Arsenal secured their fourth win of their Champions League campaign with a very slick 2-0 win over Marseille. Here’s how the players rated…
Wojciech Szczesny: 7.5/10 – Very solid night from the Pole including two important stops in quick succession midway through the second half.
Bacary Sagna: 7/10 – New contract please.
Per Mertersacker: 7/10 – Wasn’t overly troubled by a tubby-looking Gignac. Tidy on the ball and commanding in the air. Big.
Laurent Koscielny: 7/10 – See above. Not so big.
Nacho Monreal: 7.5/10 – Gets an extra half mark for not being rusty when it might have been excusable. Great to have such a quality back-up to Gibbs. He was up and down the flank all night.
Mathieu Flamini: 7.5/10 – Such a shouty motherhubbard. In a good way. Marshalled the midfield and didn’t even get booked.
Tomas Rosicky: 7.5/10 – ‘Worked his little balls off,’ according to the lovely lady next to me. Personally we think the Czech has above average sized testicles. Did well upping the tempo throughout.
Aaron Ramsey: 7.5/10 – The Mr Chips of the Gunners midfield, silky on the ball, did a lot of retrieval work. No goals though. Boo!
Jack Wilshere: 9/10 – His first brace for the Gunners and lovely goals they were too. Chipped the keeper with a curler for starters, delivered a calm finish to calm Emirates nerves for mains. Has the bit between his teeth at the moment after recent criticism. Tonight should win over any doubters.
Mesut Ozil: 7.5/10 – Dennis Bergkamp-esque from the spot he was visibly annoyed with his own performance when subbed but put in a decent shift after his first half penalty miss. Regains half a mark for his assist for Wilshere. Understated but still important figure again.
Olivier Giroud: 8/10 – Constant thorn in the side of the Marseille defence, his link-up play was again top notch. Again played the 90 and energetic to the last.
Subs
Santi Cazorla: 7/10 – Impish in that Mighty Mouse style of his.
Mikel Arteta: 7/10 – Six points for quality hair.
Theo Walcott: 7/10 – Missed a good chance trying to curl a low effort with the outside of his foot but also fired a great ball across the six-yard box which could have seen us notch a third.
Thoroughly impressed by Monreal tonight. And to see Walcott and Cazorla coming off the bench…finally some quality strength in depth
Happy with Monreal’s contribution, he didn’t put a foot wrong.
Not sure why Theo gets a 7 though, he was pretty quiet.
Sagna deserves far more than 7. What did he do wrong? Apart from a few dodgy crosses, but he set up the goal with a sexy pass, owned the right side of the pitch and set up wee Theo for an almost one-on-one. I would have given him at least 8.75/10.
Wow, Jack. The whole package. It’s going to be fun watching him and Aaron do “anything you can do, I can do better…” hopefully for a few years. Different style players obviously.
Ozil knows he can do better, but it was hardly a poor match. A few poor touches and a dodgy penalty.
I loved the celebration after the 2nd. Jack pointing at Ozil who was too busy pointing at Ramsey.
Finally Özil got some balls behind the defence though, I’ve seen him do so many great runs and today they started to find him, a bad first touch from a goal, a save from the keeper and an assist for Wilshere was the result of the three throughballs. I believe that this is where we want him, Giroud will pocket every chance if he’s in the box.
He was poor in the first half though, but I finally saw the Özil I expected to see.
Lol, well said mate
For once the TV idiots made an interesting observation. Our midfield is so good, that all we need is for one of them to put in a really good performance to win. Tonight it was Jack.
Sooner or later, they will all start clicking at once, and someone will have a very bad day. We are seeing hints of it –Liverpool and Norwich perhaps, but there is so much more to come.
“someone will have a very bad day.”
Hull at the Emirates in two weeks anyone?
Eh…I thought Ramsey was remarkable. 100+ passes, humiliated the opposition at least 5 times (the flick to win the penalty was just disgusting), so many precise and difficult through balls, a billion tackles.
8(.5)/10 surely
Agreed. I love the swagger, almost cockiness, but with the work rate to go with it. Those chips and turns he’s pulling off are great, but my favorite play may have been when he gave the ball up cheaply then busted ass to get it back. Not unlike Jack the other day.
Confusing though: thought I saw him down hurt briefly. Thought the boy was unbreakable now after watching him these last few months.
Would’ve have loved to have seen Rambo and the HFB get a rest as soon as we went 2 up on 65 mins. They are both so critical to us at the moment. We have back-up for Santi and Jack in the form of Walcott, Gnabry or Arteta particularly given it’s Cardiff on the weekend so they could’ve stayed on. Opportunity lost for mine.. Got the points though.. that’s the main thing. COYG
Thought Szczesny was fantastic tonight, thought he deserved at least an 8 for some of those saves he pulled out of the bag.
That’s Sir Cheney to you bud!!…all jokes aside he was awesome…the sign of a world class goalie is concentration…that’s what separates them form from team goalies, who are far more busy and therefore by necessity always switched on..the top goalies do nothing for 80 to 85 minutes and never lose concentration, for the one crucial save…thats the difference between Hart and Sir Chesney…best goalie in the premier league
Need Tom Rosicky to be more careful with the passing, nearly gave away a howler with five minutes to go
Agreed but that was uncharacteristic. Remember too that although not on that ocassion specifically, TR does generally attempt more difficult attacking passes than the others and taking that into account, he still gave the ball away less than our other midfielders who were all wasteful at times.
Thought Scezesny, Kos, Monreal, Ramsey and Wilshere all outstanding tonight imo. The rest a mere great.
Özil deserves 6 for his performance. Or maybe 6.5 because we won.
Given his run up to the penalty…oh wait there wasnt one.
How to dominate!! And still a don’t think we’re firing on all cylinders yet. That perfect game has got to come soon, city will do 🙂
6-0 anybody?
Great save from Szczesny when that twat Townsend was already celebrating with a “get in!”
Apart from Ramsey and Scsczzzernehay the marks are a little higher than I would have given. I think the performance lacked intensity and the scoreline should have been 6-0 against clearly disinterested opposition. Ramsey easily the best player on the park for me.
Basel’s entire Champions League squad tonight cost less than Oscar. Neither he nor his Chelsea teammates mustered one shot on target.
Reading various reports from other sites, and also hearing the way people talk about Giroud, it seems everybody but Arsenal fans are convinced he’s pants. Watching other big men like Lukaku struggle to lead the line and link the play, we’re damn lucky to have him.
Don’t get it either. Last season he was good, hustling and had the touch.
This year he does all that better, but is bullying Centerbacks as well.
Play a single striker against us and Per and Kos make him disappear, yet I cannot think of a single game this season where the opposition defenders have really coped with the HFB.
Monreal deserves 9/10. Superb performance. Cleared the ball near the line too. did i say superb performance already????
I think that the ratings are usually spot on, but i disagree with some of them today.
Sagna was 8/10 for me, solid throughout in the back and great attacking.
Szczesny couldn’t have been better – 8/10.
Özil’s performance was like a summary of the first part of his season – Highs(very high) and lows(not so low), didn’t deserve more than a 7 imo. A few other 7.5 were a litte bit generous as well
Agreed. Thought Ramsey was an 8 too, all over the pitch and made 112 passes the most of any player in the CL tonight. Jack probably not a 9 either more like 8 or 8.5. Had an excellent game nonetheless.
Just wondering if Szcz “couldn’t have been better” then why only an 8/10, 2 more would be better no??
Sorry to be pedantic.
The scorer (is it Blogs every week?) factors in the amount of work and quality of work required. Tonight, two quality stops with everything else run of the mill don’t get him a 10. A game saving performance when we are constantly under big pressure gets him access to bigger marks (if he passes the test).
Think you missed the point…
“Szczesny couldn’t have been better – 8/10.”
See the contradiction?!
Pedants, pedants everywhere.
Great performance tonight, not clinical enough though, just glad we got the 3 points. Jacky boy take a bow son.
On a more sombre note, mixed reports about the sad events at Ajax involving a fan who fell from the stands. Horrific images leaked, really hope he survived. Such a tragedy
The Guardian wrote that the Ajax fan was ‘seriously injured’. Let’s hope that he is indeed alive & recovers from this horrendous fall.
Poor guy fell about 30 feet apparently Last I heard was critical. Just hope he makes it.
The reason Wilshere was back to his best is because he was back in his better position why this guy plays as a DM for club an country is a joke in my opinion.
Weneger on twitter takeover less than a month ago:
“Jack Wilshere’s best position is certainly, in the future, as a deep-lying midfieder, in front of the defence, where he can be a distributor, because he can win the ball, he is intelligent tactically, has a good burst – little burst – to come out and has agood vision, so i would say he is better whe he faces the game with his back to goal.”
Only 6 points for Arteta’s hair? Can’t help but feel that’s a bit harsh on Mikel and his top top quality hair.
Super top-top quality hair :•)
Great game! Almost didn’t catch the first goal as I went to take a piss just before the game started and came back when Jackie boy was on that run. Didn’t believe my eyes the first seconds post goal.
Also, quality play all over the field from the lads today, especially from Monreal, who really impressed me. I feel a little safer now if Gibbs gets ill in the future, knowing we have such a quality replacement.
Also, 4 point gap in the PL and 3 point gap in Group F is not something to not be satisfied with!
Clean sheet and the bench getting stronger, good win
Excellent performance. 2nd game on the trot now where I haven’t felt nervous or that we might let in a goal. Absolutely loving this Arsenal side at the moment. Flamini and Ozil look like they have been with the current team for a few seasons. Nacho performing like a starting 11 left back, strength coming off the bench, and a keeper that currently looks (dare is say it) world class? happy gooner tonight.
Szczesny gets an 8 blogs. And Ramsey’s tackling is SUPERB. We don’t even need to buy Gundogan now (but I would take him if he doesn’t get his contract sorted out)
There really is no other player like Ramsey at the moment in England. He scores, he passes at a very high rate, he creates chances, he can dribble, and he intercepts and tackles MORE than purely defensive midfielders do, AND he can play out wide effectively.
overstated some marks IMO due to result. Ozil-6.5, Theo 6, Rosicky 6, JW 8, Ramsey 6.5,
Someone didn’t watch the game.
Monreal was good tonight, but I still prefer Gibbs running up that left hand side
Fantastic night and over all every body has done their job Monreal was fantastic and wilshere in his best shap ever I can not decide who was best but Jacky was man of the match
Ozil looked a bit fatigue imo, but apart from his penalty miss, showed some classy touches. Credits to wilshere who really up for it and Monreal too. Love to see how the players responds to the competition for places.
Plus, I think Arsenal just showed just 50% from what they’re able to do in this match.
I think Gnabry should start over Theo
Loves Rosicky but he had a poor game tonight, several times balls were overhit or he played the wrong pass, 6/10. Ramsay had some great scoops passes over the top, shame linesman kept getting it wrong. Arsenal were complacent tonight, too many times two players left the ball to one another and had to react. Thankfully we were playing marseille. We won’t lose 3-0 to Napoli, job done. Will need to up our game in next round, but did enough tonight, and another clean sheet.
Yeah, Rosicky was the only Arsenal player that you could actually say had a “bad game”.
Szczesny is proving so many people wrong, the guy is immense. On current form probably the best keeper in the PL (Lloris let in 6).
Even then it’s very, very borderline, considering his remit and the fact that he did accelerate our play at various times and still put in a shift doing his hustling thang.
I’m pissing myself with excitement that, Bergkamp willing, in a month we could conceivably have a bench of Fabianski, Vermaelen, Monreal, Arteta, Cazorla, The Ox, Podolski (or something similar).
Quality players will be fighting for places on the match day bench.
DENCH BENCH!!!
no bonus rating arseblog huh?
The default Bonus Rating, when no bonus rating is provided, is “John Terry is a 10/10 cunt”
Jose “I did not like my team” Mourinho’s pout – 10/10
Ramsey deserved an 8 I think he was so good tonight. He didn’t score but man did he do everything else, pretty much pulling the strings in midfield. He led the team in tackles, 50/50 take ons and I think even ball recoveries. He made the key pass to Ozil that led to Jack’s second and had several awesome through balls to Ozil and Giroud. He also made more than 100 passes which I think I read somewhere was the most of any player in Europe tonight. He’s really turning into the complete midfielder. Also Chezzers should get an 8… Read more »
Bonus Rating:Arseblog 0/10 for not having a bonus rating plus posting a pic of Wilshere that alarmingly looks like Bale.
I was afraid to make the Bale comment, was afraid to even admit it to myself.
I think we’ve found our David Seaman in the Pol between the sticks. Has made at least 2 crucial saves per game at least!
Giroud was immense again, most complete CF in the league and no one is giving him the credit he deserves because he’s so incredibly consistent. Ramsey and Giroud both have been playing at an elite level for a remarkably long time now.
Who heard Andy Townsend shout “get in” when thauvin shot (world class save Chesney!!!!)
Wtf… The media are now actively cheering on our opponents.
Next week john motson will be yelling at some Cardiff oaf to break flamini’s leg. Or calling the ref a cunt for not adding on more time for them to equalise
Still you know there’s something about this team when the pundits are reduced to this…
Coyrrg
We are gonna win the league tm
Mandanda was well off his line for Ozils penalty..for a second there i wondered who exactly was taking the penalty.
LOL/10 linesman
I think Ozil is more of an elusive and languorous type. It’s hard to get used to when you’re used to players like Rosicky who maybe play with urgency or Ramsey with his diesel engine
d’you think Flamini ought to be docked points or maybe given extra points for cutting his sleeves off with a pair of scissors (again)? Is it disrespectful to the traditions of the club/captain? Or is he just a lovable pirate who doesn’t play by the rules?
i think they should make jerseys special for him–he is a fighter n i think he wants to bully others by cutting the sleeves!!
Bonus Rating: Andy Townsend – CUNT/10
As expected, no one talking about Sagna – I thought he was class tonight. Shows he’s still got pace, vision and likes to push forward. Monreal played superbly as well. Ramsey technically is up there with the best. Happy days to be a gooner right now.
We NEED to get Bac on a new deal, asap. And Ramsey…man what can I say other than that I’m glad he’s tied to us till 2017.
I would love to see some Ramsey stats from the game, Ramsey+Wilshere could easily be the new British Xavi+Inesta
Why is Gareth bale wearing an Arsenal shirt?
Wtf is wrong with Jack’s neck in that picture!?
Disturbing.
In any case, Giroud? What can I say?
At one point the guy has three defenders all over him with fists full of his shirt and face and what not, the keeps ball at his feet and he’s tossing them around so badly HE gets called for the foul. LOL.
Handsome beast!
You couldn’t have picked a more disturbing picture of Jack Wilshere if you tried
Kinda looks like he’s doing that prince charles dance
http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/367/042/e47.jpg
Hope people stop whinging bout Wenger putting Wilshire on the right. He shows he can be incisive on the flanks as well.
Flamini didn’t even get booked…
Ok that’s it. Sell him right now
7s and 8s all round
Andy Townsend gets a kick in the cunt out of 10 for his ludicrous shout of “Get in” when they (I think Thauvin) had a chance around the 70th min at 2-0. What a prize Chelsea prick – even Hansen wouldn’t have gone there.
Petition time
They keep readjusting their sights.
Now hear them blabbering about the real test coming up because the last spate of games against ‘big teams’ was ‘too early’ where as now, some of the teams are ‘finally’ kicking into form.
That should include us then with our new found ‘depth’.
😉
‘kick in the cunt’ – priceless!
No no no…where is the bonus rating?
Oh, the bonus rating…
Brilliant game. All the credit to Monreal for stepping up when called upon. Now all eyes are on Cardiff. Surely feels good to be a gunner.
I do love flamini but it seems he hasn’t quite learned not to cut off his sleeves. He did it again I notice when they had a close up shot if him at half. Still gotta love him though
Where would you hide the switchblade or shank otherwise?
Really thought Nacho put in an amazing shift tonight. Regardless of not having played enough games he didn’t seem rusty and all and was a solid brick defensively and of course made an excellent goal line clearance! Surly 8(.5?)/10?