There is more than enough instant gratification syndrome in the modern youth culture… football keeps it real, keeps you humble, keeps you grounded.