It was as tight as a camel’s arse in a sandstorm, but Theo Walcott’s early goal was enough to take three points. Here’s how the player rated.
Wojciech Szczesny: 8/10 – Continued his good form since being dropped, excellent save late on from Remy to keep us ahead, and looked solid throughout.
Bacary Sagna: 6/10 – Much improved on last week but still lacks something in the final third. Again, not helped by the player in front of him being absent a lot of the time, and that his highest pass combination was with Ramsey highlights that further.
Per Mertesacker: 7/10 – In Mert we trust. Ashford and Simpson should write a song about him.
Laurent Koscielny: 7/10 – No nonsense, no fuss, clever, efficient defending. In great form now.
Nacho Monreal: 6/10 – Seems to be preferred in away games to Kieran Gibbs, and found Townsend a handful yesterday. Got into some good positions higher up the pitch but our overall lethargy up there made it difficult to have an impact.
Mikel Arteta: 6/10 – On the end of another nasty challenge early on (surely it’s just coincidence, right), which left him a bit inhibited. Still provides assurance at the base of midfield, which is important for the back four.
Aaron Ramsey: 6/10 – All energy again, working hard and trying to make things happen (without much happening). Proving a good squad player, especially in games we win through hard work above all else.
Tomas Rosicky: 6/10 – Not as influential as we might have hoped, sent Walcott clear in the 2nd half but the England man’s first touch let him down. Other than that a bit off the pace.
Santi Cazorla: 6/10 –: Some of his touch and close control is still a marvel, but not having as much of an impact as he did. Perhaps it’s tiredness, he has played more Premier League football than anyone else this season, but lack of options ahead of him makes it hard to be creative.
Theo Walcott: 5/10 – Scored a vital goal but peripheral throughout. Maybe he can be excused as an ‘impact’ player but at this point in his career it’s not unreasonable to expect him to be more involved.
Lukas Podolski: 5/10 – Again had a hard time up front, won more headers than I thought he would, but found it tough going. Even if he’s not scheduled for surgery this summer, it might be a good idea to have an engine fitted anyway.
Subs:
Jack Wilshere – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – Thomas Vermaelen – No ratings.
Ridiculous stats for Walcott who scored a goal hit the post andd forced Green into an excellent save. T
He should be doing more than that for 90 minutes.
He was continually going into the middle, leaving Sagna exposed alone. (again)
Also at this stage on his career he should be “bossing” games taking it to the next level
( And yes I know he has scored 20 goals, same as TH14 as his age)
If you watch Theo’s movement off the ball, it is absolutely non-existent. As soon as Rosicky/Cazorla get the ball, he just makes a completely token/aimless run. He doesn’t peel off, he doesn’t hold back, he doesn’t act as a decoy, he just…runs. Into the middle. Every time.
I don’t agree at all, I think Theo’s movement is good, I saw many times yesterday when he could have been put in but the pass never came. We would have won more easily with an intelligent passer like Fabregas.
chelsea will purposely lose to spurs HAHA
no point of arsenal going into CL, their board won’t spend anyway. it’s better for spurs to go in, and they will spend to quality players.
Could that be because someone has to be in the box? I didn’t see podolski ever making runs there. Better theo than no one, in my opinion.
True, but the intelligent runs are into wherever there is space, running into the middle does no good if it further congests the place when there’s an acre of space out wide that could create chances in the middle.
Wenger about Theo at the weekend, “he makes good runs and he’s calm now in front of goal. Now you see every time he hits the target. He forces the keeper into a save. That’s why his numbers are so much better”.
So for the people who gave me a thumbs down when I said he makes good runs, it means you’re also giving Wenger a thumbs down.
Very unfair on Walcott. How Podolski received a higher rating than him is a wonder.
He didn’t
Oh yeah.
Walcott had what, 4 strikes? All of them decent and one goal scored. Wasn’t caught offside much either, which is either down to improved positioning or poor QPR defence, but he did the job. In my book, that deserves more than 5/10, especially when compared to Poldi who was pretty much invisible for whatever reasons. Also, as for accusing him of leaving Bac exposed, how much of that is down to Theo veering off course because he just feels like it and how much is down to tactics is unknown. His scoring (and our defence) won us 4/6 points so… Read more »
The assertion that Walcott leaves Sagna exposed as he runs around doing his own thing makes Wenger seem a bumbling idiot that cannot control his players. Its a nice story that fits into Blogs preconceptions, but I don’t believe its true. Ramsey probably connected more with Sagna because that was what he was told to do, Walcott drifts inside because that’s what Wenger wants him to do.
I actually think Walcott defended really well yesterday, I remember him always trying to help out Sagna and being unusually defensive during the whole game, which seemed to be a reason for him being less dangerous offensively. I also think that there weren’t too many attacks from their left side where Walcott was covering, we were more open on our left side. He could have still been more involved offensively though.
But I was pretty tired when i watched it, my memory might serve me wrong..
How Podolski got the same score as Theo is a wonder…
Podolski has now played 3 games upfront in the league this season, zero goals.
You say Theo should be doing more than that for 90 minutes but what was the rest of the team providing in attack??? Theo provided the biggest attacking threat, fact!
You complain about Theo going into the middle but obviously Wenger has given him permission to do so otherwise he would have been dropped by now. So if you don’t like it take it up with the manager, Theo goes central more now and that’s why he has 20 goals!
Go fuck yourself maddo. Walcott will never do enough in your eyes and all other haters in here. Pissed with you lot.
thumbing this down makes you a cock aswell. Thanks cock.
I would personally like to see The Ox being handed a start in front of Theo. Although he scored a goal today and hit the post, much of our bluntness in attack recently has been due to Theo being almost non-existent. I grant you that he has come up with some crucial goals in recent weeks, but as is so often the case, it seems to be his one and only contribution to a game. In 90 minutes of football, I think a little bit more should be expected of him. He looks very very short of form.
I think it’s obvious blogger’s got it in for Walcott!!
Walcott played as a striker when he was on as a winger/wide man to be fair. I think he’s a great player in the making, but if I were judging him for what he should have been doing out wide, he didn’t achieve enough. This time last season, to me he was the best right winger hands down. I’m confident he would be top 3 for most Premier League watchers. Now he seems to keep trying to make statements by staying in the middle. He’s skipping his duties. Ask people if he’s up there as a winger or a striker… Read more »
If Koscielny neglected his duties at the back and played up front, I’m sure he would score more than a few too. But he doesn’t, because he knows he has a job to do. People defending Theo’s lack of positional discipline are missing the point – yes he got a goal yesterday, but anyone could if they played for their own ego rather than for the benefit of the team.
He’s a right winger and for a right winger he’s not there to support Sagna.
I think people are thinking the majority of us are saying that Theo should never drift inside, or make runs. That is obviously not the case, particularly with the Arsenal system. Too many times though Theo drifts in when he should not, running nowhere that makes him unavailable to active play in the final third, disappearing after he turns over a ball, etc. His movement is not strategic or efficient – THIS is why we have a problem with Walcott. We have no problem with him scoring. From any position.
Blogger is telling the truth yes he scored yes he won the match yes he hit the post but he still goes missing im theo im brilliant get fuckin over yourself
Agree, 5 is a little harsh, should be least a 6!
He made 3 passes in the second half… even a non-proffesional could do better
all yall ganging up on walcott, yet poldi i’d say was worse. Really worse. Walcott may make 3 passes but gets the goals that matter. If you neglect all that only to point the ‘passes’ he made you really are a tosser!!!!!!!!!!
Message to Arseblog: Please stop giving Theo these low ratings and stop hyping the mantra “Theo should do better and does not deserve his place and his contract etc…
No player in the current squad is perfect and everyone has it’s flaws to work on, but Theo is by far the best winger in the country and we’re lucky to have him. Compare his performances with the wingers from other teams and realize he’s miles ahead!
No chance. When we played Man U, they gave us a lesson on wing play. How to cross, how to dribble, how to STAY WIDE. Theo is very good at very few things. He is not an all round winger and he is not the best in the country. Blogs is right; he’s good, but he should be doing so much more.
fergie obsesses with wingers. I thought Nani and Valencia were utterly shit against us last week.
Arsenal don’t play with real wingers, Theo and Poldi are more inside right and inside left players respectively.
Theo has a limited skill set and anywhere from 15 degrees to 55 degrees to the right of centre of the opponents goal box, he is deadly. Other than that…………..
“he should be doing so much more” what more can you ask from a winger who scores 20 goals and counting. What more is there???? Crossing the ball?, how many assists has he? Right. Walcott is doing fine. Blog and i bet his entire lineage have a thing against theo. It’s kinda sad.
Walcott has got a very limited skill set…. He can run, he has got good composure and he can finish well. But that’s about it…. His passing is wayward at best, for a wingers or even as a striker, his dribbling should be a lot better, and crossing is alright but not world-class…… So by no means he is the best winger even in the team, least the country…….. And the reason he has been performing so good because wenger is aware of these things and has given him the exact specific role for that…. At the expense of higher… Read more »
I should probably comment this on the by the numbers page but:
2: number of games left until we totally phase out Gervinho 🙂
Btw Ramsey and Koscielny have become monsters and really influential players, who would of thought that at the start if the season? Koscielny in particular certainly merits those “$25mil offer to Bayern”
Up the Arsenal ! 6 more points !!!
There was talk of lansbury being the new parlour. I think Rambo has really taken on that mantle in recent matches. Long may it continue.
I thought maybe Arteta deserved a higher rating. Incredibly solid as a holding midfielder (just check the stats), and got a clever assist. my man of the match
Theo Theo He himself doesn’t know what he is doing. So how can anyone of his team mate . The way i see it . If he scores in a match I don’t mind carrying him for 90+ mins . But if he doesn’t then I think everyone should kick the shit out of him. Plain and simple he is the thickes player around . He admits he cannot read the game . I just hope Ox and gnabry I ready next season . No more theo on the wing . Just a 20 min player to bring on if… Read more »
Bloggs, I really don’t get how every single one of our midfielders gets a 6/10 yet the Midfield as a whole gets a 74% in the overview. Same goes for the forwards. Makes no sense. Plus 4/5 stars for this performance is a bit generous in my opinion. Maybe I’m just a spoilt Arsanal/Arseblog fan that expects that little bit of extra quality.
I dont care if he gets rated a 5, if he keeps scoring winning goals and gets us 3 points to take us above Sp*rs then he can play as shit as he likes for the remaining 89 minutes.
I agree, it’s a bit harsh for Walcott. Scored the winner, granted he didn’t make
*Sorry, I got posted before I was donet.* Anyway, not a lot of passes from Walcott but intersting shots in the second half. He was our most agile and reactive striker today
While I don’t feel the rating was ridiculous, I’d like him to start in the middle in the next game (keeping in mind Poldi’s ankle situation) and offer Ox a start on the wing. He would be awesome for his drive forward.
I’d like to see Rosicky swap with Cazorla, who i feel works best in the middle, while Rosicky’s runs would work just as well on the wings in my opinion.
Arsene: Pilates stretch …6/10
Come on, that pilates was all he did for the whole game! And we needed the right flank covered for Sagna not him stretching through the middle. 😛
Harsh on Theo. His movement was great and got into three really good positions to score. He also did a number of times and was not found.
Note that he tested the keeper on four occasions, not sure the rest of the team mustered more than 2 or 3 shots on goal between them.
I’d have given him a 6.5/10
He was found, by Rosicky, but clumped the ball too far ahead of him.
He made 3 passes in the whole of the 2nd half, I know he scored, and I’m glad of it, but he goes missing in games like this.
I wished we had someone like Keown to grab him by the throat and tell him to get his finger out.Every time Sagna got the ball Theo just happened to disappear from the wing,even for throw ins.
One thing that is really getting on my tits about Theo is him taking most of the set pieces. His delivery is constantly poor from free-kicks and corners. Either floats them in with no pace, which is easy for the defence to deal with, or over cooks it. When we got the free-kick on the edge of the box yesterday, you could see him trying to take it off Podolski. I was literally screaming at him to get the fuck away from it. Why he is still allowed to take them when we have Santi on the pitch is beyond… Read more »
why do i feel he needs 3 goals and 100 passes to get a rating above 7? surely 6.5=7 fairer, he isnt playing striker but he scored and went close with 2 more, but rated same as podolski presumably due to 10 passes more? what wins games again?
Probably because he’s been at the club for 7 1/2 years and doesn’t seem o have improved one jot in terms of ball control and positional awareness. Given that during this time he has been able to train with the likes of Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, and now Cazorla, Podolski eat all, this is simply not good enough.
Theo, we all know that’s you under many different usernames posting nice things about yourself. You’ve already signed the contract mate, you can’t squeeze any more money out of us.
Nice goal yesterday and last week, try and keep the work rate up after the first 2 minutes in future though.
I want to know why he takes up the position inside right for so much of games. It’s worked well for the early goals in the last two games but is a waste when we’re trying to find a wide right option to stretch the opposition.
I’d assume that Wenger is telling him to do this or else surely he’d be screamed at to get wide?
What would Theo do if he got the ball wide? There was nobody in the middle to aim for anyway!
Use his pace and try and go round Traore maybe?
Traore is a very fast player as well. Not easy
Well, his run out wide would stretch their defence and then create a little more space in the middle for a midfielder or the opposite winger to ghost into the space, plus the psychological effect of a little more variance in his play, that’s the theory anyway just doesn’t always work…
Hmmm…..Theo is not my favorite player (that would be Santi/Kos) but one wonders what he has to do to be appreciated by you Blogs. Theo’s goals earned us the last 4 points we won. Its really weird that the young man scores, wins us matches and we moan when he doesnt score, yet we jump on his back even when he does. I know he’s not perfect; he annoys me sometimes too…. But this smacks of when so many were climbing all over Ramsay’s ass when he was trying his best, being played out of position. If we dont show… Read more »
I agree. I want forwards that score the one goal in ugly 1 – 0 wins like this one, not Giroud’s “defensive qualities”.
If Giroud had been playing instead of Theo on Sat I have no doubt at all that we would be looking at equal points with Spurs now.
Theo is by no means the full product, but at least he has considerable finesse at the finish. Stroking the ball makes a welcome change from blasting it in the general direction of the goal as hard as posible, in the vain hope it will go in. It usually doesn’t.
Hehe @arseblog you sad sad son of a gun. I’ve seen you come up with reasonable and well thought out arguements but with walcott you just embarrass yourself. Nothing but pure bias and the tone you address his performance epitomises your bias. It’s high time somebody told you to fucking shut up.
wouldn’t be much of a blog if he just ‘shut the fuck up’, really I expect a little more decorum from you MR Hill-Wood.
They seem just about spot on. Going forward I thought we were terrible last night. So much time and space against that defence and we played at a snails pace. If you attack effectively you take pressure off the defence and second half they looked the more likely to score. Onwards and upwards though. 3 points I’d happily have taken before the match.
If Szczesny gets an 8/10 for saving three points then surely Walcott should have got higher than 5/10 for scoring the only goal of the game. From memory, he forced three good saves from Green as well.
Monreal struggled with Townsend all day. Maybe Gibbs would have been a better match with his pace.
Wasn’t Gibbs injured though?
Yeah, commentator said something about his thigh. Though, strangely I don’t remember reading about that in the press conferences, unless it happened on the day.
Szczesny got 8 for making 3 out of 3 saves that needed to be done, Theo was in 3 chances, scored 1. For me, he’s almost there, just needs to score also the other 2.
I think the Theo rating is justified. His goal was the least we should expect from him, and his passing rate and movement in the second half were absolutely dire. It was like we were playing with 10 men for the last 45 minutes.
Andros Townsend was on it yesterday. I had a feeling the the spud would ruin it for us. Rosicky Cazorla and Podolski didnt click yday. Id give Ox and jack a run out in the maybe even getvinho on right and give theo a go through centre. He was the only one shooting. And worked the keeper with every one. They must be raring to go?
I think we should try Walcao (no, that’s not a typo) in the middle with Fivehead/AOC on the right. Walcao scores most of his goals from central runs anyway plus the fact that a true winger would add more width to our attack so that Sagna doesn’t have to keep passing it back to the middle. If Podolski is fit enough, he could play on the left flank as Monreal was left exposed again and again by Cazorla, who could also possibly start in the middle.
We need to up our game for Wigan.
Wigan’s win was just the result we didn’t need… now they’ll have confidence and a real sniff of survival.
I thought Arteta played better than a 6.. 7.5 maybe.. Made interceptions and several tackles.plus an assist.
As of walcott.. He might have made good runs playing out of position but he gives sagna too much work to do..
Actually Walcott had a good game, scored one goal and hit the post, he did drop deep yesterday to get some interception, found that Arseblog sometimes too mean to Walcott while if Walcott deserve a 5/10 then Podolski should get lower ratings.
At best, Walcott deserves six. Ecerything he did yesterday was moatly ok… For a STRIKER. He was taking his wide role so seriously. We’re lucky that Sagna was on it defensively.
Walcott as a right midfielder/winger made one defensive move throughout the game. That is subpar for what he should be actually doing. Even attacking from the wing, I didn’t notice a single cross from wide (to be fair I did get distracted for around 15 mins in the second half.
Apologies on spelling etc. I accidently pressed submit while scrolling on the phone.
Blogs: can we get an edit button or Disqus in the comments section, please?
No
Why?
Disqus is shit
You could add an “edit comment” feature fairly easily using a plugin: e.g. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-ajax-edit-comments/
bad language…
@Blogs: fair enough, I disagree about Disqus, but I’ve only been a user and not had to add it to website, so maybe there’s things I don’t understand on that side.
Please put an edit button in though.
Defo give Rosicky a 7. Brilliant work for the first goal, started getting better in the second half. Dropped back a LOT to defend and made some important clearances in our box. Hard working game, if not influential. Did play the pass to theo which hit the post too.
Also, he was bursting through them with that flying run when Jenas made that tackle. Oldest player at the club still the fastest burst of pace. Love him!
Some obvious bias against Theo that we have seen before on here. Walcott was our only threat, end of story!
Sheer dislike for Walcott has influenced this rating. He took his goal well and forced more saves than any other player on the pitch. If anyone was absent for me it was Podolski, a striker primarily needs to threaten goal not pass the ball about.
Theo deserves at least 6.5
It’s not dislike. It’s just making the effort to write what we see rather than what we want to see.
People dont see walcott for what he really is, a brilliant athlete, not a brilliant footballer. Im sorry but if you cant see that you should be watching cricket
It doesn’t matter what you call him, he gets lots of GOALS and lots of ASSISTS! Simple enough for you? Do you understand?
There’s a reason poachers have all but disappeared from the game. Scoring one goal when you have the chance is below what’s expected for the highest level of football. He didn’t create anything, his off the ball movement was poor, and beside scoring that one goal he was absent from the game.
Mark him down for what he did badly but mark him up for what he did well. 6.5 I’d say
Okay, I understand why you’d give Theo that rating, however he’s scored two games in a row, being the difference between a loss and a draw respectively. Props should (and will) go to the defence and Woj, but come on, it feels as though you have a predisposed bias or dislike towards Theo. I’m ridiculously biased towards him, and would probably give him head if he asked me to, but I can still be objective with regards to him. He’s our top scorer, but all people hang on are his wages. He scored his 20th fucking goal of the season,… Read more »
You can’t argue with his stats. There’s no doubt he’s become a very fine finisher, but he is still hugely lacking as a footballer. I think that’s what’s so frustrating – I expect him to be better by now, to be more intelligent in his movement and team play, to be more mature and hardworking, to be more selfless. Theo does take his chances now, which is to be commended, but I feel like in other ways he’s regressed since he first arrived. He used to take players on and actually use skill to go past them (rather than just… Read more »
Yeah, I hear that. But then, he’s still developing. Fuck, Rosicky is still developing because footballers never stop developing or learning new skills. His pace is an athletic attribute, but his crossing, finishing, forward play etc are all football skills that can still improve. Think to last season, when van Persie was the golden boot winner, Theo provided a shit load of assists, and people still gave him stick. Robin then left, and Theo, who was a striker learning to sky his trade on the wing understandably wanted a shot down the middle because the main striker left. Has he… Read more »
I’ll still get on his case about those bloody books if that’s what you’re asking. But honestly, I like Theo. He’s definitely not my favourite player (my one true love Rosicky) but he seems like a good lad, and regardless he’s an Arsenal player so as long as I feel he’s trying his best (which I think he does) I’m right behind him. As I said, his stats are good, which is great. What you pointed out though, this trying to prove himself as the talisman, is what I’m finding a bit trying. My frustration comes from the fact that… Read more »
Everything jack jack jack has said and a bag of potato chips. Spot on. For me personally I like Theo, but his play lately has been about him and not the team, and for that I get peeved. He scored two goals in the past two games after a long drought, but by no means should he consider himself the second coming of Christ as he exuded during his post match interview. He needs to make himself more available as an outlet during the game, even AFTER scoring. First half performance alone I’d have given him a 7, but his… Read more »
Theo can’t be that selfish if he has most assists!
Gervinho scores 2 games in a row, gives some assist, holds the line, takes on players, gives us width, forces the defense to play at least 2 players on him and yet still the very next game he does not score/assist he gets a 5/10 even though he does more than Walcott would do in an entire game. So why can’t Theo get a hard earned 5/10?
The liveblog suffers from antiwalcott bile too.
No, it doesn’t. When a player does something well, it’s noted. When they don’t, that’s also noted. It’s commentary, not opinion.
Maybe a case of you only seeing what you want to see. From yesterday:
“It’s commentary, not opinion”. Totally disagree with this and he is not one of my favourite players. When I watch games and follow the liveblog at the same time, which is v. often. Theo’s mistakes are usually highlighted more and his positive contributions understated.
Maybe he just makes more mistakes than others 😉
Eh, the bias is well there, with Blogs pining for Giroud this morning and being critical of Walcott again. It’s not that I think Walcott is a great footballer, he cannot dribble past a player (unless he falls down) and he does not play in other players with clever 1-2s. But he has been doing better for the past two seasons, would be great if he came good. Giroud is much the same, a player with limitations that could come good. But compare how Blogs treats the two players and the bias is obvious.
Why do you hate Walcott? You said before he signed his contract that you found it difficult to celebrate when he scored? This is a very good blog but its clear that you have a thing against Walcott.
Terrible rating as usual!
Your Theo bashing is getting boring.
If that was Giroud who scored, yet did nothing else for the rest of the game, you will never give him a 5 & you know it.
The worst part is he actually had a few shots on target.
But it’s your blog & you can choose to be bias if it makes u happy.
yeah, but somehow that never happens to giroud, as he usually creates many chances and a lot of space for the team, wins headers, drags defenders…
So you’re basically confirming the bias!
Giroud has been AWOL in all the big games(apart from Spurs at home) even missing presentable chances but never got a rating of 5.
It’s ridiculous.
Giroud got a 4 here – http://news.arseblog.com/2013/04/fulham-0-1-arsenal-player-ratings/ and a 5 here – http://news.arseblog.com/2013/04/arsenal-0-0-everton-player-ratings/
But if he scored in had scored in any of those games would you have given him a 5?
We all know the answer to that question 🙂
Perhaps there’s perceived bias because Giroud _is_ contributing more? Giroud’s finishing is a bit disapointing to me, not because he is missing those chances, but because from his last season’s highlights (ehm) it seems there an amazing finisher hidden somewhere in him. If he’s getting into 3 more chances per game than Theo, then I’m fine with him missing one or two of them (as long as he scores a fair share), because beyond that, he will also make those three stupid flicks – yes, stupid, but for other players. Theo has created roughly the same number of chances as… Read more »
Gervinho is the man I’d like to have seen yesterday, replacing a sadly ineffective Poldi and ahead of the Ox.
Walcott isn’t the finished article,its obvious he is naturally an athlete not a footballer.Unlike Henry, Wallcot hasn’t got a Berkamp 2look 2to help his game out on the field of battle or in training.We need Dennis Berkamp the best ever Arsenal player to be part of the coaching staff to eventuality replace Wenger as manager,as eight years of nothing cost the club 48 million pounds & I’d of done that 4 half the money.
Theo had more shots on target than the whole rest of the team combined.
Him and Cazorla were the only ones trying that.
For a team that flicks the ball around far too much, actual shots on target are important, you know.
We know that you don’t like Theo much Blogs, but this was too harsh. No matter how poor everyone may think his all round play might be, he has been decisive on many occasions for us this season, and in the last two weeks as well. The point is that no one else even tends to drift into scoring positions for us. Podolski is clearly not used to the position enough because he rarely makes any runs into the box, and keeps dropping deep far too often. Theo at least gets into those positions and, more importantly, finishes well. If… Read more »
noone likes theo, sorry but hes a cun*. Have you ever seen him post match, you can see the arrogance in the air. I would love to see the back off him.
Wow! I’m speechless, you would luv to see the back of him, so we can buy more Gervinho’s & Girouds?!?
I think the lack of recent success is affecting your mental health!
both players you mentioned are better lol
6 /10 sums up Arsenal for the whole season. Every summer we sign a couple of players touted as world beaters . Everyone makes vague references to Premierships and making deep runs in the Champions league and domestic cups. Now, Borussia Dortmund play Bayern Munich in the Champions league final. Manchester United won the Premiership a long time ago. Chelsea play Benfica in the Europa league final. Man City will probably win the FA cup trophy. But we here in 6 /10 Arsenal land are deep in thrawl of Arsenal’s ninth successive, tilt, at winning the Wenger trophy. The way… Read more »
Europa League is not a trophy. I’d much rather we finish 2nd in our group & get knocked out on away goals by Bayern than finish 3rd and win the Europa league against teams like Basel and Benfica.
I would’ve given Theo a 3/10, just for the fact that the little cunt insists on taking the majority of freekicks and corners. Virtually every other player on the team would produce better deliveries. Fucking Cazorla could do better with his wrong foot and his eyes closed!!
I know he scored and am grateful for the 3 points, but Theo’s ego is almost unbearable.
Theo, if you had only average pace, you’d be playing in the championship or lower!
Well it’s more than evident that you haven’t watched Cazorla deliver corners recently.
Also he forgets to mention that Cazorla does not have a ‘weaker foot.’
also that cazorla did not score yesterday nor did he against united. Walcott maybe not good enough for the prem according to you but if he gets those 20 goals that other supposed “premier league players” aren’t getting i’d say he’s doing just fine even more than fine!!!!! Now shut up thanks.
C’mon blogs, Walcott’s gets the same as Podolski? Really? The german was completely ineffective on the ball and lost it countless times, Walcott mostly got the ball at the touchline and ran yo Goal. He even controlled a High ball in the penalty box and forced a save from their GK. 5 is too harsh, he had the most shots and those are that win you games, Barca had about 4 times the number of passes bayern, still fucking lost 7-0
Despite his goal,he ws very poor.even if he ws havin shots on goal.he ws missin althrough the game.to me he ws not even a treat to them.
But he scored the winning goal!
we wouldn’t have won if he didn’t score.
Or am I missing something?
To give him a 5 for 2 consecutive games that he scored in is unacceptable.
If Podolski gets a 5, then Theo deserves higher & from the responses to this article, it seems majority agree.
I think its already mentioned here, but a 5 rating for Walcott after he had a good game, looking like the only person who was going to score, is unbelievable. Did he steal something from you?
Also Ramsey worked hard but played some extremely poor passes in the final third, still accept his 6 rating. Walcott for 5 is just ridiculous, also the live blog just highlights whenever he does something not great. Have you seen Valencia or Young play, if they had a game like Walcott’s yesterday they would be MOTM.
, also the live blog just highlights whenever he does something not great.
Not true, see the reply to A Visitor above
Look at Ramsey’s stats and get back to me, he didn’t have his best game by any means but he did not play “extremely poor passes in the final third” – he led both teams on chances created in fact (tied with some other players).
Also blogs’ live coverage wasn’t only focused on Theo’s negatives – but I will say that his lack of presence in the final 45 minutes of the game was rather telling. Its simple: 6/10 for the first 45, 5/10 for the second 45, = 5/10. Makes sense to me.
* That should be 4/10 for the second 45.
Walcott scored the goal, hit the post with another effort that on a different day would also have gone in, and had an excellent (on target) attempt in the second half. Rosicky still provided much-needed tempo. And Arteta was pretty-much everywhere. Really good stuff from him. Overall, it’s easy to be critical. It was a horrid game to watch at times. But these aren’t normal times. And these aren’t normal games. This is about sucking the oxygen out of the gobs of the neighbours. What we have to do is keep winning. That’s all that matters. Because the alternative simply… Read more »
[…] report – By the numbers – Player ratings – […]
The irrational anti Walcott bias on this blog is getting pretty annoying. Theo is our player, he’s helping us scrape games and we need to back him. Blogs wrote him off before the new contract was signed and it has just been a steady Theo bashing since. It’s pretty clear Theo is never going to have a superior technique or be a cerebral space-finder, but he is a tremendous weapon with great pace and the ability to finish and create goals. The stats do not lie. 41 games (12 as sub), 20 goals, 16 assists. Until we improve our squad… Read more »
re: your second last paragraph, see that’s what’s the problem, isn’t it? ramsey and arteta are not meant to be outlets for goals, if they find themselves in goal scoring positions (ramsey especially) then they should go for it (and its an aspect of ramsey’s game that he’ll need to work on), but apart from that the two of them are charged with protecting the back four and recycling possession which both have done exceptionally well with. my main problem is with our CAM, our wingers and our forward. rosicky has been amazing in dictating tempo, and has netted twice… Read more »
Anyway, it’s perfectly all right for people to have differing opinions on players and how they perform. It sparks discussion, and that’s the point of those posts.
No need for folk to get all grumpy about it though, it’s a bank holiday weekend. Have a beer!
Well said Blogs but unfortunately your opinion of Theo’s performance is always clouded by animosity towards the player.
the fact that he signed an extension means that u can’t call him a cunt & I think that annoys you.
I don’t see the point of calling him a cunt even if I do think he is one. I think he’s a very frustrating player, one who can have a decisive and important impact in games and a player who possesses a weapon that, when we exploit it, is very dangerous. But it just gets on my tits when Theo talks about being one of the senior players, and then disappears during games when a guy of his age and experience should be more involved. It’s not so much his lack of technique which bothers me, I’ve come to terms… Read more »
My point exactly… He has done it twice in a row. Scored in first minute and disappeared for rest of the games.
All valid points Blogs.
On a side note, I’d like to get on your tits too…
true about Theo but its the same with most of our strikers
it annoys me that he’s the highest paid player and he was probs the worst player on the pitch yesterday, except maybe Pod.
Who’s our second highest earner
I don’t care about your bias, it just worries me that you might brainwash some of our unintelligent fans into thinking it’s true…the last thing I want to see is Theo getting booed on match days.
what we need is a player like townsend some who can drive at tge opposition. walcott foes nothing for me. his movement is brutal. for ling spells ge was nowhere to be seen. not good enough. well just about do a team trying to squeeze fourth spot. podoski brutal too tell me its an injury cause that was woeful. five my hole. monreal get a six tut tut. destroyed i thought. lets raise the bar bloggs
Don’t see why everyone’s getting all titsy. Blogs has already given a perfectly reasonable explanation of Walcott’s criticism.
Anyone that regularly reads this blog knows that Blogs is more rational than to hold petty bias.
So u agree that Theo’s performance rating of 5(same as Podolski) is fair?
*perfectly reasonable explanation on today’s blog post.
I’m looking at his rating independently. Like Blogs said, Theo only made 4 passes in the second half. So basically he was non existent offensively and defensively in the second half. For a game of one half from Theo, 5 is pretty fair.
Anyway it’s all about opinions.
Honestly I’d rather give stick to Blogs for giving Podolski a 5 rather than for giving Theo that score. He was dismal.
shhhhhhhh!!!!!!!@bbc. Indeed poldi was infact more terrible than walcott practically invisibe but we’re not allowed to talk about that here. We only concertrate on walcott and overexxagerrate his flaws. (ARSEBLOG RULES)
The next game is vs Wigan, The latter my have have in the final prior to meeting the gunners.
The gunners have a habit of slipping in the big games and this game and the one against NU could be the game changers.
The gunners must win both games to have a realistic chance of cl soccer. Even 4 points may notbe enough.If the gunners continue to dither in the middle,don’t be surprised Wigan play smash and grab to get a draw or win.
His name is Theo and we hope he develops late.
Right now he’s a winger that Arseblog just doesn’t rate.
How did Duran Duran not think of that?
Yeah fair enough -and appreciate you coming on the blog to respond
I think you express your exasperation with Walcot quicker than with other players. On the blog you are recognising some of the good things he’s done. If he’s occasionally tracking back well, holding the ball up well, scoring goal hitting the post or forcing a save out of Green then he’s not peripheral and doesn’t deserve a five.
I see your side of it, honestly, but I just feel he should be far more involved in our play than he is.
I think the two CB, Mer & Laurent, should get higher!! Hey its another cleansheet right? So they should get more credit for their overall efforts.
Scrape into the CL, next season play for 4th place get trounced in CL when we play a decent team in the knockout stages, tedious, I’m falling asleep here.
Don’t know why everyone’s complaining about 5/10 for Theo – he was crap. Yes he scored a goal but that was put on a plate for him by Arteta and it was a pretty poor finish anyway, and he barely touched the ball for the rest of the game. The only difference between him and others is that he shot when he got the ball, and most of the time Green saved easily. Any player is capable of getting a shot on target. Podolski rating is a bit high though – I’d say 3 or 4. Also would like to… Read more »
I just cant understand the hate for walcott,he scored the only goal, hit the post and was even shooting 4rm distance and gets that rating.Walcott will neva be the winger that we want him to be bcos he is a finisher and he damn at scoring.20 goals and 14 assists and u still bash and he scored against man u,chealsea,totenham,liverpool and everton and very few of his goals came in bunches but then again keep hating on your own player just bcos his not a workhorse or doenst have a rocket shot but the fact remains that is our most… Read more »
I think Theo misses the Dutch Skunk more than others -his whole style of play needed to change.
Let’s hope the untrustworthy former Feyemoord chappy scores a couple of goals today before dissolving into a puddle of slime thus making him unable to get his fingers on the cup that he betrayed Arsenal for, or to spend any of the oodles of Euros he was paid.
This Walcott bashing is getting embarrassing and a bit rediculas to be honest.
Blogs we get you don’t like the bloke but it does the credibility of this site no good In my opinion.
I’ve explained it. It’s not bashing, it’s just my opinion. Cross posted from today’s arses. 2nd half passes Sagna – 28 Mertesacker – 21 Koscielny – 15 Monreal – 18 Arteta – 41 Ramsey – 48 Rosicky – 35 Walcott – 3 Cazorla – 31 Podolski – 14 Ox – 9 Wilshere – 4 (both subs inside the last 10 mins, Wilshere in the 89th minute) While stats certainly don’t tell you everything, they’re an indicator of a player’s involvement in the game. Look at Walcott’s in comparison with all the other players in the team. That’s what I based… Read more »
Blogs, it’s usually Theo’/s job to be on the receiving end of the final pass. Who is in front of him to pass to? It’s his job to bang them into the net, or give it to someone else who is better placed – not often that happend because Poldi was obviously carrying an injury yesterday and the rest of the midfield were slow to commit to adding to attacks. In general I agree with most people today that Theo has a limited skill set and watching him can be distracting at his lack of awareness of the rest of… Read more »
“Blogs, it’s usually Theo’/s job to be on the receiving end of the final pass. Who is in front of him to pass to?” I think you’ve drastically over-simplified the passing role of players in the front three. “It’s his job to bang them into the net, or give it to someone else who is better placed – not often that happend because Poldi was obviously carrying an injury yesterday and the rest of the midfield were slow to commit to adding to attacks.” Yes, but a player of Theo’s supposed seniority needs to have the presence of mind to… Read more »
Not much point coming on arseblog to discuss Walcott to be fair. Was clearly our best player going forward yesterday (not to claim he was that good), he was the only one who caused QPR problems all game and but for a couple of terrible passes when he’s run away from his man in the last two games, he’s probably have had 4 goals in 2. Certainly made more happen in the final third than anyone else on either side yesterday and outside of our CBs, was our best player. Think it was telling when both Theo and Podolski got… Read more »
I remember the two incidents well. Theo looked up, saw there was nobody there, but played a ball across anyway. Podolski had a look and was trying to find Walcott at the back post. There’s a difference, obviously.
They were both cut out near post, so there’s a pretty big issue with both balls regardless. If the latter was not lazy, then it worries me he can’t lift the ball if he was indeed aiming far post. It’s just all a bit weird isn’t it? Someone talks about his goals and assist stats and they tend to get dismissed as nothing. Bring up how few passes he makes, when his role in the side (one would assume, unless nobody is doing what Wenger tells them to) is to run the backline and look to get in behind so… Read more »
It’s not exactly walcotts fault that the other players don’t attack the ball inside the box and not just podolski and that’s been one of our biggest problems.========= the lack of men inside the box attacking the ball. Shame.
I don’t understand the issue with Walcott’s rating. After the goal he did nothing, and hid for the majority of the match. He just doesn’t do enough to justify the 100K that we’re paying him. Technically he’s probably no better than most first division wingers, he shirks the defensive side of the game and his attitude stinks (his interview after the QPR match was so arrogant). Blogs is absolutely right to highlight how Walcott is one of the main reasons why our performances are poor offensively this season. He’s a selfish player who plays only for himself, to the detriment… Read more »
20 goals and 10+ assists isn’t worth 100K a week for you, and then in the summer you’ll crib about our wage structure, saying we’re too stingy.
Perhaps Walcott’s deal signals a slight change in Arsenal’s wage policy from here on. Also, he’s worth more than your average player to Arsenal commercially, which is why they might have gone the extra yard as well.
Alot of people saying walcott was poor on the right wing. And from what I saw podolski didn’t offer much through middle. Surely we should just play walcott through the middle and put the ox on the right at least he will stick to his orders and cover sagna if he needs it.
People are being too harsh on the style of play. How can you just ask for them to play a way that they clearly cannot, both technically and tactically? Apart from Rosicky and Cazorla, in my opinion, no other player in our squad yesterday would make it into another world class quick passing, technically brilliant team. Ramsey is very energetic but his technical ability and decision making in the final third is awful. Podolski is clearly off the pace and Walcott is as one-dimensional as it gets. Last year if you remember, we conceded plenty of goals, but we could… Read more »
Anyway, it’s Sunday, can’t hang around all day. Time for a bank holiday pint. Have a good one, folks.
Yeah hopefully monday you will wake up a good arseblog not the bashing walcott one.
Oh i almost forgot wally can never do well in your biased eyes. Sorry for even implying that.
Yep il second that its 12 o’clock and a pint or glass if wine doesn’t seem so bad now it’s midday.
As soon as Theo scored Wenger should have taken him off. Theo seems to consider his day done as soon as the ball hits the net.
Walcott is useless. If people judge players based only on goals and assists. Then he is our best player. I’m sure even the most ardent supporters of Theo will agree with me when I say: Hell no. He should be sold. He is an impact player, and that’s all he’ll be good at. Gnabry is 17 and he’s a better player already. Our attack is better with Gerv and Ox. Wenger needs to drop Theo. He seems like a nice, honest guy. He tries hard but he deserves to be benched. A win is win, but if we play like… Read more »
Nobody agrees with you sorry!!!
You do; you just don’t know it yet.
You start with “walcott is useless” and that makes that whole drivel you just wrote down there useless aswell.
Off the topic of Walcott, I think the pitch really affected our mid fielders yesterday. The ball was bobbling, passes were not hitting the target as all pace was taken off the ball or they were overhitting it to make up for the pitch. I think Ros and Arteta were a bit frustrated by it. If we had Giroud up front, we could have played long ball a bit more affectively than with the Pod. On Theo, I agree with Blogs. Theo and Sagna had one of the best partnerships in the team last year. This year, Theo has left… Read more »