Arsenal hosted Aston Villa this weekend, hoping to keep pace with Liverpool, whose late late show at Brentford kept them rolling at the top.
Arsenal looked comfortable after going 2-0 up through Martinelli and Havertz, but then sloppiness invited Villa back into the game and they pulled it back to 2-2. The Emirates thought Merino had won it late on but VAR dubiously disallowed the goal because of a Havertz handball.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Arsenal 2-2 Aston Villa match report and see the goal here
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Painful, deserved a narrow win.
Will Arteta ever realize TP at right back is almost always disastrous? I mean honestly, this goes beyond being stubborn
Well, the only alternative I guess is to go with a Gabriel / Kiwior center back pairing and keep Timber out there, but that’s about it.
Which is surely better. Yes, whenever we have TP at RB we always play badly and most of the times we don’t win.
The difficulty is Kiwior isn’t good enough to play out of position, so you’d need to move Gabriel over to RCB. That leaves a question about who you play at LB,
because I wouldn’t want MLS being covered by Kiwior—that’s just asking a lot of a young kid. Maybe start Tierney? I dunno, anyway you slice it it isn’t ideal.
Lewis Skelly is so good right now I think he could play on the right flank.
Lol fair, but that’s asking a lot of an 18 year-old who just broke into the team.
That would have been a better option.
Kiwior up against Watkins and Duran? Hard to prove something that didn’t happen would have worked better I suppose.
I think kiwior is good enough would have been a better choice for me as we keep on dropping points with TP as RB
We can kinda get away with TP at RB when both Willy and Big Gabi are there. But to stick him there AND then expect Timber to play at CH ???
We were dodgy on every decent cross that came in and hardly surprising, given the disruption to the defensive line!
We conceded two goals anyway, can’t imagine any worse with Kiwior. Also, if he does not now, why is Kiwior in this team. Party at RB hardly ever works. Partey in midfield has been doing very well, so keep him there perhaps. That said, injuries are really forcing very tough decisions on the manager.
He was fine at the end of last season, Partey at right back doesn’t work.
Would have been better with Gabi right CH and Kiwior left CH – keep Timber at RB where he is way more comfortable. Timber is too short to be a centre-half and doesn’t know the position. Big Gabi is way more capable of simply shifting one slot across to right CH and that creates far less overall disruption to the back line.
I think it’s telling that he’d rather play Partey at right back than Kiwior at centre back, and reflects Kiwior’s performances so far this season.
Simple question: would Kiwior be worse at left CH than Timber, with zero experience next to Gabi at right CH?
Plus – you also shunt our best midfield pivot out to right back as well?
Ridiculous tactic and Mik got found out… end of.
Kiwior is poor..
Then why is he still in the team?
Yeah it might be—to be clear, I wasn’t suggesting it would be worse. Just figure that’s the only viable alternative really.
It would way better than what Partey offers at rb. He is ok while we are in possession but defensively he has been terrible this year. Too much time ball watching while someone runs right by him.
Kiwior has generally done ok for us when called upon and would have been a better option. TP should never be used as a full back these days, too many mistakes in his game.
I agree but I don’t think Arteta likes two lefties in the centre pairing, but Partey at RB – how many more times.
That’s the obvious solution, we have one player injured play the next man up, an actual central defender. Playing Partey at right back requires 3 changes. It doesn’t work but Arteta keeps going back to it.
Exactly – Kiwior into Big G’s slot and shift Gabi over to WIlly’s position, keeping Timber on the right. Gabi is more than capable of handling that – certainly more so than shunting our best defensive midfielder completely out of position, and expecting a short-arse right back to become a centre half!
Just turn the triangle anticlockwise. Rice goes in CB, and Partey and Timber get to play in their proffered positions.
He hasn’t got a lot of options currently tbf, eh? Kiwior at RCB is basically the only one and a lot of managers are hesitant to start a left footed CB in the RCB position. And it’s not like Kiwior has been super solid recently. Partey generally has been pretty solid defensively in most of his games there just not very effective in getting that side ticking offensively.
Maybe Rice at RCB should be considered (until White/Saliba return). Or buy a right back.
Bollocks – Big Gabi is more than capable of shifting across to right CB, so Kiwior could have taken that slot at left CB, where he has been largely OK – certainly better than TP at RB. And it also means Timber stays at RB because he is most certainly NOT a centre half!
For years we had two right footed CB pairings. What’s wrong with two left footers? Getting sick of seeing TP at RB, robbing us of overlapping fullback runs, defensive stability and creativity in midfield.
I’m with you on everything apart from overlapping fullback runs. When do our fullbacks ever overlap?
In the good old days when we had Tierney and a fit White.
Exactly – shifit Big Gabi one slot across to right CB. He’s more than good enough to cope. Then Timber can stay where he most comfortable and Kiwior can take left CB. Far less disruption, keeps TP in his best position and doesn’t require that our shortest defender (Timber) suddenly has to try to be a towering centre-half!!
Generally I would agree it’s better Partey doesn’t play right back as we too often miss his qualities in the centre, but I thought he was excellent today. He pushed up high and central in front of their box and played some lovely progressive and line splitting passes while still being secure defensively. Partey playing right back tonight wasn’t what cost us the win.
I agree, apart from the defensive lapses that cost us the game (lol) I thought he played really well offensively. Still shouldn’t ever play RB for us again
Exactly – Blogs has this ridiulous bias against Partey? He hardly ever rates anyone at a 2 and to do that to a bloke who’s been shunted into an unfamiliar position is all on the manager, not that player! Other than the brain-fart throw-in, Partey was decent… Havertz pathetic leap for their second goal was the real fault for that goal, not Thomas – 6’4″ and he can’t cut out a header with no pressure and all the time in the world? Plus – Mik’s stubborn insistence on TP at RB also means he shifted Timber into CH… he’s too… Read more »
Not having a proper striker is stubborn
Thought 2/10 was pretty harsh tbh.
Yeah – 5/10 for me.
It was silly. He did have some decent passes tonight.
Should have been 2.5
I really dun understand withe rating for Partey. Feel he was put as scapegoat for the result. I think he did OK when transitioning from defence to attack. And played some nice tight passes.
He never asked to play as a RB, it was MA decision. So putting that blame on Partey seems harsh
Tross had two asiss not one. For me the best player tonight.
*assists
would’ve been helpful if he had two arses, might have helped us sit on that lead
I agree
Easily our MOTM. The missed chance at the end shouldn’t take away the two goals he created out of almost nothing.
He think he might of been a millimeter offside even if he scored at the end there.
Blogs standard negative Trossard bias. Assisted both goals and seemed like the only way they would get a 3rd was through him. Also worked his tail off all game.
I don’t think Blogs did the player ratings though! He was at the match. The author isn’t “Arseblog” to the article as well.
One game in ten isn’t going to do it though
Blogs is doesn’t like people with grey hair. Trossard absolutely cooked tonight—easily best on pitch—and the ‘missed chance’ at the end was clearly offside.
Norm
Silly autocorrect. I typed MOTM
He was immense. One of his best games in an Arsenal shirt.
💯 he was easily our best player tonight. 9/10 for me. The chance he missed at the end was offside anyway and would have been ruled out quickly.
It was his best game in months… but that miss at the end
Yep – but, like TP, Blogs has this weird bias against Trosser. Wouldn’t get a 9, even if he scored a hat-trick!
Gave away a totally unnecessary free kick which led to a goal.
I have nothing against Sterling personally, but I sincerely hope he’s our last Chelsea “punt” signing, for quite a long, long time.
Same. He’s just not doing it- whatever the non negotiables were- they’re clearly out the window for sterling and it’s getting tiresome that we persist in giving him minutes.
Nobody else with all the injuries. He wasn’t getting any minutes when there were no injuries
We’ve got academy players that surely have a future at the club or at least have some resale value- sterling has neither.
Reiss can do everything Sterling has done thus far, difference is Reiss cares for the badge and doesn’t shy away from tackles.
Well, injuries. When fit, Nelson or Eddie would be better, sure.
I was thinking of Reiss’ last minute goal for us a few seasons ago -during the match
Reiss has been out with a bad hamstring injury for weeks I believe. Regardless, I remember when sterling signed and a good number of dudes on here were happy…I was not. I was fkn furious and got a telling off from blogs about being too negative about him! Ha ha. Unfortunately, I think I was right…disgraceful signing.
Nelson any day over this version of Sterling.
Either way, it is an horrendous signing.
Yeah – weirdly, he tore into their defence just after coming on and I thought, ‘At last… here we go!’
And then he didn’t do it ever again…
Same goes for City punts. Sick and tired of Arsenal picking up other big clubs’ unwanted scraps just bc they have “PL experience.” There’s a reason their old clubs don’t want them anymore.
I believe he is finnished though maybe should never left city just for his extra cash
No hart and I couldn’t believe we went for him
Maybe harsh but I think it is true
As an England supporter I’ve found him next to useless for years. If only he could have remained annoying for England rather than for Arsenal.
Rs scored lots of Goals for England give at one tournament may it happen at Afc
Would be great to never see Party at RB again, but Arteta is way to stubborn to do that. At some point, Arteta need to be looked at for how he manages his players, or fails to manager I should say.
The only real alternative is Kiwior at RCB and Timber at RB, would you have done that?
I think I might have, but hindsight and all.
Bollocks… all you do is shift Big Gabi one slot to the right and bring Kiwior into left CB. (a) Gabi is more than capable of doing that (certainly more so than either Timber or Kiwior there); (b) Kiwior has played at left CB before. (c) keeps Timber at familiar RB and, more NB, keeps TP in midfield. That would have been far less disruptive overall. Timber is not tall enough for a centre-half and having both him and TP playing in unfamiliar positions made us completely haphazard on set-pieces and decent crosses – that was clear early on and… Read more »
Yeah but what other option was there today?
Timber at RB and Kiwior as CB?
Partey in midfield with Rice
Correct. Big Gabi is far more capable of simply shifting one slot across to right CB, with Kiwior slotting into his position. Way less disruption overall.
Kiwior at LB, MLS at right back.
what’s could he have done here? I’m just guessing he doesn’t trust Kiwior enough for 90 min as CB, so Timber had to fill in, which leaves us with whom as RB?
I would’ve preferred Kiwior and keeping Timber at his natural position honestly, would’ve been maybe one weak point but at least our 3 best defenders in their natural positions instead of this makeshift back 4.
Timbers natural position is CB. You do have a point though, as the shift in Timbers position meant TP was playing out of position. I think Kiwior at CB may have been a better option, don’t know. Maybe he’s off in January, hopefully as a make weight for a striker. Who’s knows.
yeah, I meant Timber’s natural position with us, the one he’s played by far and has had his best performances at, the one he’s used to playing. Back 4’s are such a weird sensitive thing, you need all of them to have such instant intuitive synchronisation with each other, that if you swap one of them you might disrupt that a little bit, but if you then move another one around it can all start getting a bit chaotic because no one is 100% sure who should be covering who and which area in the heat of the moment. Which… Read more »
Agreed – and, imo, Timber is doesn’t have the height/aerial presence to be a really effective CB.
You understand Timber’s natural position is CB right? Has played CB in 66% of games throughout his career versus 25% at RB.
One-dimensional reasoning mate… the relevant point is that he has NOT played there for Arse. Zero familiarity next to Big Gabi, plus having a make-shift RB outside him just adds extra pressure on top of that.
Far better to just shift Big Gabi across and bring Kiwior into left CB – that way, only one defender is not in a familiar position and it’s our best defender who is best equipped to cope with the switch.
Precisely.
Therein lies the problem
Why not trust Kiwior who’s a natural center back?
Kiwior may not be the best option at CB but I don’t see how Party at RB is better. Hell, I’d rather see Rice at CB. Besides that, Merino was laboring after 60 mins but he kept him out there. Could have put Tierney or Zinc out there to help. Instead he did nothing except bring in arguably the 1 person on the bench who would hurt the team in attack. I just don’t have faith in Arteta to win anything because he cannot adapt in game.
Merino seems at this point to have been a poor choice of transfer
Merino almost won it for us twice, and would’ve if not for PGMOL, so I’m not having that part of your argument.
If not for PGMOL? Do you mean disallowing the goal that hit Havertz on the arm?
Any other time in the box, the Havertz ‘arm’ would not even have blipped. It was pressed against his body and was not in an ‘unnatural’ position.
Ask yourself this – if that had been in our box, would VAR have ruled it a pen? Certainly not – so how then does is magically become a foul, simply because it happened in the other penalty area?
Bollocks.
There’s no angle that shows the ball hit his arm. The ball hit his stomach, which is clear from one angle. The other angle appears to show the ball touching his hand, but there’s NO DEVIATION in the flight of the ball. That still shot is like those pictures when you hold the moon in your hand, you’re not touching it but it looks like you are, The fact that there was no deviation from the original, clear hit by the stomach tells me it wasn’t a handball and the still shot is misleading. If PGMOL were interested they would’ve… Read more »
in my tv, the ball hits clearly kais arm, no goal… ☹️
This 💯👏
I don’t understand the Zinny situation. Yes he is not a great defender, but he can surely be given a game or two when there are so many injuries. Also, why not bring him on when we need a goal, he is a creative player. Sub a Merino or Partey, and give him an opportunity?
Exactly – at 2-0, just bring on Kiwior and shore up the make-shift defence to a back 5?
The lack of players is also down to those above the manager- what was edu doing all summer?
Hate to say this but maybe if Arteta had been a little more willing to play ESR and Nelson last year they would have stayed around. Both would be better options than Sterling right now.
ESR just scored today too.
Let me just try something, please.
Um, ESR did NOT score today?
ESR would’ve been a better option if Arteta had not decided he was a central midfielder.
Agree. Always wanted that last year, and agree we’d reap the rewards this year. And arsenal boys too.
But .. we were within one game of the title, I guess we had to go for it. Which meant all in for it. But it cost us a year of player development. And same the yearbefore. (and some signings mightve been more long termers).
He was selling three quarters of the team, and buying two average players who are constantly injured…
Planning his own move…
Thought this was actually Merino’s best performance for us…
Liverpool (H)
I think blogs really dislikes Partey. Merino is clearly at fault for their first goal that changes the game. He had an excellent chance in the first half from a Partey cutback that he misses. He should score the goal that hits the upright. What exactly did Merino do well in a familiar position whereas Partey was in playing in an unfamiliar position and yes he is at fault for their second goal but he surely played better than Merino
Havertz missed the header on their second goal. He was equally as culpable.
More culpable – he was in the perfect position. He’s 6’4″, ffs. He was under zero pressure. He completely mistimed his leap.
Can understand why he’s not liked. But 2/10 is not a reflection of his performance at all. Better to just not score him maybe…
I think it’s a fair rating, he was rubbish.
Exactly. Merino completely misses the run and gets there late. And Haverz (all 6’4″ of him!) butchers his jump for a simple header on their second.
Neither goal is directly on Partey, but hey Blogs, let’s give the poor fucker who’s been shunted out of position and actually was instrumental in most of our attacking transitions…
a TWO????
I didn’t do these ratings.
I knew that all along….ahh you kidder 😎
How many months should a thirty one year old experienced player play in a position before it becomes familiar? Thomas Partey has always given the ball away in dangerous places and been totally unaware of players running past him. He jogs around the pitch and rarely tracks his man. Mostly he gets away with it, but just lately he hasn’t and it’s showing more and more every game that his legs have gone and he doesn’t even put the effort in.
Who else was supposed to play right back with all the injuries. We have 75 left backs and all but one are injured are terrible. We scored 2 goals which was great but the problem was we needed 3. Up by 2. At home. Yet we get stretched and are pressing. We leave massive gaps in the box. Why not sit back and play on the counter. Or play possession football by leave 3 at the back rather than 2. Lost all composure. Or fatigue hit. I watched on my laptop. Still, it didn’t look like it hit havertz hand.… Read more »
It did his his hand. Good points made though, agree
We could’ve played Timber at RB, and started Kiwior, which is his role in the squad as back up CB? Yes he’s no Saliba, but at least Timber would’ve put more pressure on Digne or kept a closer watch to Watkins? This draw is on Arteta. He also assembled this threadbare squad and failed to properly rotate in the start of the season, causing untimely injuries to star players.
Not sure why all the blame on the first goal is resting on the right back. Martinelli’s position was ridiculously far infield before the ball got switched. I was worried before the pass to Digne was even played that there was too much space for him.
Kiwior or Rice. Hell KT would be better at CB than TP anywhere in the backline.
We can’t play on counter attack, this team lacks pace, is very poor in attacking transitions and likes to retain the ball for slow buildup. I can hardly remember counter attack goals scored by this team.
Your point about pressing is something I was concerned about at 2-1 (and before that, to be honest). Why did we decide in this game to press so high and hard? And why did we persist with it in the 2nd half when it was allowing Villa to get to the other end of the pitch with 1-2 passes so often? Especially when we were in front.
Up by 2. At home.
So why not bring on Kiwior and shift Big Gabi across to right CB, hook Merino and put Thomas back into midfield, where he belongs?
You go to a five at the back and close up shop!
unluckily, it did…
I don’t like Emery’s Aston Villa.
Is it possible that some of our female players are allowed to play for first team? I think that we can find several much better than Sterling.
“Better” isn’t the operative word here- we just need someone who will TRY.
Caitlin Foord can rip it up off both wings
From the angle that I see on TV the ball struck Havertz’ belly. Strange.
I agree. I cannot understand why it was ruled out. Even if it came off the arm, the arm was tight against the body so that’s not a reason to disallow the goal either. Very, very strange.
Exactly – the simple question for me is:
was the hand/arm extended from the body or in an ‘unnatural’ position?
No. He’s actually pulling his arm flat against his torso to withdraw it out of the way!
No way that would ever have been given as a pen if it had happened in our box – VAR fucks us yet again.
The angle they showed on NBC it was very clear it his his hand. Camera was directly behind Merino.
Yup on my feed it clearly struck Kai’s forearm.
But was the arm away from the body or tight to the body?
That’s the real point: ask yourselves if that would’ve been given as a Villa penalty, had it happened in our box?
No way – arm is actually being withdrawn, flat against the body, in a clear effort to get out of the way. Close range strike that hits an arm, pressed flat against the body – cannot be given as a handball in any circumstance!
A goal scored directly from a handball is ruled out, even if it was accidental.
I don’t know why Sky (who love talking about ref decisions more that football) didn’t show definitive replays? We just had to rely on G Nev telling us and we have to just accept it. Whilst the tedious VAR replays do your head in I think for such an important decision it should have been definitive for the goal to be overturned and it was decided in 30 seconds and we didn’t see what VAR saw.
Stomach goal. The usual camp drama of the official strutting to the screen didn’t happen. Unusual or just very arsenal.
You can be unlucky once, twice, maybe even thrice. But soon, unlucky is not longer what it is. Aren’t these performances becoming a “typical Arteta’s Arsenal”?
I am only comforted in my view that Arteta might not be the one to bring this club forward from where we are now (thanks to him).
The board have blood on their hands for hanging Arteta out to dry, from time TIERNY is our best attacking option of the bench shows we don’t deserve to win the title, Liverpool have jota and Nunez to come on , we have Sterling. Ggs
That’s only fair if you imagine Salah, Jota and Nunez all injured.
I’m sick of Thomas Partey being at the club. Merino needs to start improving quickly, too slow on the ball still. Martinelli and Trossard’s form is one of the only points of solace right now. Mon Kai, there’s the goal now go get more. Raheem Sterling has led me to watch Reiss Nelson’s famous goal on loop. Reiss Nelson is twice the player he is. I’m not even Nelson’s biggest fan admittedly.
Bukayo Saka, I miss you and I need you bbz xx
And all true Arse supporters are sick of mindless, one-dimensional comments like yours.
I think we played well in general & were definitely the better team for whole of 90 minutes. We were unlucky not to win it comprehensively.Lack of Squad depth costed us.
‘played well’… ‘deserved more’… ‘unlucky not to win’…
You’re sounding like our manager – and that is NOT going to get us the title.
Sticking our best deep-mid player at RB, and shifting our RB to CH, when we have an international CH sitting on the bench… is the real problem.
Unfortunately – this one is on Arteta’s stubborness.
The third goal we needed is the ghost of the goal threat Saka would have brought.