Goals from Nuno Tavares, Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka gave Arsenal a 3-1 win over Man Utd at the Emirates this afternoon.
It wasn’t perfect, and United missing a penalty with the score at 2-1 felt like a pivotal moment, before Xhaka’s thunderbolt sealed the game.
It means it’s been 6 points from 6 against Chelsea and United in what has been a big, big for Mikel Arteta’s side.
Here’s how the players rated this afternoon.
Read the Arsenal 3-1 Man Utd report and see the goals here
Arsenal 3-1 Man Utd – Player Ratings
The ratings are 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 Aaron Ramsdale. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
For a coach who likes his team to be extremely structured, Arteta better close his eyes when the ball goes to Tavares.
Haha, He used to get annoyed with pepe, god gave him tavares.
LoL🤣😅! Tavares will keep learning but I hope it doesn’t come at the expense of the team losing!
With Tomiyasu on the other side, it might be ok now
Cedric and Tommy can both play LB
We won! Why do so many people want to have a go at a young player?
It’s possible to be happy they won and still recognize that Tavares is a bit uneven. To put it mildly.
Exactly, he has huge potential. From attacking perspective he is really good with great drive and energy. I am sure he is on a fast learning curve and will come good. He needs backing and support which all of us should give.
Yes, if he plays on the left (which it looks like he will for the rest of the season) then the defense needs to be structured to give him more support. Which means the RB should hold back a bit more and the left midfielder should help out as well. Doesn’t seem that complicated.
Cos we saw where the weakest is. And you wouldn’t be asking this, if they scored from that penalty or/and CR7 strike deemed inside.
*onside
We won but Tavares is a liability. He gave away a silly penalty and could have had two more given against him..not to mention all the times he just lost the ball in the middle of the pitch. He could cost Arsenal a lot of points through his mistakes. He may have potential for the future but he is just not yet ready for the Premier League
A six is very very kind for him.
He scored
How? He had a very rocky spell but he scored the opener and could have had a brace
Remember the penalty? The first goal? His numerous misplaced passes? Getting skinned constantly? No you’re right he was brilliant 😂
Cedric has inherited Xhakas brain farts.
Give it up
Such bs – no way was he the worst player for us today. 5.5 is kinda ridiculous, really. Substitute Laca with Cedric in blogs’ ratings…same shit.
The reason why we are still in the hunt for top 4 is also because Cedric played his part in Tomi’s absence.
The bonus rating…if you could give an 11…that was glorious…the diving, fouling, whinging rat. Hop, skip, jump, clang.
first we made azpilicueta suffer, now bruno. the week of punishing cunt players, you love to see that.
How can that not be a red card for assault on taveres. He knew what he was doing. The ball had long gone.
The fact var looked at it and were fine with a yellow, after Xhaka got a red for shirt pulling against city, is hard not to believe is some sort of anti arsenal feeling at pmgol.
The PGMOL is still aggrieved at having to use VAR so are purposely making a dogs dinner of it so everyone gets pissed off at VAR and they can revert to unchallenged corruption.
Agreed. TBH I thought that they could be down to 9. To me Telles was the last man and didn’t go for the ball. As far as I understand the double jeopardy rule applies only if the defender makes a genuine attempt to get the ball.
Luiz got red for less last year accidentally running into the Wolves fellow’s heels.
New interpretation of rules, or convenient interpretation?
Would love to get a Portuguese lip-reader to work out what Ronnie said to him just afterwards! I bet it was choice
In an era of mostly bland footballers it’s actually quite refreshing to have a disgusting cunt to really hate!
I don’t want to rag on the lad but Tavares is giving me serious Eboue vibes, he’s an agent of chaos, ideally wouldn’t see him and Cedric in the same back line for a while! Maybe it’s time to consider a change of position for him, pushing him further forward? He’s definitely got talent and potential, but maybe not in defending…
Think so too, he would be better off as a winger than as a fullback.
Naah.
Not every good full-back is winger material… his frame is way too big for him to dance around players in tight spaces, you want him bombing into open space with that big stride and quick pace of his… the defensive side of the game can be learned, the good things are that he’s already got the physical built for being a part of the backline, and that the time is on his time to master the rest of it.
every good offensive full-back*
bombing into open space from the back*, and by that I mean the space that opens up on the transition when the wingers and the striker running forward already stretch out the opposition lines.
It’s funny, he was so good at the start of the season that a lot of people prefered him ahead of Tierney.
Funny how things change.
Including myself for a while, I should say.
I was thinking that as well, though even back then there were some nervy moments. I think the people talking him as a usurping Tierney were focused on his technical skills and physicality, rather than his actual defending. I don’t totally discount him as a fullback, but I do wonder if he could be better utilised elsewhere on the pitch.
Indeed. Tavares at first also played in a side that didn’t create that much offensively and he was able to contribute quite a lot in the final third.
Then again, he was introduced against the bottom half of the table which surely helped him.
In the end, the big teams really exposed his defensive frailties.
Does Nuno reminds you a bit of Kolo Toure? He was tried as a striker (bad), midfielder (really bad), and outside defender (scary bad). Then Arsene put him at Center Back with Sol and life was good. Undefeated good. Kolo was also a physical specimen and to be fair Nuno has some ball skills that Kolo did not. It’ll be exciting to see what his Goldilock position is.
I see him aa a defender version of Adama Traore. He is highly skilled and a dangerous player but seems to have no idea what he’s doing. Traore was best in lockdown when he could hear Nuno Espirito Santo coaching him throughout the game.
I hope Nuno Tavares grows more game intelligence on his own. If he does he’ll be something special.
Flavour of the month is for people with no taste.
Eboue was calm and composed compared to Nuno! He’s just wild, those twenty mins in the second half were nightmare stuff! He’s got plenty of potential though, just need to coach him up.
Agreed. Goal or not I think 6 is a stretch. When United came at us 50th-70th min he was shocking
Give him time and he needs it. Next year should tell where he is going, up or down. I hope it is up! Besides, in a back 3 system, he can be a real asset.
Young players really need playing time and trust to establish themselves in the PL. He will come good
tavares looked like he didn’t know what sport he was playing for like 70 minutes. what a time for a xhaka goal. esr looks tired. i might be in love with saka.
It’s clear that Tierney is always going have injury issues meaning a better replacement is absolutely required during the summer.
I don’t really see that happening. He’s 22, still plenty of time to improve and progress, presumably low wages, I can’t see Arteta/Edu ditching him after one season. Hopefully the defensive errors can be coached out of him because I really like his confidence and drive going forward.
Tavares is like a rough diamond that needs to be chiseled and polished.
I see a great potential in him already.
He’s Santos reincarnated. An upgrade is 100% necessary. He was clearly targeted today and it worked.
Tavares needs a season or two on loan to learn how to defend and get some football brain. He’s a mess.
How do you make such careless assuming statements re Tierney
I’m going to disagree. This was what ‘Project youth’ was all about.. getting young players and making them better. We seem to forget his early season form. It’s obvious he’s still lacking confidence. He dallies a lot on the ball and then tries to make up for his mistakes with wild shots off his weak foot. Give the lad one more summer of solid coaching. For starters, tell him to look to pass/cross than shoot when around the box. Tell him to always stay with his man. Tell him to always run back quickly after an overlap. These will greatly… Read more »
What happened to everyone here loving Tierney and saying he should be captain after he scored that goal in the Europa league. As far as I’m concerned the guy is a young quality player and a leader. He’s had a couple bad injuries but that’s shouldn’t define what he’s done for us so far. I do think we should get a veteran to replace taveres while he still develops but I think we give Tierney at least another year before freaking out and trying to replace him.
Tierney missed 42 games for Celtic in 5 seasons through injury and he’s missed 48 games for Arsenal in 3 seasons through injury. It looks like he has a recurring knee problem at the moment which is clearly a cause for concern so I would be in the market for a back up that represents an upgrade on Tavares.
Mactominay adding him to my most disliked list
The stuff be gets away with is outrageous, just kicks his way through games with no punishment, protected by ‘the shirt’. Wait till he gets sold to Burnley or Fulham or xxxxx won’t get away with so much then.
Actually Burnley is a good fit – they have Zero, yes 0, red cards in like two years. Unbelievable.
Agreed. Fucking no-talent hack.
He goes around chopping down people and as soon as he is even slightly touched goes down like he was assaulted.
Didn’t like one bit that he berated one of our ball people. Anyone else see that? Have some composure man.
Most United fans share that view.
Xhaka has definitely risen to the occasion to fill the gap left behind by TP5.
He steadied the ship when we needed it, and whisper it – he actually does love arsenal!
Elneny under rated. He’s been superb and played the Partey role almost as good as the man himself, with fewer misplaced passes. Shoulder fakes, forward passes, an assist.
I’m with you, btw. Twice, as we tried to hold on, Mo faked the obligatory back pass (which would have been disastrous) and swiveled into a huge pocket of space ahead of him. Looked like he had read the scouting report on himself and said “well, fuck that, and you”. Lovely. I’m beginning to have not negative feelings about Mo. Can someone diagnose my disease?
I coined the nick ‘Eveready Mo-Nenny’ for him over 2 seasons ago as I’ve always been a fan of his no-fuss, head-down graft and solidity. Have long felt he has gotten a shitty rap on here for little good reason. And he was one of Blog’s earlier targets for his ‘never-above 5.5’ ratings
Best Egyptian in the premier League no doubt
And he definitely can shoot better than Partey 🙂
He was also consistently on hand to help Oodegard when he was in a tight spot. Got himself in very good positions to receive a pass and relieve pressure, make sure we retained possession. I actually prefer him quite a lot to Partey (who can be hit and miss).
He reads the game really well – touch of Gilberto in that, which god knows we need!
Would still like to seem him AND Thomas partnered for a run of games…
makes you wonder why arteta not have him as partey’s natural deputy, why play a young lokonga who’s clearly uncomfortable and inexperienced in that role? Elneny should start the remaining games imho. Another 3 points, 5 more games to go, COYG!
I always liked him as a solid backup option and he seems okay with that role, but I won’t be surprised when we part ways this summer. I’d prefer to keep him, especially if we’re playing in Europe next season. We’ll need experienced backups in midfield for sure!
And a cracker of a shot that got blocked. I also watched the Chelsk game again yesterday (I know!) and he does so much off the ball: watch him closely next match and you’ll see him continually scanning the pitch from side to side, gesticulating at team mates to fill gaps or track runs, he also repeatedly looks behind him when in our last third, almost checking no-one’s running blind on him.
Proper pro – and could be giving a lot more wisdom to our midfield than meets the eye.
Is Tavares really a full back? I think he would be a mad winger with his pace and power with less defensive duties.
Early bake vibes
Bale*
Better suited to playing the wing back role in a back 3.
Tavares chaos disasterclass. That tomiyasu guy really settled my nerves. He looks a good signing. Excited to see him play! Perhaps Cedric can play leftback and this new fella can hold right back. Saka scoring penos two games in a row, I just knew he was gonna go the other side! Smart. Not that de gea wpuld have reached it. Bonus points for ramsdale celebrating in penandes ugly mug. Elneny had a shot earlier and commentators were going on about how that is usually xhakas thing. Thank god. Switched over from Freddie on Swedish TV commentate as I can’t stand… Read more »
Haha, I switched over just to see Rio crying as well 😉
Hope you switched back to see Bojan give Fernandes a hammering, he was livid!
On my end, it was Paul Scholes and Tony Adams giving their Analysis. Scholes went ahead to say Arteta was a disgrace for trying to influence the ref. That is pretty rich coming from him. Ex-United players make the worst pundits. I hated seeing Evra on my screen, Neville makes my skin crawl.
Adams was also being too agreeable to whatever Scholes said. Fair analysis and quality punditry are all we ask for.
I think Scholes and Adams are both dicks
Scholes is an utter hypocrite. Has he forgotten that Ferguson spent his whole career bullying refs to get favourable decisions
10/10 Gabriel Jesus brace
Always rated him, never doubted it 😉 (hastily deletes many messages from this afternoon’s chat … ;))
Her in Brazil, he was the only forbidden subject in the interview with Edu. Hope they agreed the fee before the City match.
Make that 4
10/10 for Tomi who skinned Ronaldo and got him booked two minutes after coming on.
I just love holding, I’ve got nothing else to say.
I like squeezing too 🙂
What’s your view on spooning?
“He’s not everyone’s favourite…” It’d be nice if we could start with a compliment for Xhaka. He played well, scored the pivotal goal.
might not be my best player, but he’s certainly my favourite. taking the opportunity to say it on the one day i won’t get killled for saying it!
He’s my favourite too. Not the most naturally talented…but always performed his role consistently and gave his all to the team on the pitch….He may have had some bad moments in a game but he hardly ever have a bad game.
The fact that he knows he have many open haters amongst our own fans, but still performs like he does week in and week out, just make me respect him even more…as a man and a professional football player.
yes, never hiding despite all the stick he gets, always giving everything for the team. i feel he’s very important to this squad beyond what he does in the pitch. that being said, he had a very stupid yellow card today. he knows the unnecessary cards are one of his biggest liabilities and still keeps kicking the ball away. can’t help but feel identified with that behavior tho!
8 and motm for 3 players elneny,xhaka and odergard who carry us to the win, good mention for saka and nketiah.
We won even with both best effort of our fullback trying to give the match to MU
10/10 for fernandes comedy masterclass.whinning little bitch.miss a hilarious penalty and should have been red carded .
Ouch forgot about the Saka injury. It’s a real comfort knowing Martinelli can come into the team though.
Also nice to see our new signing Gabriel Jesus starting his pre-season early and scoring a couple today.
Utter chaos from the wing backs. So glad to see Tomiyasu, Cedric needs a rest.
Don’t think my blood pressure can handle Tavares until the end of the season….
Great result 💥
L Ike A N ew S eason
Great atmosphere and despite some nervy moments the crowd were the 12th man. Xhaka deservedly got a really good reception after the game. I thought him and Odegard were excellent.
When we lost three on the trot, the old narrative of Arsenal bottling when the heat is on began to surface.
This week’s performances have nipped it in the bud.
This team is up for the fight. Kudos to Arteta for rallying his troop.
We are almost certain of Europa league; now let’s go for the CL!
COYG!
Well played lads, proud of you. What a dirty player Bruno Fernandes is, when things aren’t going his way he just starts kicking people. Complete tosser.
And not for the first time at the Emirates too (with no appropriate punishment each time, naturally). What a whining tosser.
Elneny seems to have added some more attacling elements to his game. Really liked him again. Didnt put a foot wrong and was always looking for free space, solid passing that went forward as well. Him and Xhaka and Saka were our best player today I think.
Happy to keep Mo for precisely this role when needed. Committed player he is.
His shot was sweet. That would have been lovely.
“Some men just want to watch the world burn” Nuno Tavares performance summed up.
2 moments made me laugh with joy. Bruno’s ridiculous penalty miss. (Hah ha!) And Granit’s thunderbastard. That one stayed hit!
Brilliant stuff. Ramsdale save unreal and crucial. And you always give a little credit to GK when they miss.
Anyone else get a bit excited when Tomiyasu got on the ball late on?
COYG!
Great win. Amazing crowd! I hope Arsenal keep Elneny as a squad player nx season. He’s always been decent. As for our fullbacks, im willing to gv tavares the benefit of a doubt, he can only get better but I think I’m done w Cedric… His calamity gv me unnecessary high blood pressure.
Odegaard, Elneny, and Xhaka were men of the match for me. Two games in a row Elneny has exceeded expectations and softened the blow of Partey’s injury. Defensively, we dodged at least three bullets: favourable VAR calls on Cedric and Tavares, and Fernandes miss. In several recent games, Ramsdale and Co have been cutting things too close playing out from the back.
Elneny at 7 is actually a calibration device.
New standard ha ha
Top notch syntax and diction – spot on. Eboue on PCP the clear winner. But Rob Holding onto a lead is so perfect it deserves mention.
It wouldn’t feel right without a stupid yellow and a belter from Xhaka.
I don’t like him but it was all about him again today.
Why don’t you like one of our most consistent players this season. Particularly since his return from injury.
Xhaka was good today and yes his yellow card for kicking the ball away was characteristically w.a.n.k.y but for ‘most consistent’ read ‘usually bang average’
Obviously you have an agenda against one of our best and most consistent players who is very far from being remotely average. One of the best forward passing ranges of any player in the premier league and always gives a 100%.
Why do you we continually conflate an opinion that doesn’t match our own with an agenda? Granit Xhaka is a decent squad player with organizational skills and a fantastic work ethic but also a propensity for indiscipline and costly defensive errors which no Arsenal manager to date has been able to eliminate from his game. There is no excuse for some of the vile and disgusting abuse this thoroughly decent man has had to endure online but after he threw the captain’s armband to the ground and abused the Emirates crowd versus Palace, he should never have been allowed to… Read more »
Tavares and Cedric have to go.
I give a 7 to Ramsdale for shouting to Cedric that he was shit when he was well and truly being shit.
So good to see Tomiyasu back in action.
With more teams doubling up on Saka, Tomiyasu’s threat driving forward will make more space for Saka and Odegaard.
“He’s like Eboue on PCP”
*chef’s kiss*
You make the world a better place, Blogs.
‘ Eboue on PCP’ , top notch! Literally laughed out loud.
Watching Tavares is terrifying, he’s such a liability and could easily have lost us the game. He can dribble but his first touch is horrible. He definitely has some qualities but I would not mind him being sold this summer.
Same.
Our new signing is having a great early pre-season at against Watford right now.
ESR being pretty much anonymous and getting a 6 while Elneny had a great game controlling the midfield – arguably MOTM and gets a 7… interesting.
Agree about ESR, probably his worst game of the season.
ESR is carrying an injury and his minutes are being carefully monitored, he clearly couldn’t manage two games in less than three days.
If that’s the case then why are we picking him and risking further damage when Martinelli and Pepe are both available?
And the ball of Chaos Tavares getting a six? I was thinking four and that was because of the goal.
Really good to see that tomiyasu is back, Cedric was really outplayed by Sancho today. I loved to see Bruno Fernandes do that stupid jorghino jump kick and miss lol. It’s also great to see Nketiah out there putting in good minutes.
I don’t like that penalty. Jorginho, Fernandes and Rashford do it and sometimes fail (spectacularly in Rashfords case) because it’s an arrogant trick to make the gk commit and fall while you make him look like a fool and put it the opposite way. When you have guts like Ramsdale and Donnarumma who don’t move during the run up, they panic and change their mind and drag it too wide. Sakas penalty today was good; neutral body angle, clean and simple.
Please, can anyone enlighten me on this?
If the foul against Saka that led to the penalty was a penalty foul,how is that it was not a red card offense since he was denied a goal scoring opportunity and the defender was the last man?
Thanks
I don’t think it was a clear chance, he didn’t have full control of the ball, still a lot to do before he was clear on goal.
You should be happy that we got the benefit of VAR decisions today that we don’t usually get. Of course it was a red card but let’s not expect too much.
Now I’m not a expert on the rule book but I’m pretty sure that it must be an intentional denial of a goal scoring opportunity. It looked like they were going shoulder to shoulder and Saka got tripped accidentally. While it still should’ve been a penalty I don’t think it should be a red card
Saka had his back to the goal so for me it wasn’t a clear scoring opportunity
Thanks everyone.
I just wanted to get some clarification.
Yes, we were a bit lucky today. Very unArsenal from referee angle.
No luck at all. Every decision absolutely correct
If every forward who was bumped in the back was awarded a pen there’d be about 6 or 7 every game
Can’t get Tomiyasu back in the starting lineup fast enough. Taking 6 points off of Chelsea away and United with a 7-3 scoring margin after seemingly being unable to score for weeks is more than anyone could have hoped for given that we were missing three key starters. Just hope we can take care of business in the matches we are supposed to win against teams below us.
Bruno Fernandes is the new Ozil
Even when he was good he was always sliding toward petulant little bitch territory. I manage to watch a bunch of games and anytime he’s not winning easily he really is a nasty little cheaty fucker.
I believe we have stopped shutting the shop rather focusing on outscoring the opponents as much as possible which is a great way forward.
Also helps when the opponent doesn’t have eleven players behind the ball the entire game. While Arteta will always tailor tactics to the opponent on some level, I don’t think the attacking principles have changed at all in recent weeks. It’s just harder to score on a low block, regardless of the talent level of the opposition. I think it’s as simple as our excellent attacking players having some space to work with.
Would probably be a good idea to play Tomi at right back the rest of the season and move Cedric to left. It’s too risky to go with Nuno in the run-in. He may need a loan move too.
Loved the win but how on earth are we still challenging for a Champions League place with Cedric and Tavares as full-backs?
Nuno is young and wild but will come good if properly supported. Let’s no longer drive our players in the wrong direction.. We are climbing up and we need everyone in this together, including the ones the majority of fans hate or don’t rate.. Let’s be together for the remaining season.. COYG.
Happy for Xhaka and Elneny..
Yes, there’s a player in there certainly but it’s not a defender
Victoria concordia cresit
Acta non verba
Way too generous on the ratings of the defenders Blogs! Never mind COYG!
So great to get the win & watch Bruno Ferfucksake banjo his shit pen against the post ! Seriously thought Ramsdale was going all Known for a moment !! Xhaka never hides always tries & it is superb seeing him boss teams like the last two ! Another shout for Eddie as well I thought he was impressive again today
Keown FFS !🤣😂
Fernandes penalty, now thats pure comedy gold!
Ramsdale getting right in his face after was soooo what I would have done!
Ødegaard and Elneny, just majestic today!
All in all, best saturday for a while. Now let the beers flow!