Arsenal drew 1-1 with Sporting at the Emirates this evening, but were elminated 5-3 on penalties in the end.
A disappointing European exit but all eggs now are in the Premier League basket.
Here’s how the players rated this evenuing.
Read the Arsenal 1-1 Sporting (3-5 on pens) report and see the goals here
Arsenal 1-1 Sporting – 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.
Free at last from Europa League Purgatory!
If only we had a keeper who was the best in the world at penalty shootouts. Oh wait. Completely focusing on the league is a silver lining.
Hard pass. I’ll take Ramsdale every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I think that also goes some way to explaining the performance. For Sporting, this game was their entire season. Our players’ minds are elsewhere, and I agree with their minds.
See my comment above Cheeza – you make a decent point, however we MUST STOP making excuses for this increasingly prevalent sloppiness and poor execution that has crept into the team of late. Good teams will punish us, just as Sporting did. Missed chances… overhit long-balls… loose passes and panicky clearances gifting possession (in our own half!)…| We got out of jail vs Villa and Bournemouth. But it papered over the cracks (albeit that they’re only hairline at this stage) – and Sporting’s energy and enterprise exploited those cracks. After a plucky first 15 mins, we took control, took the… Read more »
We are shite in Europe and always have been. 2 trophies is piss poor for a club of our size. Even Middlesex’ finest have won more than us. Hoping to have gone for and know all our eggs are in one basket. I think that brings a little bit of extra pressure but we can do it
could have had the same in 90 min!
We we’re really poor in both legs and didn’t really deserve to go through.
Yep! Totally agree We have been very poor in Europe all season, assuming we will be in the Champions League next season and if we play like this next season in Europe we will struggle to even get out of the group stages.
Not happy losing but… As long as we beat Palace at the weekend I don’t really care.
They played well, we we’re a bit unlucky. Happens in cup football. Moving on to more important things.
We were sloppy, not unlucky. You make your own luck at the top table, mate – and we didn’t.
too generous to Viera.. a lot of people were not up to the races but he was I a separate class of his own. Careless back heels, shirking away from challenges in the first 30 and anonymous in the next 90. Could’ve done with ode early at the start of extra time.
Barring that assist to Martinelli against Aston Vila in the empty opponents half Viera has failed to produce anything and he has been played all over except as defender. This today was by far the worst, attrocius. careless, halfhearted, lazy performance we’ve seen. One leged ESR would have produced more than Viera did today.
ESR is better in my opinion
All he needs to do is square-tap Trosser’s pass right back to him in a classic 1-2 and he buries it! Instead he showboats a back-flick to no-one??? wtf?
Meh
Meh
And a goodly meh to you two too.
Where is Mick Jagger when you need him?
You can’t always get what you want.
What’s troubling me is the nature of our game
But if you try sometimes, you might just win the league.
Man City won’t get no satisfaction from tonight’s result.
Kim Kardashian showed up instead. No thanks!
Xhaka is only midfielder who can never dribble lol
I remember him dribbling and breaking the lines once during the game. But you’re right that it’s not a core part of his game.
He’s a huge asset to this team but I still feel his slow feet do get found out when he’s trying to be snappy in the opposition box. Great reflex goal though!
Thought Holding was good, did some last ditch defending as well. Vieira on the other hand was poor.
Man of the Match
Hair of the match too.
He had a performance commensurate with his beautiful hair. He and his surgeon have been waiting a long time for that headband look. Well deserved.
It’s truly superb the progress he’s made with his barnet. I’d like to see him get a perm next or maybe a mullet. Or maybe a permed mullet. That would be inspirational.
Same surgeon as gabriel’s i reckon.
Agreed – although he could head way better without the Alice-band!
Glad to see some perspective on Ramsdale. Usually the reason those types of goals aren’t scored isn’t because of the keeper at all, but because it’s so difficult for a player to hit such a small window from that range that it’s statistically probable the shot will be over- or under-hit, and keepers are better served sweeping up passes than worrying about it. I don’t doubt Ramsdale will get blamed for it elsewhere (largely by hindsight merchants incapable of considering eventualities other than that which occurred) but for me it was just an incredible goal, and honestly pretty special to… Read more »
A goalie should never be beaten from there but these things do happen and I was more concerned with his dancing about at penalties, he was never settled and not likely to save any
Nah a keeper is supposed to minimise the chance of the most likely route to goal resulting in a goal. And to do that they need to position themselves in a way that opens up small possibilities of conceding in unflattering ways – which over the course of their career is going to result in some unfortunate moments but will result in fewer goals conceded overall
Chapeau their very astute manager – who clearly spotted Rambo’s penchant for loitering upfield and gave a half-time instruction to shoot on sight… it needed magnificent execution, certainly, but like so much last night, we were the architects of our own demise.
Ramsdale doesn’t “loiter upfield.” He positions himself, as the best modern keepers do, in a way that makes it very difficult for a through ball in the centre of the pitch to successfully beat our central defenders. If your keeper stays back, it is much harder to play a high line, because there is too great a threat of a long pass to a fast forward putting him through on goal. And that is a much more likely threat than a pin-point forty-five yard shot that the keeper can’t track.
Vieira, Nelson & Zinc the worst three on the pitch.
Jorginho wasn’t amazing either
Other than the laser-pass that resulted in our goal, you mean???
1 in 100 min?
Where was KT
Nelson would have played better on the left. But honestly for a team like Sporting where we need to win, it would be better having the regular players in their usual positions. Not a time for experiments.
Vieira won’t cut it at Arsenal. Apart from the odd game, he has been underwhelming. The stakes will even be higher next season with CL football, and, hopefully, an EPL title to defend.
We should cut our losses in the summer and get someone more suited to Xhaka’s role.
I think he could benefit from a loan somewhere. Needs to be much stronger on the ball, his instincts are good but he’s still very raw…Reminds me of a pre-loan ESR.
I think he probably wasn’t signed for this season and Arteta didn’t expect to be in a title race so soon. He’s young and has fantastic output – he’ll get there.
What output exactly has he? Really, apart of that assist for Msrtinelli in the empty Vila half. He’s been played all overand produced no impact whatsoever on any ocassion.
Give the guy some time. He’s only just arrived from another country, he’s young and he hasn’t started many games either.
No he hasn’t only just arrived. He has been signed in summer before the season started (not in january) and regardless of injury he has had more than enough time to figure out how we play. Sorry but I expect more from 35 mil. at the end of the season. My main problem with him is that he seems to be lucklustre when he looses the ball and defensively he is just bit more than a cone, once you play the ball behind him you don’t have to worry he’ll try to win it back. He doesn’ seem ‘hungry’ and… Read more »
ESR would’ve been better suited to last night’s match – cannot fathom why Mik didn’t bring Ode on earlier, though. And possibly ESR for Granit – with both him and Viera on early yellows, it was a massive gamble.
I thought the same, but 2 early defensive substitutions for injuries restricted Arteta’s options.
We need midfielders at the level of Rice and Caicedo. Viera just isn’t it.
End with the word yet, and I’d be inclined to agree. Some players take longer to adapt to the PL than others. If he’s in the same state this time next season then you can draw these kind of conclusions
He’s only 22, arrived at the club injured, didn’t have a pre-season, and only been playing in England for 6 months.
Cut him some slack, he could really breakthrough next season.
This is just so hyperbolic. Dude has an incredible left foot and good vision, he just needs to bulk up and play games consistently. This is his first full season in senior football. The physical side of things is easy to develop.
Agreed – the bunch above were the lot who were lamenting that Ode was a ‘busted flush’ who Real had dumped on us, during his loan period.
Oh how quickly we forget, and how slowly we learn.
What a short sighted thing to say.
I trust Teta and Edu more than you.
I thought the whole side in general were poor in the second half with numerous players struggling to find their teammate five yard away. I think it is harsh to find a scapegoat and in time I believe we have a good creative type player in Vieira. That was Sporting’s season last night and they looked more up for the fight.
Just hope Big Willie hasn’t got a serious injury.
Very very generous with that Viera score, I thought he was useless and at times a liability, just so weak and slow
Wasn’t his best game, and I agree a lower rating was probably justified. Let’s not crucify the kid and trust the process a bit.
Ramsdale joins Seaman and Almunia being lobbed from halfway line (by Nayim and Bentley)
10/10 for Holding going from bald to full Graelish. The transformation is complete.
Couldn’t put more than 3 passes together the entire match and kept trying to play at a high tempo. We played right into them.
Second half was all Sporting. Credit to them for the aggressiveness and pressing but we have faced worse this season.
We lacked composure on the ball everywhere on the pitch except Big Gabi. Gotta say Zinchenko with a massive stinker.
These ratings all need to be one point lower except for Big Gabi, Ramsdale, Martinelli
Very harsh 6’s for Holding. Just got back from the game and we thought he played very well.
I’d say it was about right. I didn’t like him on the ball, made my heart jump about. But a fair effort for someone who has had so little football.
6 from me as well.
The idea that losing two defenders in the opening 20 minutes of a game that later went to extra time is absurd. You lose two sets of fresh legs later in the game and are unable to make tactical tweaks that could have altered the game later on. Anybody who says that is intentionally being dense.
Yep added to the fact that Jesus was only ever going to do 45 mins (which I00% was the right decision)
It wasn’t our night.
Viera and Nelson getting a 6 is super generous. Viera was plain awful and Nelson was invisible.
We are a totally different team when Partey and Odegaard aren’t in there. If we were going to lose sucks to have to have gone to extra time. Hope it doesn’t impact us too much come Sunday.
The change when Partey came on was pretty stunning–and that’s even though I didn’t think Jorginho was bad at all. And a lot of the negative comments about Vieira really reflect the comparison to Odegaard–which is an unfair comparison for pretty much anyone (maybe Griezmann in the World Cup?).
I found myself slightly more disappointed than I had expected by this result. Under Arteta, we’ve gone out to Olympiakos, Villarreal, and now Sporting. Context is everything, of course. But in general Arsenal should be doing better in Europe.
The proper response is to go win the league and then buy the players needed to do well in both the league and the cups next season.
Personally I think Ramsdale can add to the panic sometimes rather than calming things. His desire to kick long when we need to keep possession, and taking an extra touch when he needs to give that time to a centre back to make a pass annoys me. I occasionally think he is kind of showboating at weird times!
If Rob holding wasn’t there then I think Ramsdale would have given it to his centre backs more but I thought he made the right choice to go long, we couldn’t deal with them.
Just shows you how important Odegard and Partey are to this side.
I’m surprised at Blogs ratings tonight. What more Holding has to do i don’t know! He slotted in really well, wasn’t exposed at all, wasn’t one of the ones giving the ball away.
Vieira was bang average and some of the decision making and risk taking from Zinchenko was awful. Partey is so much better than Jorginho, even though I’ve been glad to have him. But perhaps he should spend less time telling others what to do (sometimes created confusion tonight) and more time getting simple passes right.
We rotated 3 or 4 positions in both legs, by choice or necessity, and went out. What we’ve learned is that our squad players — Turner, Kiwior, Holding, Nelson, Viera, Jorginho, ESR — are about par with the pointy end of the Europa League. No shame in that. And far better than hoping to win the competition as a backdoor to the Champions League!
I found it n interesting across the two games. In both the Porto keeper very good and today he was sensational. today zin was the bad zin. Held ball too long. Other than being a little risky at times is he can slow the game down against well organized defenses. about Aaron, the goal fell into a gap of maybe 18 inches. Perfect hit. i am sure many are not baseball fans, but made a huge mistake by backpedaling. As an outfielder does when a ball is crushed Aaron should have turned and ran to the goal. Then played from… Read more »
What a chaotic game. Arsenal controlled nothing. The injuries interrupted the flow but they team played badly
It’s weird, if we win the league I won’t care about Europa at all but if we don’t then I will. So I have no idea how to feel about this yet!
0/10 to the money-grabbing clueless pricks at FIFA & UEFA for scrapping the away goals rule.
That ref was a disgrace too, as were the Sporting players who practiced karate kicks on our players all night.
Couldn’t give two fucks about Europe, their super leagues and all round greed-fest. All I ever care about is winning the league & domestic cups anyway.
Some perspective: we lost to a wonder goal and and the difference on the night arguably came down to a goal-keeping brain-fart from ours and a worldie display from theirs. And we now no longer have to expend energy (and risk injury) chasing the odds-against possibly of getting through to (and winning) the final of the 2nd most NB Euro title. Some more perspective (and yes, send in the red-thumbers!): I’ve banged the drum in recent weeks about ‘complacency’… about the ‘creeping sloppiness’ and/or ‘lazy thinking/focus’ that has been evident in the past month or more. After numerous condemnations (not… Read more »
This one hurts, in my oppinion. I get the whole talk about us being able to focus on the league, and that we might not have the squad yet to compete on multiple fronts. But playing (overall) poorly over the course of 2 games, and our fringe players not taking the chance when presented to them is very dissapointing. And i actually think we do have the squad right now to be able to compete in both competitions. We were favourites to win this tournament and I had expected us to at least make it further and go out with… Read more »
Trossard is the only one whose nose in the avatar is turned to his right. What’s up with that?