Arsenal played well in the first half and should have scored more than the one goal we got through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
It felt like those missed chances might cost us, and that turned out to be true. After Eddie Nketiah was sent off just moments after coming on, Jamie Vardy pounced late on to equalise for the Foxes.
It led to a nervous final 10 minutes with lots of injury time, but despite hanging on, Mikel Arteta will be frustrated that his players didn’t take their chances in the opening 45 minutes.
Read the Arsenal 1-1 Leicester 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 Emi Martinez. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
I’m pleased, believe it or not.
Ozillating optimism is nice.
Disappointed but this team I doubt will be fazed. For years we’ve been accused of lacking character and mental strength, but it’s finally starting to click. Arteta is working wonders with this bunch. Laca brace incoming on Sunday
Wouldn’t you love playing badly but winning instead?
No, this is the entertainment business. I want to watch entertaining football. We can have both, winning and fun/entertaining football.
That’s such a bullcrapy cliche mentallity born out of the media commentary. We want to see the game played well by our team, to then earn all points. All that noise about stealing victory undeserved is just pure winning by chance or just a eaven game leaning one way and no way to ensure success longterm.
That’s what was happening under Emery at the start. Look where that got us. I’m sure everyone can see where we are headed under Mikel. No papering over the cracks this time. We need a good foundation if we are to get back to winning ways.
Burnley is there for you, chap.
Nope, the day I die, my family will put Arsenal kit in the coffin, I am sure.
I’d rther win the Arsenal way
if you keep nicking wins by playing badly your luck eventually runs out
And here I thought Emery’s dreadful streak of wins would’ve taught everybody the importance of playing well..
Dahhh in that first half, we made Leicester look like Leicester and Brendan Rodgers look like Brendan Rodgers. Team showed signs but still has a bit to go.
Early days,spot on,Arteta’s the man
Remove Aubameyang, Tierney, + one more other top player and then tell me about Arsenal and Arteta. Leicester were missing 3/5 their best players. If that was us in this situation, we would never get a goal in this game.
What are you talking about dude? Tierney has basically missed the entire season. Everyone deals with injuries and rotation, especially with the condensed schedule right now.
I never get these kinds of scenarios. It’s like saying remove Salah, firminho and mane from Liverpool and let’s see if they win the title. Of course good players will make a difference and of course that’s why we pay them the big bucks. Not even the greatest managers could win anything with average players.
And anyone can see from the improvement of our below average players like Mustafi that Mikel has had an impact. It’s not just idle talk at this point. The results are for all to see.
As the name says Comedian. Not to be taken seriously.
Dani Ceballos. Just buy him.
Dani Cebuyos!
The down voter with the massive sense of humour fail ??
still well on the other side of the fence…but hey Arteta is the man…and if he can improve Mustafi?♂️
Mustafi needs to go. look at the goal lost his man again and does his desperately sliding in to try and get a block in at the last minute thing. Done the same at brighton he always loses his man cos hes a ball watcher. Hes improved but his concentration isnt good enough. that and the amont of time he spends rolling around on the floor everytime he hes touched.
Yea right, touched like kicked in the bloody head, and by the end of the game he was absolutely knackered, like all the players. Without his headed clearances we would’ve lost that game.
Change the record mate and at least watch the game before commenting. He has played every game since the re-start and has been our best centre half. Do our strikers and midfielders not make mistakes? Have you seen the picture with studs marks imprinted on his face? If that is not dedication and commitment to the cause then I don’t know what is. Support the team and lay off the player!
Yes hes dedicated and commited because he got kicked in the head? id say it was more bad luck than anything.
There should be a process. Watch —> analyse—> comment. Not the other way round.
yes obviously i come here and comment before even watching the match. what a stupid assumption to make. i watch ever game. some people on here get upset if someone dares say anything negative about their precious players. there is a reason we havent even got into the top 4 for a while let alone challenge for the title .wake up
I don’t agree he’s the man to sign going forward. He’s inconsistent, sometimes a lovely pass or shimmy and sometimes skying one out or tripping over himself. He also struggles over long distances. I think we need someone with more pace and athleticism as our permanent signing to burst forward with the ball and to put in the challenges For the remainder of the season I want to see Torreira and Ceballos as the double pivot behind Ozil. Ceballos and Ozil have only played together a couple of times but significantly enhanced each other (Newcastle, Everton). 2 technical midfielders who… Read more »
I rate Ozil as a player but he’s finished at the club. If he can’t toe the manager’s line he has to go.
Be careful what you wish for Arsenal fans after this mid table poor game. Where are all the Wenger out plums now?…..
Here
Not sure which game you were watching. Should have scored more in the first half and only really struggled after the red card. Work in progress, but definitely moving in the right direction.
Leicester are third and we dominated them until the red card, especially the first half. Where is your anger directed?
Feel cheated a little bit, but a good point nevertheless, gets us closer to St. Totteringham’s day and Europa. We showed a lot of spirit in the end after the red. Only way is up.
Clueless Ref fucked us
That’s kinda true – Eddie’s was – strictly speaking – a red card under the laws. But then – by any of the same standards – Vardy’s was bright scarlet. Once again – gross officiating inconsistency in the so called ‘premier’ League.
yeah, I guess it’s called premier league for marketing reasons. “Visually impaired and mentally challenged or -god forbid -even biased and corrupt refs officiate exciting games league” would be a more appropriate description of what you get to see.
It’s a weird one, I’d be okay with us not being in Europa, as it is so draining. Missing it might give us an opportunity to give a good go in the league. But saying that, I dont think our team is solid enough at the moment. :s
We have too many decent players to be satisfied without the European games. We could prioritize the league, but I hope we’re in Europa League if CL is out of reach (and it appears to be).
would probably give us a better chance of top 4. but then wed miss the money and giving plyers game time in europa, id be fine with missing out the group stage is so boring, European places could go down to 8th so think we will get it.
8th only with a Citeh ban, so better 7th. 😉
Think Laca deserves slightly higher than that, a 6.5 imo, good at holding up the ball and quick passes to the flanks. And it really was one massive miss with the header, Schmeichel was really good with all his other chances.
There were a few really good elements to his game–he pressed really well and forced a few giveaways, and I agree that if it weren’t for Schmeichel he would’ve had a goal on the one chance at least. But I thought his link up play was pretty poor, and a few promising attacking moves broke down when he either picked the wrong pass or was too slow on the ball.
I like Laca but hes not an elite level striker. He should have finished the game off. happens so often with arsenal, His workrate is good but we need someone ruthless in the box. happens so often that we create so many chances and fail to kill the game off.
A striker has to score. I don’t care how good at holding the ball up you are, if you are in front of the goal with good chances and you can’t put them away, you deserve a bad grade.
Well fuck. It could have been worse after the sending off. We could have lost. Still it’s disappointing and I think that’s the final nail in our Champions League coffin. We’re just that touch too far behind now that I think we will come up short. Still, there is hope for next season if we can keep hold of the best players (which will be more difficult now) and bring some quality in. Arteta is growing as a coach.
I actually thought Xhaka was alright. Agree he got tired but he puts in some good passes and tackles these days and sits where he should.
The problem with Lacazette is that he’s a player who really needs confidence. Technically very good, but when his mojo is off, he just looks hopeless. Shame. Decent hold up play today though.
Please stop with this confidence bullshit god. No good players goes through such big of a confidence crisis. Call a mediocre spade a spade
Also, Lacazette needs players behind him. Probably he will be way way better if played in a 4-2-3-1 or maube 4-4-2 for what we are incapable at the moment.
Yes the football we were playing between January and March was actually much better in possession than after lockdown. Since the lockdown we’ve just looked committed and solid off the ball but short of ideas on it. We need to keep the intensity but add back our finesse.
A 4-2-3-1 sounds really sweet, especially if we’ve got the creativity just inside the hole behind him.
Oh wait…
I mentioned many times that we don’t have creativity in midfield so it’s not that I am not aware of that. Arteta structures the formation based on what he has but sooner or later he has to rebuild the team in order to be flexible and re-shift toa different formation within the game. Otherwise we will become predictible for the teams we face. Maybe one step for that (Ozil totally aside) will be Willock in that position. Cause it’s better to develop him in his position then use him in another position while he still haven’t mastered his primary position.… Read more »
When Mustafi went down injured, I have to say I worried how we would be without him. He is slowly becoming an important figure in our side, and provides not only a great aerial presence but a CB who’s willing to play a long ambitious pass – albeit not quite as accurate as Luiz. Huge respect to Arteta for bringing him out of an inevitable exit and huge respect to Mustafi for his improvement on the pitch and professionalism. It looks like CL is out of our remit this year, and that’s okay. It might do these young guys better… Read more »
Any other keeper and I feel Laca gets a brace easily. Frustrating but on to next
Disagree, he should’ve done better with both. They were as clear cut chances as you can get, need to score at least one of them.
Maybe, but at least one was a world class save.
He is a streaky player, when on form he stikes the ball much cleaner and sharper without hesitation.
Kieran Tierney anyone else’s new favourite player?
Tired players. Ironically, the first half was the best I’ve seen us play in a long time. We really need to stop pulling an arsenal. We have so many self inflicted wounds, which is why our season comes down to finishing ahead of spurs and reaching the Europa league. I’ll never understand why, when we have a billionaire owner, we can’t buy top class players. We have the poorest billionaire I’ve ever seen.
‘We have the poorest billionaire I’ve ever seen.’ He’s not really a billionaire though. He’s a property millionaire who happened to marry into the Walmart family. I have no doubt he can lay his hands on almost no ‘free’ money in the way an Abramovich could and I don’t think his in-laws have a reputation for being generous with their cash. If he was interested in the team’s short term success he could do it but I’ve seen no sign of this. Our club is an investment for him and a long term one, sadly seen as needing little investment.… Read more »
Spot on
His wife–not just his in-laws–is a billionaire. I think that means, even if you are right about Stan (in fact, he is probably worth billions himself now), that Josh is (or will be) richer than all Premier League owners, bar Man City and Chelsea.
He’s is an actual billionaire however you want to measure it and his wife underwrote the loan he took out to complete the purchase of the club, so the first paragraph is complete non-sense.
All football clubs are seen as investments by their owners, even one’s owned by other billionaires and countries, they haven’t been purchased out of altruism.
The third paragraph is about the only accurate thing you’ve written.
Ebenezer Scrooge is the synonym for Kroenke.
We spent £138m on players in the summer. That’s the 3rd highest spend in the Prem. You could argue about whether those players were the right ones or not. ‘Top’ players have to want to come here but right now we’re not a very attractive option I suspect.
Martinez- Brilliant again. Tierney- solid exiting. Mustafi- renaissance continues. Luiz- Some dodgy+competent moments. Kolasinac- Solid out of position. Bellerin- Very much improved. Ceballos- Probably our best player. Xhaka- Quiet but not bad. Saka- A game of two halves. Lacazette- Is it possible to still play ok whilst missing sitters? Auba- On the periphery.
Chippy Brady- Half a bottle of Jack Daniels in
Chippy Brady. Wouldn’t mind some advice from a fellow alcoholic:(
If you’re talking to yourself on an Internet forum at 3am, maybe time to seek some help. Booze can be a rough one, stay strong
Thank you
Mate if you’re fucking tired of the drink and just cant change your life style on your own be honest about this to friends and family. Ask them to keep you accountable and then seek proffesional help. Worked for me, 6 months sober!
Thank you man
Santori, are you watching?
Great First half, we should have got 3 goals for sure. Very unlucky with both decisions in the second half. In another game the red would be a yellow, and their goal would be offside. I wasn’t happy how we started the 2nd half. We were too defensive minded too early. We should have continued with the first half momentum and gone for the 2nd goal, but for some reason decided to sit deep and give them chances on 46 minutes. still got a draw with ten men, so good performance in the end.
Thought we played well but just a bit unlucky today with chances, Eddie etc but game could’ve been buried at half-time. Shame Laca is really got the yips in front of goal despite some good combinations
Its another bit of progress, I think. Against Wolves we dealt with a medium press and clogged passing lanes and today we dealt with a hard press. In neither game did we hand them chances playing out from the back. And in both games when we broke the press we created chaos.
I’ll admit that I worry what we will see when there are no water break coaching opportunities and Mikel can’t be heard over the crowd. Will the lads figure it out for themselves? Could this explain the Mustafi and Ceballos Renaissances?
was thinking the same today. ceballos is playing much better now that arteta gets to micromanage him.
The Mustafi Renaissance started before the water break coaching.
Despite miss opportunity to close gap, a good performance today overall. Particularly considering circumstance following Nketiah’s dismissal. thought first half for spells we were also very fluid and things are coming together for us. 1) Martinez – Maybe could have come out quicker for that goal but kept us in it with a couple of very good saves again and a number of times came out decieively to clear or claim the ball in the air. Also a couple of good headers outside the box. He has really stepped up in wake of Leno’s injury. 2) Bellerin – Still not… Read more »
Mostly agree, but Aubamayang constantly tracked back in the second half and did very well pressurizing earlier. Saka still too easy to push off the ball, but so was Messi, once upon a time.
I’m surprised to find myself on the optimist side for once ! As disappointing as was the draw, I found plenty of positives in this game ! – I think Laca was bad as a goalscorer but I think he had a solid game. He was really good in a the passing game, in kind of a Griezmann role (I can see why Atletico wants him). He helped us a lot to escape high pressing situations. With only two real central midfielders in the game, that point was critical. – Saka made two mistakes that almost lead to goals –… Read more »
I think the players did what they could. It’s noone’s fault. Nketiah’s red card is exactly that, a teenage mistake, it happens. The most evident thing is what Arteta underlines for months now, and that is the fact that we cannot last for 90 minutes. He also mentioned that these last weeks (if not last week maybe). Also, we are too dependent on 5-2-3 formation and no matter how much I undrestand that it is inevitable now, it will bounce back cause we will be predictable for the teams we play. We have no creativity however. But the progress under… Read more »
Is there a possibility to edit a comment?
I meant, “Now lets beat the garbage in the next game”. Damn….
A little surprised more people aren’t talking about Bellerin’s performance, he’s starting to look back to his best. Playing with real zip and making some very intelligent runs and passes. Ceballos was excellent, his pass for the goal could be hung up in a gallery. Hopefully Real weren’t watching! Saka continues to impress as well, didn’t think he had the best of games against Wolves despite his goal but was full of menace here. Still not convinced this is his best position, and I’m expecting Pepe to keep it long term, but that’s part of what makes him so exciting.… Read more »
Beat the trash down the road and this game is forgotten.
I wonder if Arteta will mix it up tactically for the Derby against Sp*rs. We’ve played the same way for a few games now so the moany one may count on that. Wouldn’t surprise me to see a different formation slightly on the weekend
Xhaka did look tired toward the end and likely should have been replaced by Torreira rather than Ceballos, or perhaps with Maitland-Niles — probably wouldn’t have made a difference, but you never know.
Yes, I’d like to see maitland-niles given a chance in the middle at some point, need to sort out his first touch a bit though, can get away with it on the wing but could struggle under more pressure
Harsh on Lacazette. Auba misses plenty of chance too.Plus the one where he spun around required a good touch. His back to goal play was useful, without him dropping deep there wouldn’t have been so much space for Auba and Saka to get in behind for that first half period after the goal.
Really like Laca, as a player and person, but am struggling to see him having a future here…
As usual the defence went awol. When DM danger man was lurking ,surely Arsenal
could have 2 defenders nearby.
And btw,imho,the ref shd have dished out yc or even a rc to some of the foxes earlier in the game.
Giving Lacazette a 5.5 player ranking and average of 6.0 is ridiculously generous. Tierney also looks like a real quality player. I like the direction and the conviction this team plays with under Arteta.
ceballos is really having a rich run of form! I’d keep him on another year’s loan (or they can player exchange ozil/ elneny/papa).
i guess we might have done better if we subbed willock for Laca and put auba up top, or pepe for laca and put saka on the left and auba up top instead of eddie, but oh well, who’d have thought eddie would get a straight red. he’ll learn.we should have gotten 3 points, and I’d be dreaming of how we could get top… 4?
I really liked Aubameyang’s link up play. He was really quick on the ball and made several nice passes in tight spaces to open up the attack. He takes some criticism for that part of his game, and sometimes it’s justified, but I thought he was superb tonight.
If Eddie gets a 3 game ban I wonder will we get to see a bit of Balogun? It would be nice to at least get a look at him before we decide to let him go
Guys i really don’t get the Laca hate. The guy was brilliant yesterday after a long time, linked up brilliantly with great hold up play. One brilliant save and another header which maybe he could have done better with. Overall had a solid game and worked tirelessly for the team as always
It was really unfortunate that we lost so stop finding a scapegoat for this as well. I’m really proud of our performance yesterday, made Leicester look like a bottom half team
I thought he did some good things yesterday, particularly his defensive pressing and the one chance where Schmeichel made a great save, and I agree that he’s being unfairly scapegoated by some people. However, I thought his link up play was a mixed bag. He was too slow on the ball killed a few promising attacking moves by delaying too long or picking the wrong pass, but he also had a really nice pass over the top to spring Aubameyang which resulted in a dangerous cross and a last ditch clearance.
A shame we didn’t take those chances that came our way apart from the Auba goal. But we move on. Bring on our neighbours on Sunday.
Seems 6.5 is a bit high for Laca? Love the work rate and character but so many games could have gone our way if he had used his chances, no?
Ja Boet!
I can never understand why we let Giroud go, and kept Laca.
I agree Giroud seems as slow as a snail, but Laca looks like he is running with a ton of bricks on his back
Laca is to Arsenal what Giroud is to France. They don’t score many goals but are vital to how the team play. Laca coming in deep and holding up the ball allows Auba to drift into the center. And Laca’s finishing has been sub-par for a while now, but he puts in a really good shift and his hold-up and link-up play is excellent.
That spell in the first half was the best I have seen us play in years!
Laça was excellent a 8 at least.The ball from bellerin was floating therefore hard to direct. The other one, on the turn was a great save From the keeper. He provided an easier chance for Saka ,1v1 with goal that Saka fluffed. or is it the keeper in this insTance who made a great save? Laca worked tirelessly bailing us out in the middle of the park at times. His hold up play was splendid. Blog you are so biased it is hard to read as the quality of this blog is going down. So much biased. Maybe stagnation or… Read more »
So I am the only one here who blame the loss on the Torreira substitution? To my untrained eyes, he just doesn’t cover enough ground and/or have good enough awareness, to be at the right place at the right time.
Similar to how Ozil is now a “luxury” offensive player, for now I rate Torreira as a “luxury” defensive player, who may looks good when we have the upper hand, but will most likely struggle when we are one man down.
Whatever happens we need to keep Martinez happy. He’s actually quite good. Plus seems to have speed of thought to play out quick. We need a core of people with time in the club.
So we know 3 things after this match: 1: Vardy remains a complete turd-bucket with not a shred of honour in his pus-riddled soul – the backward hyper-extension of his leg to reach Musta’s eye proves that 2: The PL refereeing standard remains abject for the so-called best league on the planet – how VAR gets called in for Eddie but not for Vardy is a travesty (yet another one!) 3: Laca somehow, somewhere, some way, needs to find a huge injection of confidence… yet another routine put-away just timidly half-finished. It’s a very large problem for this team. Cold… Read more »