Well, we left that one pretty much as late as you can, and even then we needed a late penalty to get us the three points in the 2-1 win over Southampton.
On the plus side Shane Long got fouled and the ref didn’t give it and we played and ultimately scored. Serves him right after last season.
Here’s how the players rated.
I don’t have a problem with Coquelin as such, but I was still disappointed not to see more of the Xhaka-Santi-Ozil trio together.
i think AW is rotating the midfield, preparing xhakha for the psg match
I thought Coq showed some serious technique and industry going forward today. He is definitely improving as a distributer and ball keeper. Did you see his movement and buildup play in his tee up for Bellerins shot? Or when he casually nutmegged a Southampton player and made space for a chance that the Ox fluffed? He’s no Xhaka yet but if he keeps this up he might be more effective!
Giroud with a little Euro2016 revenge on Fonte, well done!
Any chance of a ‘bonus’ weekly rating for Jack too?
I though Coquelin was excellent today myself.
Just my opinion mind.
100% agree, tenacious in the tackle without getting booked, allowed Cazorla to do his thing
The MOM could have been awarded to Santi, Kos or Le Coq so I really don’t understand the rating but everyone is entitled to their respective opinions. For me, it is no coincidence that Santiago played a great game with Coquelin by his side as he enables the tiny dancer to fully express himself. Perhaps we need to rethink the notion that Coquelin is in competition with Xhaka only as I would not be at all surprised to see Le Coq partnered with latter against PSG, rather being replaced by him for the champions league game as the French side… Read more »
I just don’t understand what his role is supposed to be. He has qualities but he’s unquestionably our worst midfielder on the ball, so it’s weird to see him often so high up the pitch, which he’s been doing in all of his appearances so far this season.
Don’t we all think his best role is to be the guy we bring off the bench when we need to close a game?
No.
If you watch carefully there’s a method to the madness. Coq goes forward to pull midfielders away from Santi so he can pick up the ball deep and move the ball forward quickly. Coq goes up to about 15 yards inside their half, but he doesn’t go further than that. Then once the ball goes up past him he stays around that area, and Cazorla ultimately switches with him and ends up being the more forward midfielder. It is something we have experimented with for a while now, and it works very well against any team that doesn’t do a… Read more »
The one thing Coquelin brings to the team more than any other player is passion. You know that he will play his heart out – doesn’t matter if it’s going forward or getting back to defend, he will run around making tackles like a madman, making sure that he does everything he possibly can for the team. While I suspect that almost all of our players shy away from 50-50s, I know that Coquelin would always go for it if it benefits the team. That’s the type of passion I’d like to see in all of our players.
Hoping we see Xhaka, Cazorla and Ozil in Paris. Coquelin defends well but it was obvious we missed Xhaka picking up the ball off the CB’s
This. Everyone seems to go either one way or the other on Le Coq at the moment: either they praise his ball winning ability or they lament his seeming inability to contribute to our buildup by dropping deep to pick up the ball and pass it forward (this failing really being highlighted by the contrast with Xhaka). I guess I see both sides, so I think the truth is somewhere in between. Yes, he had a solid game today, and I suspect he still gives us more bite and mobility in that position than Xhaka will; yes, he sometimes holds… Read more »
Coquelin was poor today. Positionally all over the place, providing no midfield cover at times.
I think it all depends on how a player is judged, either as an individual talent onto himself or representative of a set of skills that fit within a team. To me, most folks who criticize Coquelin’s limitations do so with the idea that he cannot pass as well as Santi or operate as effectively in small spaces as the Spainard. Similarly, Le Coq cannot effortlessly wiz the ball as accurately across and down the pitch or set up the team from a deep lying position as Xhaka does. Such observations are fair enough but his unique skills when married… Read more »
Very well said
Is it obvious obvious? Or is it obvious what we read in the media obvious? Or is it obvious your point of view obvious? I am obviously behind when obvious things come along !
Hate to say it but Walcott and Ox had a real stinker today. Alexis and Iwobi as Tuesday night’s wingers please
Agree. We could have used Campbell – he scored a beauty in Portugal today:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/101ggvideos/arsenals-joel-campbell-scores-sporting-cp-video/
And some of the over 40s all stars from last week too.
At 55 min Walcott set up Ozil for a really good chance, but Ozil had a heavy touch and wasted it. But don’t let things like that ruin your narrative I thought Walcott looked lively, but the team builds too slowly to really use him, afraid that might be a problem for Lucas as well, he thrived last year in a poor team that probably scored most of their goals against the run of play, Arsenal has the problem of trying to break down packed defenses, a problem which is a bit of Wengers making, God I am using a… Read more »
Walcott was involved and defended. Ox faded and did not defend. Crucial difference.
Walcott had a much better game yet is singled out, as always. He should have had an assist for Ozil, defended very well, and was always sharp on the ball. I think in Paris if we need to counter attack, he could prove very deadly in this type of big away game.
Santi was phenomenal. Please, please a YouTube compilation.
Iwobi was very impressive. So much more energy than a few others who I won’t name. Really tried to make things happen
To be fair, Iwobi was subbed in at 65th minutes fresh and raring whilst Wallcott and Ox were fading.
Disagree, apart from his first 3 games for us i think he’s looked generally poor and today was no exception when he dwelled on the ball and gave it away on at least 3 occasions in midfield.
Im very comfortable in predicting Ox will never be a starting caliber player at the top level in any of the big leagues.
He has all the physical attributes but none of the technical or mental components. Let him be a super sub, thats all he is. He literally cannot pick a pass or find space on the pitch. Just horrible.
There was a moment of pure class when he trapped a Walcott cross coming over his head in the box. he has good technique, and had a decent game today. But, I have never seen a player whose confidence is so fragile. I do not know how that can be fixed.
I think this “confidence” issue is really just him not understanding why he isnt playing better. Well.. He isnt paying well because he lacks football intelligence.
But he also cant do what the most basic athletic winger can do, which is beat his man and put in a good cross. He is just not that good, sorry.
False. I’ve seen him beat his man many, many times, to either put in a dangerous cross or have a go himself. Most of these instances, that I can remember, came when playing on the right, however, so shifting him to the left, where he has to play inverted, rather than being able to beat his man with pace and power down the line on his stronger foot, isn’t doing him any favours at the moment. The short term memories of football fans never cease to amaze: go back and look at the Ox’s performances from the first half of… Read more »
With a haircut.
It’s just his passing which is really off. He gave the ball away loads making simple 5-yard passes. My passes are better on a night out seven pints in. Otherwise good dribbler, natural touch, good shot, pacey.
I understand that xhaka has the fantastic Xabi Alonso in him and probably should have started, but don’t let that blind you from Coq’s performance. All-action!
Yeah I thought Le Coq was great today.
He is a different player with Santi next to him.
I think we’re saving Granit for Tuesday.
Again great to have rotational options.
I imagine Xhaka was saved for Tuesday. Great to have that quality of depth though. Hope that level of competition in squad drives them all to better things.
Well I’m not so sure that xhaka was saved for PSG, but this season we will see more rotation in the midfield depending on games and injury, because coq is vital in home games as every opposition is parking the bus against us and he is allowing us to push forward in numbers and staying to protect our defense and the counter from the opposition, xhaka will be more of away games starter, because in away games we play more on counter and his precise long balls will open any opposition so I think he will start against PSG and… Read more »
The only sad thing about our amazing midfield options is that Elneny is marginalised! I would like to see more of him as he impresses me every time I see him, but I don’t know who can make way out of Cazorla Coquelin and Xhaka at the moment; it’s hard enough choosing between the latter two.
Unfortunately coquelin is just not the shiney new signing anymore so no matter how well he plays (which he did today) fickle fans will say ‘xhaka passing is what’s missed’ erm the whole reason the Santi and coq axis worked so well was because coq did the tackling and interceptions and Santi did the passing and tempo controlling
It is a shame that such a promising player like Oxlade-Chamberlain is suffering with lack of confidence. Arsene wenger is very supportive of him, perhaps he should be loaned out like jack wilshere it would increase his confidence.
Seàn
I think Ox was no way as bad as many make him out to be.
Again is a matter of amplified criticism.
I thought he gave us a lot of penetration out wide and he is able to take on (and get by) 2 players + which helps when we are static.
I think his issue is the dissapointing final ball. Either his shot or cross or pass just doesn’t seem to deliver.
Maybe he is a bit too anxious and rushing it slightly. Its a question of experience.
That will come.
When will it come?
He’s had over a hundred games for us plus 20 or 30 odd international caps?
I just don’t think he’s going to cut the mustard and I think a little investigation is required. We seem to buy a lot of.players who never get any better over several years with us.
I’m really fed up with Ox. I I don’t understand why everyone thinks this ‘lack of confidence’ issue is an excuse for his continual disappointment. He’s a professional football who clearly doesn’t have the required skill or mental ability to play for a club like Arsenal.
If he wasn’t English he would have been dropped ages ago. It’s time he is sold on- just nowhere of the level for Arsenal and he never improves. For all Walcott’s negatives, he still has a goal or assist in him.
How in hell can walcott got a better verdict than Chamberlain? I dont understand that!
The Ox was poor today. He walked off so slowly at one one. Would have loved some one to give it to him, don’t really understand why no one does. It’s a small part but a very important part of what we need to change if we are to really compete and win.
Santi for captain, I say.
1)I thought Parkrez did reasonably well for a first outing. Still needs to get use to the pace of the league. 2)Bit harsh on Ox. I don’t think he is half as bad as again some people imagine him. His touch and control is great and he gives us an extra dimension of someone able to beat two markers. Just his final ball is wanting but that’s an application issue and will come. He brings a lot of energy to the side otherwise (which is why he is starting) 3) Mustafi looked composed despite one poor pass early on. Will… Read more »
I love Santi, He really deserved to score that winning goal
Am I the only one who sees about 100 areas of concern with the way we are playing? Here are just a few of them
1- Cant win second balls after headed down in midfeild, both attack and defence.
2- Slow slow slow and predictable
3- Careless from throw-in and free kicks so we lose possession and create counters.
4- Why is Ox in the team and Joel gets shipped off
And so on
To be fair we have defended quite well for the most part, and our midfield and attack look a bit stronger than previous seasons, especially in terms of depth.
I was looking forward to the other ninety-six.
I agree. It’s been like this for several years now. Predictable and pedestrian. I’ve been a Gooner for over 40 years, and I find it all so frustrating. We can sign as many players as we like, but if the team plays in the same way, we aren’t going to challenge for the league. Lucky not to be 7 points behind already. Yes, we have a big squad. Yes, we have some quality players. But we still won’t challenge again this year. Makes me feel weary, and it’s hard to invest so much emotion in a club that seems to… Read more »
Wankflange.
Well done to the boys for the three points.i believe today’s match can never better any of our games this season.
Hahahahahaha 10/10 for that Bonus rating. Karma is definitely a bitch. As much as I hate fouly Long, he is good and he should have buried those chances. You know it is a good day when Cazorla makes the headlines. I fucking love that guy. Ox has to do more. Shit is about to get serious wrt starting matches. Le Coq was good along with Koscielny.
You were harsh on Cech for that own goal–that has got to be the flukiest OG I have ever seen.
At least he robed tadic of the goal with the great fingertips save otherwise the ball was going straigh in. Very unlucky that he hit his back but he made 100% effort to save the goal, which wojceh would never do.
His position for the free kick was poor, which is why it had to be a finger tip save.
Agree about Ox, he is like a good firework that doesnt light up. What he needs is a loan spell like Jack at somewhere he will hopefully get 90 minutes in. He has a lot to learn still and its not too late but something needs doing sooner rather than later.
I think I saw a different match than whoever gave the ratings (both Arseblog and the fans). From my point of view, our stand out performers were Hector, Monreal, Kos and Coq. We barely created a proper chance at home against a fairly mediocre Southampton side, so our attacking players should all get fairly low ratings. Cazorla is partially excused as he’s fairly deep lying, and he actually tried, but the others hardly did anything useful. What worries me most is that Alexis is our only good winger. We can’t expect Özil to create everything on his own, yet today… Read more »
And for that double save at second half he deserves at least 7.
Santi more than tried. He succeeded.
Dominating large parts of the match. Scored the winning pen. 9/10 for me along with Kos.
Dominate and succeeding at what though? We did nothing but pass the ball around for the vast majority of the match. We looked like the Spanish national team in recent years. I would hardly call passing a success unless actual chances are created as a result, which just didn’t happen.
The simple truth is: We were rubbish from an attacking point of view. That includes everyone that is supposed to contribute to creating/converting chances.
I’m sure the Ox’s game could be sorted by just being a bit more subtle and reserved than trying to force it all the time.
Ox has all the skill and physical attributes but lack common sense and composure most times…he only in the team because he is English…hopefully he starts doing what we know he is capable of doing soon…
Nice job all around considering how deep they sat on us. Quite a handful of Coq for the opposition…he was rampant. Santi saved the day while Kos made the play of the day. Say what you want but Arsenal was able to grind out the win, subs did well and the team worked hard except for a worrying slow start. Well Done by the team with the best midfield in the league. I predict RamMoGranitCoqZorla will elicit pleasure from a multitude of different positions and combinations throughout the season…COYG!
The Ox should have been loaned out at the beginning of last season.The fact that we still seem to have sufficient back up…on paper at least…I still would have agreed a shorter team loan in order for him to get his confidence back.That said once Wenger finally leaves the club, it might begin to maximise the potential of younger players once again.
With Santi being so creative and Ozil not today, I was really hoping for Arsene to give Santi some CAM time, and bring in Xhaka into central midfield with Coq. At this point, Ox should be moved to U21s. Each game he gets worse and worse, why we kept him and not JC better be due to some requirement to have so many English players.
Santi played CAM against Leicester and seem lost and he was very little on the ball, his best position now is CM dictating the play and always on the ball. CAM is difficult to play because you always need to run first to find the little free pockets of space and then get the ball and create which is why ozils is the best in the world in his position he is not only creating chances and assisting for fun he always find the small pocket of spaces to receive the ball in final third.
Why has it taken you so long to get Mustafi and Lucas loaded into the system?? There’s been an international break so you’ve had 2 weeks!!
Mustafi has been in the Germany squad. He came back only a few days ago.
Which, while true, has fuck all to do with getting Mustafi and Lucas into the ratings system.
Life.
Perez looks like an excellent buy. Got poor service but worked his way into the game, popping up all over the forward line to make things happen. Wait till he’s got Alexis to work with and Ozil is cooking with gas.
Coquelin and Cazorla both had excellent individual performances but they just don’t form an effective midfield together imo. They’re both a bit too specialised to work together in what is effectively a midfield 2 with Ozil as the playmaker. Santi isn’t effective in defence and can’t cover ground quickly enough (though he tries) and Coquelin struggles to pass and receive the ball between the lines. It leaves the other having to carry certain midfield functions alone and it’s too much. At least one of Xhaka / Elneny (maybe even Ramsey?) need to start imo as they have more strings to… Read more »
You are damm wrong, but your comment made me realize that we are arguing who should start coq or xhaka with elneny as a sub which he didn’t even play and I realized that I forgot about ramsey, shit we are spoiled with choices, that said we also send wilshere on loan.
Sorry but you’re talking poop.
The season before last when we went virtually unbeaten for the second half of the year Coq and Santi we’re the best midfield pair in the league
And holy shit Oxlad was bad again. I don’t know whether what he needs is a run of starts or to be banished to the u-23s. Either way it should have been him sent on loan rather than Campbell.
I didn’t watch the match because I was at a meeting that lasted the whole day. The main issue is that the team had the three points.
Iwobi should definitely come before both Walcott and chamberlain in the pecking order.
No idea where the thumbs-down are coming from, I’d have thought that people would be pretty much in total agreement
I don’t want to see Walcott and Oxlade Chamberlain played together again. Fortunately when Sanchez is fit that won’t happen.
I’ve actually thought Theo has had a marked improvement in the laat few games. Hope he can go from strength to strength with a run of games!
Ox on the other hand was poor today, but is at least a player that tries certain things like taking players on which we definitely lack!
Its a bit annoying about ox. Kind of reminds me of ramsey before his brilliant season. Lots of flicks..runs,bad passes, initiative but no meaningful end result. Hopefully he cracks on from this and comes good like ramsey did. Will be good for both arsenal and england.
Ox looks like a player low on confidence, always needing the extra touch. By the time he was ready to deliver a pass, his support had gone beyond him, meaning he had to come back home. Also he couldn’t pass 5 yards today with any of the required accuracy. It will come, but at this level, he may not get the time to build that confidence, as others are above him in the pecking order. Think Theo is getting a bit of raw deal. Looked bright and effective up until about 60 mins when he faded. Mesut was as far… Read more »
Our pedestrian pace at times was frustrating, but there were moments of really exciting football where it actually looked like we gave a shit. Santi seems to motivate the boys to bring up the tempo. More of that please!!!
Thank God Vardy said no and we got Perez. This guy is going to be very, very good.
Best day of Park Chu Young’s life.
Not happening for the Ox. Id prefer Iwobi(to say nothing of Campbell).
Santi and Kos were immense.
Nice to be the beneficiary of sone shit refereeing for a change.
I really think it would have made more sense to have kept Campbell and loaned out Chamberlain
I thought the combination between Koscielny and Mustafi was concerning. Koscielny was holding it together, because he’s brilliant, but Southampton still cobbled together several clear cut chances. Both Koscielny and Mustafi like to sprint forward to intercept passes – I noted a couple of occasions where they both did it at the same time and missed. They were also picking up the same man a lot of the time ; this resulted in Long almost scoring. They both seem like similar players. Too similar. I also don’t think that spending 35m on a defender will magically fix out defence which… Read more »
Again on amplified criticism (Per, Flamini, Giroud favorite targets off exagerrated deficiencies, it will be worth noting that Walcott took far less touches than the Ox (in fact he had the least touches in the entire team)
Of course statistics do not illustrate the entire picture but it does give some indication that the Ox was clearly not as peripheral or useless as some would deem to see him.
Alexis should have scored..Santi always goes down the middle so thank God keepers haven’t figured that out yet. This was a big win for us…a loss or draw would have seen us fall too far behind. Ox needs to fix his body language…he’ll never be great unless he thinks he is. Best play of the game was Giroud block at the end. Mustafi doest look like he can jump…all in all he was OK but I’d like a little more size and lift for air duels….he does have decent pace though so we can push forward. Looking forward to seeing… Read more »
Im happy with the result. Im liking the lineup rotation. Not only that we made some subs at the 60th minute….the 60th minute!
Oxlade-Chamberlain is just a genuinely awful player and Coquelin looks more and more like Flamini every time he plays
Walcott was decent today. Tried to defend and contribute to attack.
I think Ox is useless in the left wing. He might do better through the right. His confidence is very low atm. So it’s better not to play him than playing him through the left wing.
What’s Arseblog got against Shane Long? Seems a fairly likeable player and has served Ireland well so should go down well in Arseblog’s book.
A mediocre cheat at best.