If you’d been handed an ugly win against Burnley beforehand, you’d have taken it, and that’s exactly what we got.
Martin Odegaard’s free kick was the most beautiful moment of a scrappy game, although with more precision in the final third, Arsenal could have hurt the home side more.
For the Gunners, Aaron Ramsdale, Takerhiro Tomiyasu and Gabriel stood out in a defensive sense, and in the end a second successive win – with a clean sheet – can’t be sniffed at too much. It wasn’t pretty, but job done.
Read the Burnley 0-1 Arsenal match report and see the goals here
Burnley 0-1 Arsenal – Player Ratings
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That money for Ramsdale doesn’t look like such a waste anymore, does it?
Fantastic today.
So commanding.
The players loved what he did.
Relieved so much pressure by constantly catching everything.
Brilliant with his feet too
A goalkeeper that catches handgers inside the box. So fresh and so clean.
Never did imo!
Indeed. He was good today. Can’t say the same about White though. Is he really that much better than Saliba?
I thought White was very good mostly, a real tough battle with Wood that he ultimately came out on top of, is iffy moments were surprisingly in possession but the rest of his game was very impressive, i suggest watching his defensive game back. Tbf to him alot of players made bad choices in possession today and had bad touches, but they didn’t defend as well as he did, no way he deserves a 5.
You gotta love the early callers
I liked the team sheet, but that was a classic handbrake start. Lucky we got the goal early enough, or it would have been a very stale performance. Needed the energy from last week… spuds will be a proper test of how far we’ve come in the short time since we have our players back and new ones in.
Football is terrible tbh, we are not scoring and we don’t look like scoring. The team chemistry is off which is understandable as most of these players didn’t even know each other before last year. We are not beating any midtable teams playing like this though. Thank God Burnley can’t play ball, any team with some decent players can have us on toast.
Team chemistry is definitely off. The more time Arteta has with players, the worse they get. Name one player that dramatically improved under Arteta?
Mo’ and Xhaka !
XD XD
Mustafi…
Pepe, Smith-Rowe…
this could have easily ended 3-0 to us with better finishing. encouraging signs from ramsdale (three games, three clean sheets!) and gabriel (two atrong performances in a row.
i don’t necessarily disagree with you but i prefer focusing in the positives. after three league defeats, i’m very happy we won twice now and this sense of achievement could help inspire better performance in the future. i hope it will lift us up.
results is what we need the most right now, but i agree i hope we’ll see better performances
Yeah, the clean sheet is a confidence builder and the fact that we put three Burnley players on the turf with hard shots was fun. Our forwards, as everyone has pointed out today, were not good enough today, but our defence certainly was. We’ll score more goals as this team gels. Regaining that identity of a team difficult to beat is a good start and hopefully becomes the platform for more stylish and dominant displays this season.
Lots of positive signs.
Players will gel soon and score a bunch.
I feel it
Seems like we keep saying that, yet . . .
Troodat! Both ESR and Saka had uncharacteristic off days today and that was no small part of the lack of energy and drive through the midfield.
But – even with those 2 off the pace, a quiet Auba and Pepe not looking that sharp, we won – and showed some guts doing it.
Onwards and upwards.
Well said.
Time to get behind them and hope for the best.
Could have 9 points next week.
Would be great for the players confidence.
I think we are gonna click soon and someone is gonna get a whooping
Despite their rough and tumble style, Burnley put in a good performance. Fortune sometimes doesn’t favour the bold as evidenced by match stats.
Total shots – Burnley (18) | Arsenal (13)
Shots inside the box – Burnley (13) | Arsenal (6)
Successful crosses – Burnley (20%) | Arsenal (11%)
Shots on target – Burnley (3) | Arsenal (3)
xG – Burnley (0.78xG) | Arsenal (1.1xG)
Corner kicks – Burnley (8) | Arsenal (3)
Deep passes completed – Burnley (9) | Arsenal (7)
% of total chances – Burnley (55%) | Arsenal (45%)
I wouldn’t worry too much about Burnley having more shots and that sort of thing. I know in ice hockey they use the term “score effects” in relation to how a team that’s chasing a game will (unless they give up, and especially in a one-goal game) tend to end up with the majority of shots during that period of the game. We were obviously lacking in the final third, but I thought that despite Burnley’s shot totals we kept them in check quite well. I think the xG and xP for Burnley bear that out, and that’s pretty promising… Read more »
Ice hockey? Seriously?! Jesus wept…….
I thought both teams were poor but Arsenal just deserved to win with an assured defensive display (for a change). Our season will not rest or fall on results against the top 4 but against the 15 other sides around us. That is the new reality we need to get used to.
As you say it is a new team, so patience required. It takes time to build chemistry
We were fluent up the the final third, and then we backpassed and slowed down. I believe ESR and Saka are having a second season lull, which is understandable. We still improve.
And there’s me thinking all the slowness and back passing was always Xhaka’s fault.
Or was it Aaron Ramsey, I forget now..
I love Gabriel. I feel Saliba alongside him will be a very intimidating center pairing.
and the 50 million centre back we just signed? haha
Ah, he might be the slick and quick passing DM we need beside Partey. What luck, eh?
And the 18m quid, 21yo CM playing his arse off in the role currently?
We’ve always had >2 quality center backs when our defense is formidable. Adams, Bould, Keown. Later replaced with Campbell, Toure and Keown. I just wish Saliba would integrate in the team next season and subsequently extend his contract. And in all this talk Holding for me is actually solid as well, not spectacular but very dependable. Wouldn’t mind him as a back up, much like Elneny is for our midfield.
You’ll never see Saliba play for us so long as Arteta is in charge. Worth getting him out for that alone.
If “Not on long enough to rate but he slotted in well. Got booked. Went on a mad run and took a shot when we should have kept it. I think he could be entertaining” isn’t a 9/10, I don’t know what is.
Totally agree
I don’t often shout at my TV, but I did when he took that shot. His break from defence was good, and the run excellent, and I thought great, kill a little time here, then he snagged it wide and I fully expected Burnley to come and equalise
Yeah, even my wife, who is not a regular football fan, thought that shot was spectacularly unwise when he took it. Pass it wide so Pepe can take it into the corner and win a corner kick. But Tavares was a fine acquisition.
He clearly has talent but does look a tad hot-headed though. Time will tell.
Yeah, he’s young and kind of impetuous, but we know he’ll be coached to have more discipline. And if he’s surrounded on the pitch by a pretty well-organized group, the occasional wild runs and seemingly mad dashes might actually make for nice changes of pace (and won’t send the whole plan into disarray).
I gave him a 6. Lad’s going to be a menace when he’s adapted to the Premier league. He’s already a terror as a supersub.
Ben white was poor today, but it’s early days. He can improve easily. just needs to be way, way quicker and more decisive with the ball
I thought he was OK, barring a couple of iffy moments. May be a bit overconfident at times. Apart from Ramsdale, Gabriel and Tomiyasu, the team was generally sloppy in possession.
Won a lot of headers against Woods and Barnes-for someone who is “not good in the air” that was good.
Eh, I feel that wasn’t the issue. What I like about him is that he seems to be playing games with the attackers pressing him, rather than vice versa (as is the case with so many of our defenders). It’s almost like he’s telling them to come and get it, instead of letting them harry him, which I think is a positive. He could do with being a little less sloppy but I’m willing to put the backpass down to Burnley’s pitch having the texture of the bit of the envelope you lick.
I understood his strength to be his long balls and ability to drive us forward out of defence: way too many square balls to Gabriel and reverses to Rambo today.
Shades of Xhaka… hope it was just a temporary blip.
His heading was much better tbf, passing was a bit off
Not sure what you mean by much better but he’s won 45% of headers (9 / 20)so far this season and made no successfu tackles as yet. Small sample size to be fair but not great reading.
He won 6/7 aerial duels today
Fair enough. I just read 5/6 elsewhere. The 9/20 is from the premier league site. Must have had a terrible game aerially against Norwich then given he was 3/7 against Brentford.
I think the price tag and Saliba situation will be a millstone around his neck unless he starts producing some decent performances.
we can’t do anything about his price tag, just like with pepe, but i’m happy with him as our first choice this seaspn rather than holding.
maybe saliba will take his place next year and white will be a reasonably good second choice? we probably overpaid (too soon to judge) but i’m not too worried, all clubs do. rather have him at the club then not have him
I’ve really liked what I’ve seen from Tomiyasu so far, but I thought at times today he was a bit too deferential, which led to White trying to do too much. It might just be that they need more time to develop their partnership on the right, better understand where the other will be and go and how they can use each other as outlets. It’s all very understandable, so I’m still quite optimistic about what they’ll be able to bring both individually and as a partnership in due time. They each have all the tools and desire and, I… Read more »
Nice to get another 3 points and a shutout, but boy was it nervy until the end. Best players were clearly Ramsdale and Gabriel, but Partey, Odegaard and Tomiyasu where very solid too. The attacking group of Saka, Smith-Rowe, Pepe and Aubameyang were not very effective today and really did not create many good chances. Luckily our defending was very solid, though again too many bad turnovers in the defensive 3rd. Our success going forward will depend on keeping the back four plus Partey healthy throughout the year. If they can continue to be available each week will be a… Read more »
I’m with you for the most part, but I actually thought Pepe had a good game today, he often made himself available on that right hand side, and he created two great chances by the end of the first half, one for Smith-Rowe which he sent over the bar and then one for Saka who miscontrolled the ball badly, if we put the game away there, which we should have, Pepe’s contributions would perhaps be more obvious, but the fact the youngsters scuffed their chances, doesn’t really diminish his creative output.
I like the sheet but Laca ahead of Auba. COYG. Great result before the NLD
You’re right, now that you mention it. Laca is better than Auba against opponents like this.
I thought Odegaard had a great game today. There, I said it!! Credit when it’s due…
For me Pepe, Auba and Saka all had poor games.
We need to start scoring soon. That’s what fkd us last year and will be same again if we don’t find a way to capitalize on the chances created.
Excellent bonus rating!
Going forward, I think this is our first team. Hopefully, things that didn’t come off today will in our next games. There’s hope of this team gels and understand one another better. We’re becoming a much more balanced team. Just wish Lacazette and Auba could be metamorphosed into a single player. That would be great. Onwards and upwards you beautiful red guns!
Back in the day I used to wonder what it would be like if Giroud and Danny Welbeck were metamorphosed into one player. Just thinking out loud.
Hope Laca gets a run out soon, maybe in the mid-week game!
Danivier Girbeck can score with his head or his butt.
maybe he has Giroud’s head on Welbeck’s butt.
I know everyone already knows Neil Lennon is a massive twat but I was unfortunate enough to have to endure his co commentary on five live this afternoon. It was like he listened to Andrew’s podcast with Rory Smith and did the exact thing that Rory was making the point about. He practically jizzed every time Burnley won the ball from “weak” Arsenal. When Tierney got cramp he said, “Bit early for that isn’t it?” and he called Odegaard “the little blondie”. He repeatedly called Burnley “a proper football club” and every time Wood won a header he gasped in… Read more »
Robbie Savage, Mcnanananaman, Lee Dixon can fuck off too.
I know we aren’t a Stoke or a Burnley. But I actually think this off-the-peg conclusion of “weakness” is a little off the mark. Name a football team that don’t have a few moments of poor defending or “weak” play in a match. But with Arsenal, as soon as it happens, it’s all, “Yup, see, same old Arsenal”. It’s the self-fulfilling prophecy. So when Brentford score a really soft goal against us, despite having the third best defence last season, pundits can just lazily say, “Same old Arsenal”. I think we’ve got a pretty tenacious team. We’ve acquired some real… Read more »
Whilst we’d all have liked another 2 goals today, this 1-0 may just be very NB for us. I watched the last 15 mins with the characteristic tight sphincter, developed over the past few seasons.
But here;’s the thing: the players actually remained reassuringly calm – but for 1 or 2 hacked clearances, we withstood the frenetic Burnleyb death-rattle pretty admirably. I feel Rambo had no small part in this – love the lad’s fearless cojones!
I love that Sambi auto-corrects to Rambo.
Have totally heard some of the commentators this season say that quote at the end of your post. Seems like it’s just an easy (/lazy depending on your point of view) thing for them to say. There seem to be quite a few commentators clearly biased against Arsenal, it can get pretty insufferable! Anyone know if that’s the case with other teams too?
And the legendary Michael Owen…. What a pain that man is
agree on the first two, but Lee Dixon?? not only is he a club legend, I think he does a good job when commentating arsenal matches.
Lee Dixon? You crap at Fifa or something?
The lokonga comments were embarrassing. He’s a new signing and has played in all our games, basic preparation to at least have heard of him. It’s akin to turning up to an interview and when asked why do you want to work here you say I dunno haven’t really looked you up
Hahaha! I listened to a bit of 5 live while I was out and you’ve summed it up perfectly 🤣
Who’s Neil Lennon?
Exactly.
Worlds biggest twat and a fkn shit manager to boot.
The reason he gets work is because he pissed you off enough to talk about him… they thrive on oxygen. Let’s stop giving it to them?
Just get Clive Palmer on the scene asap
ASMR Clive?
Totally agree on the White rating blogs. Thought he was quite iffy throughout. Shows that stats don’t tell the whole story.
He has a lot of work to do to prove he’s better than Holding
My nana is better than Holding, heck, Luiz was better than Holding… White, even on a bad day, is leaps and bounds ahead of Holding in quality.
I agree especially in the game, Aerially Holding is definitely better and would’ve been suited more for this game than Ben White. Against other teams where we need to be more technical and controlled in possession I think that’s where Ben White strength lies. But I think in general Ben white slows the play down too much… so pedestrian when he receives the ball he literally stands around for few seconds before decided to do this semi circle turn thing he does just when the opposition player is right on him then he decided to pass but not forward always… Read more »
I disagree about Holding’s ability in the air. It doesn’t matter how tall you are or how high you can jump if you continually misjudge the flight of the ball and stand off the opponent to give him a free header.
Holding getting outjumped by raheem sterling will haunt me for some time.
Holding Is pants.
We have a large body of work to assess Holding’s floor and ceiling, and it’s wanting. We have a medium body of work (at BHA) to assess White’s, and it’s exciting. He’s an upgrade and he and Gabriel are the present but moreso the future.
White passes forward. Already a win in my book.
Hmm – that’s why I had thought. But way too many squares and reverses today!
All the new signings except Ben White have played pretty well so far. None of our players from last season have even had one good performance in the league. Saka and Tierney are struggling badly.
well, odegaard looks good, and he was here last season, too. also, gabriel. but agreed, without the players signed in the summer, i think we’d struggle even more. gulp
Hahaha….Sean Dyche radioactive scrotum face. What a beautiful day
Ben White was very poor today. I’m beginning to have my doubts
I had my doubts when I saw Ben White to arsenal for 50m in the news and even Brighton thought his value was actually no more than 30m
too soon. he’s new, he had covid. might need a few games.
pfft, tomiyasu didn’t need any games. just slotted right in.
ben white knows the premier league and the country. what’s his excuse?
White played well last week. Give him time.
He hasn’t been great, but I don’t wanna write him off after a month.
Let’s see how he does against the spuds.
In gabriel, he has a decent partner.
I think you are way to hard on Pepe blogs. Even if he squander some of his own chances he is our main creator. The players on the end of the chances he creates should do a lot better.
Absolutely shit take. Odegaard is by far our main creator.
Both have been good in different ways
Apart from the goal, Ødegaard was crap. I’d give him 5 for the goal and -5 for everything else. Too many little flicks and weak passes which give the ball away.
Agreed. Odegaard was not good other than the goal. But none of the attacking players were any good today.
Do you have eyes and a brain? Odegaard was easily our best attacking player today.
yes, odegaard was our MOTM. it beats me how anyone can say pepe played good today. watch the highlights and tell me how any of our front 3 played good today, because i don’t see it.
Most games Pepe is 88 minutes of absolute meh. You hope the other 2 minutes are worth it. His unwillingness to take any player on 1v1 will continue to hold him back. I know people are excited about him and I will give him credit that he is no longer a total passenger on defense. But he needs to generate a lot more individually and stop relying on the “perfect circumstances”.
I can’t help but think a different player in his spot would go along way in inproving the team.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I saw him try and take some players on today, it’s just that he didn’t manage to get past them…. it looks like he does what he can to create chances, but he needs a little help from the others too. As others have said, all of the forward players struggled to pull anything together today – just an off game for them in general (and the slow grass). Hoping everyone’s form kicks up a notch in the coming weeks.
He spends far too long dawdling over the ball. If he put some Adama T in his game to go with his good end product there is an outstanding player in there. I would rather see him lose the 1v1 battle but try it more than once or twice a game then turn and pass back as he does far too often.
But I’m saying he did try several times in this game…. even when he’s swarmed by 2 or 3 players at a time he’ll take them on…
Sometimes he can get past them and sometimes he doesn’t, but I see him trying plenty of times so I’m not sure what you mean.
He works hard, and creates chances for himself and others (eg that pass to ESR was well played – and unlucky for ESR it was just off target).
We can agree to disagree on his quality!
Pepe sits next to Mo’Nenny on Blogs – ‘never good enough’ list.
Great team performance! Even if some of the passing was sloppy, everyone was fully committed and played hard. I think that pitch was pretty slow which I’m sure is on purpose since Burnley just hit long balls into the box.
Positivity is good and so is a win, but please don’t call that a great performance. It was a poor performance and a good result.
The team worked hard to back each other up, so it’s not wrong to praise the teamwork. Offensively, we were not so hot, though.
I wouldn’t say it was poor. Defensively very good, offensively not so. Good commitment and fight.
Attackers needed to finish all the sliver platter chances that they had. Auba did really well in linking up play but should’ve been in the middke to score those chanves and I have to commend our monsters Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Partey and Ramsdale. Physically they took on the Burnkey players without any fear. White didn’t have a good game but let’s support him. He’s still young and would improve. Overall big 3 points !!
I actually thought Auba was the weak link in the build up. Bringing others into the game isn’t his strong point. IMO he’s better on the left.
Barnes and Wood put on a positioning masterclass today. They weren’t pressing much but White and Gabriel really struggled to get the ball around them. Our defensive positioning in the final 1/3rd is poor and any pressing seems uncoordinated and ineffective.
I think he played a few good passes and looked good on the ball when he had a bit of space
But there were times when we needed him to put his whole body between the ball and defender to protect it/win a foul, and he’d just dangle his foot in hoping to flick it past them
I get that it’s not really part of his game which has carried him this far, but today a big part of his job should have been to relieve the pressure, and he wasn’t really doing that
I’m gonna go a bit against the general reports on Pepe.
Yes he played a couple of poor passes further up the pitch, but he was the calmest and most effective when going forward from midfield. Burnley actually couldn’t handle him in there.
Good tackling and excellent workrate…… sure, he’s a bit rough around the edges but 5.5🧐? Bit harsh…..
Was a solid 7 from me, if Smith-Rowe or Saka put away one of those chances he created for them by the end of the first half, which they should have, Saka especially, we’d be talking about another game in which Pepe’s goal contribution proved to be crucial for us.
Did anyone noticed that Saka didn’t have a good game
Saka has been “meh” for Arsenal throughout the whole of 2021. now, and that’s if we’re being kind… not saying he’s not a top talent, but he is defo severely overhyped by a huge majority of the Arsenal fanbase. I can understand that, when the club is struggling as Arsenal has for a few years now, every little good thing is turned into a super-duper amazing one, just to make this bearable, but maybe now we can chill out about him a little bit at least until he starts influencing the games a bit more, we’re doing nothing but putting… Read more »
That’s incredible. I don’t know if it’s the tendency to forget or to pile onto players when they’re perceived as easy targets that contributes more to this kind of thinking. He was excellent last season. Any dip in form I’m happy to attribute to fatigue from having played so much and being relied upon so much. It’s a lot for a 20 year old (he was just 19 only recently!) to carry. We relied very heavily on his creativity, ball-carrying and positive playing style for a lot of last season – it was hard to keep him from playing because… Read more »
Since the beginning of the March up until now if we forget about the recent cup game against the West Brom u23’s, Saka has scored 1 goal, and provided 1 assist for Arsenal. You feel free to call me addressing that “the tendency to forget or to pile onto players when they’re perceived as easy targets”, but I’ll call it not blinding myself to reality. Also, I’m a non-English Arsenal fan, why should I give a fuck what about what he’s doing for England “Let’s show the kid some love.” Love the way you make your points, with these underhanded… Read more »
I’ve come across some of your previous posts and it seems like we agree on a lot of things, including your analysis of Pepe’s performance in this game. But on this we disagree. Yes, Saka had a poor performance by his and many peoples’ standards. To me, it seems unnecessary, and a bit like piling it on when he’s an easy target following this poor performance, to then say that he hasn’t had a good year and that he’s been severely overhyped by Arsenal fans. I think it’s worth repeating that he drew the foul that led to the free… Read more »
(Correction! *Xhaka is the only example I can think of where how the player plays for their country isn’t a direct reflection of their form and playing style)
Save the 7s and 8s for actual good performances maybe?
General reports? Everyone on here has a hard on for that bang average player lol
I think Pep needs a hat-trick to get more than a 6 outa Blogs.
“It wasn’t pretty, but job done.”
Don’t think you ever described the unconvincing wins with Unai Emery like that.
Ask for a refund.
I agree ask to speak to the manager… you’d get your refund faster that way
That’s because during Emery’s era we went from winning and playing pretty to rarely doing either, and now under Arteta’s due to Emery, we’re just starting to build a squad able of doing that more often again.
Your classic case of cause and consequence.
What are you on about. the FA cup run with Arteta was the best football we played under him and it was all downhill from there. We havent played a convincing game this season (besides v west brom).
yawn….
White and Ramsdale seemed to be communicating very well in the first half, not sure what happened to white in the second. But we got away with it, job done
Pepe providing next to nothing again. Needs to be sold or benched once we get a better option.
I agree Pepe is not gonna make it at arsenal he’s had enough chances tbf I think next summer we should be looking to sell him
I dont get the fascination with him with people on here. I get it, we all want him to succeed but he’s 26 , been at the club 3 seasons, and he’s not producing , even if he wasnt $72 million, he still wouldn’t cut it.
Not producing you say… how about you name me the Arsenal player from last season with most goals and assists altogether?
I’ll give you a hint, it’s a winger of ours who’s banged in 16, and set up 5 more.
Disagree and asking for a double thumbs down option
Which sounds better “If not for Leno we would have conceded 2 or more goals” Ramsdale’s brilliant goalkeeping gave us a hard-fought win” this is the difference. Saka, Smith and Aubmeyang, Pepe, Smith will be our defensive undoing if they don’t do their job at the other end of the field.
We fans are always very excited with our new shiny toys.
Ramsdale needs to play many good games to be considered better than Leno.
The only problem with Leno is that he is demotivated. I bet he will leave next summer. Let’s see his next club. I bet it will be CL level.
Sell him in January while we have a chance to make some money off him. Don’t do our usual and let his contract play out and see him go for free…
It’s promising. Still a long long way to go before top six is assumed. But for a side so young, they have a lot to build from. White is nerve racking, he’s still settling. Hasn’t found his confidence…making nervy, scared-ish mistakes. Pepe and Saka creating openings but careless with final balls. Those three need to tightened up. But Odegaard is a revelation in midfield, Lokonga looks an excelllent player in the making, Tamiyasu looks like a straight stud at right back, Ramsdale looks an upgrade on Leno, and the biggest difference of all is Partey and Gabriel in the spine… Read more »
All the signings have been great. Final passing was poor, the only excuse is that pitch was slow
Think Tomi did well bar strange tap out for throw in, maybe abit more on the defensive natural which is good for us. White is giving me a Mustafi everything he have the ball. He seems overly composed and dwells on the ball like Xanka. Hope he gets better, still yet to be convinced by him Gabriel show once again of his usual high standard. Thought he might underperformed after the departed dual of William and Luiz, but he came out alright. In fact , much better than alright. Think the recent work rate put in by Pepe was not… Read more »
Seems a bit harsh on KT & BW, we went to Burnely and got a clean sheet!
KT is awesome but I worry he’s too predictable and if any team wants to take him out the game it’s relatively easy to do so…
Personally I think you’ve underscored some players here for what was a defensive resilient performance. Let’s just enjoy the win and another clean sheet. Moving on up!
Simple trapping a pass, following through a pass and coming towards the ball when passed to. This team struggles with the basics. How many balls were lost today on these simple basics. Has to improve. BUT, it was an ugly win. I’ll take it.
Thought Tomi and Odegaard deserved a bit more. Really loving these two players – Tomiyasu had a couple of dodgy moments but i felt so confident that he’d win his duels, right side feels secure with him. Odegaard is a real leader, never hides and always there to offer an outlet, works so hard. Thought AMN came on and did well too, showed good desire and mopped up well.
That Tomi block around the 89th min when he threw himself both knees first at the ball🤩
We have a keeper & he’s a keeper !
Soon to be England No.1, he will eat up Pickford soon too. Beast!!
He has shades of Peter Schmeichel for me.
Pepe was very very busy. Good defensive work and usual mix of good/bad going forward. I do like him and wish him well. Still improving. And it’s not his fault that corrupt agents defrauded the club with an inflated fee.
Every perfomance he has needs to be defended it seems. He’s 26 , he needs to produce now.
Also noticed that he’s a pretty decent header of the ball – was the only one of our front players who managed to win the long ball from Rambo in the air – and did it at least 4 times.
Ben White was poor he got bullied on his debut got bullied against Norwich and got bullied again today. Only difference between his debut and the last two games was he had Gabriel to cover for him and clean up his mess. I don’t think he will be Gabriels Long term partner when the likes of Saliba return. By then Holding and chambers would’ve gone and Ben white and Mari would probably be our 3rd and 4th choice CB. Also I think blogs is trying to hate on Saka because of the World Cup I don’t think he was as… Read more »
Were you perhaps watching last night’s Newcastle match, with your colour settings messed up?
No one is hating one of our own player here, at least I don’t think so.
But Saka was not good today, Pepe was better than him.
In fact, our attacking players don’t seem to make good runs and lack the technical ability to make a good final pass under pressure. I just hope that once the team gels , this problem will go away.
The only thing I don’t understand is why do we have so few movements around Pepe, most of the time, he is isolated on the field unlike our left-sided attackers
Saka creative drive was what created the only real chance that led to our goal so what on earth are you talking about… go watch the game again Saka was the only one receiving the ball and turning FORWARD trust me I watch out for this because I’m not a big Pepe fan I try to see what others see in Pepe so I try to study and analyze his game comporting him with Saka and all game this is what I was watching for I counted 3 or 4 times where Saka received the ball and turned snd went… Read more »
I would rate Odegaard higher. He scored the winning goal and his work rate was superb. Also he always wants the ball.
I agree but Odegaard has a problem of taking too many touches before releasing a pass I think he needs to improve in this but he took his free kick well and his work rate was excellent
Good win. Good clean sheet. Great free kick. But jesus wept it looks dire up front. Had three opportunities to kill the game and we flubbed it. Pepe soft cocked the pass to Auba (honourable mention to White with his own soft cock pass nearly for a pen), Auba returned the favour immediately with a shit heavy through ball and then Sa ka clear on goal with a heavy, tired touch when in clear. Solid performance by the mid and backline for another clean sheet victory but seems like playing with fire keeping the other teams in the match so… Read more »
I’ll give this to Diet Pep, the players now are fitter and more physically suitable for the PL. (Except for the overpriced White).
Should have sold Xhaka though. Much prefer to see AMN than him. But of course Xhaka’s gonna get right back into the team.
Let’s take a moment to recognize just how much of a twat Anthony Taylor is. How is this guy still a PL referee?
Didn’t Anthony Taylor send someone off in midweek for a second booking that was actually his first or am I thinking of someone else?
At least he ‘owned’ his mistake on the VAR – ask yourself if Mike Dean woulda done that!
He also dished out some yellow cards to the Burnley oafs so they couldn’t get away with too much.
I’m very much happy we won this game again kudo’s everyone
Defense a bit shaky, especially White who on a couple of occasions lacked confidence and was diddling with the ball and almost gave away a penalty, not what you expect from a 50 mill player. Let’s hope he will mature. I prefer Maitland-Niles to Partey in midfield, more versatile and helps defense. Hopefully Odegaard will become the player we can count on to become the Maestro in midfield as Auba was left dry and looked better when he carried the ball himself. Pepe was switched off and for the most expensive player paid by AFC should be able to do… Read more »
What are you smoking !! Maitland Niles for Partey.
Partey is way better in terms of distribution and positioning even on his average days.
We don’t need headless chickens running everywhere, we are not American football.
New boy Lokonga is better than Maitland Niles in the midfield role.
Maitland Niles best position for me is as a wide midfielder, neither central midfielder nor wingback nor fullback/
Ramsdale is superb.
ESR really needs to improve his finishing.
Another stale performance but a win nonetheless, I wonder if lacazette for aubameyang in the next game might improve us. We have to kill this games off early and boost our confidence. Also playing odegaard and esr doesn’t work for me.
Best one was about Dyche! I don’t like that man. Glad we won away but tame.
Two worst teams in the league and we could have drawn. I can’t bear listening to Arteta any longer.
The don’t… you wont be missed.
‘Then’
Best bonus rating ever.
What does Laca have to do to get a shout? 🤔
Have to give credit to Ramsdale. There was so much sniffiness about him before he joined (from myself included) and he’s started in a really positive manner.
It’s nice to see a tight result going our way because it’s so easy to get fucked over in this game. I’m still a bit concerned about our attack. None of the players are bad but they just don’t seem to be clicking yet.
The line-up today was my preferred eleven but it feels like there’s no spark. These guys should be running riot.
Here’s hoping that will come sooner rather than later.
A game against Wimbledon won’t go down to well to get the offensive juices flowing I reckon… could be a bit of a chance to check out the form of the likes of Lacazette and Martinelli as well, to see how ready they are to step into the first 11 if one or two who are in there right now might warrant a drop to the bench.
won’t go down too bad*
Gosh you guys need to relax. Build from the back. Solid in the back.
Midfield heading in the right direction
Front line sorted out by Christmas
Haven’t seen steel like this in our side for too long – great battling performance, but not sure what Ode has to do to impress Blogs?? Only a 7 after he won us the game and worked his bollocks off (again!)? Concerned that White has been training with Granit – standing on the ball, dilly-dallying to almost suicidal lengths, constant square or reverse passing? What has happened to him? Only other real blip was/is Bukayo – I voiced concern after Norwich and he’s only gotten worse. The lad is seriously off form – 7 misplaced passes, hardly a tackle and… Read more »
Might wanna call that “dilly-dallying” as composure… he’s comfy on the ball so he is fine waiting for someone to commit to him and open up the space behind, or just for one of our boys to open themselves up for a pass between the lines.
What good is a sideways pass to Gabriel for example just for the sake of passing it?
I think he would’ve come off today if Tierney and Partey hadn’t come off.
Don’t get me wrong- love the kid, which is why we need to be so wary of burning him out 4 games in!
When I saw the line-up, 4141 and with Partey as the sole DM, I got excited … could this be our best XI?
Probably not enough practice using this formation so far, eh?
sorry, what are these ratings? i guess i just fundamentally have a different rating system because, to me, a 5 translates as “average”, right? you’re telling me that our attackers were all average and above after wasting chance after chance? pepe, rowe, saka and aubameyang were trash today. ben white is also an insane liability.
i can’t believe some of the ratings sometimes.
I think most of us centre around 6.5 or 6 as their average, for me that came about due to excessive Football Manager playing when I was a kiddo.
You might come to at least somewhat different conclusions about others ratings if you look at them through those lenses.
thanks for the perspective
You’re basically correct about the rating system, but you should note that player ratings are influenced by match outcomes.
Players are rated slightly higher when the team wins. At least, they contributed in a way to the greater good.
They are also rated mostly very poor when teams lose. It’s also why players who score are rated higher and those who score winning goals get even higher ratings.
Happy for the team but good interplay is missing in the middle and final third and this is what Lacazette can bring into the team when playing along side Saka and ESR
0/10
Burnley hoofball belongs in League 2
White spent the whole game smashing the ball with his head. But he’s no good in the air, blah, blah, blah. The backline was really good value today and showed it could pass through a really fierce press. Its just too bad the forwards didnt kill the game. This machine will be purring soon.