Arsenal overturned the 1-0 deficit from the first leg to qualify for the Europa League Round of 16 with a 3-0 win over BATE Borisov.
The Gunners went ahead through Owen Goal, before headers from Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis sealed the deal. It wasn’t particular exciting but we did the job, and hopefully we can kick on a bit from here.
Read the Arsenal 3-0 BATE Borisov match report and see the goals here
Here’s how the players rated tonight.
Ratings
The ratings are now hidden by default until you vote, but if you just want to view the ratings and the comments, flick the switch at the top above Bernd Leno. Also, give the ratings a few seconds to load.
Didn’t get a chance to watch the game.
Glad we’ve qualified. Hoping Unai and ozil can be on the same page.
A first for lich’s rating ?
Lich King!
Shucks…I miss WOW all over again :/
I ‘watched’ but was too tired to stay awake in 5he middle of the night. Judt glad we’re through!
If you didn’t watch the game, basically it was corner simulation for 90 minutes and the ‘Lich King’ saved us with an excellent goal line clearance.
I was still working wheb it was on, bloody typical! Hlad for the win and our continued involvement in the comp, upwards from here hopefully!
Likewise, but the scoreline was pleasant in the end. It must have given some relief those who made it to the stadium on time to get that early goal and see more positive play in our attacking phases.
Yeap,finger’s crossed!
Footnote-Iwobi deserves more credit from our fanbase.
As far as I’m concerned, we’ll know we’ve made real progress when there is no room for the likes of Iwobi in our squad. Disagree all you want, but I’m not wrong about him.
Iowbi isn’t a starter at this point in his career if we are a top 4 team, but I still want him in the squad for depth for lessor competitions.
This Iwobi bashing needs to stop! Apart from Auba and Laca he’s been the most effective forward in Arsenal this season and stats back that up.
I think we need to get behind the manager. Sure he had some negative moments in the last few weeks, but we also have to see in the context of the injuries, and the funds available to him. We are advancing in the EL and only a point off 4th place. COYG.
So we should lower our expectations as fans?
He has brought all the negativity on to himself with his decisions. Results are fairly or unfairly put in the manager.
Injuries are part of the game.
I think if you look closely the negativity would not have existed had there not been the whole Ozil situation. I certainly don’t think Emery is to blame for Ozil’s situation: if a player does not meet the managers expectations in training (9 missed games cause of “illness”) then he doesn’t play. As simple as that. I think the negativity is because of the blind Ozil fanboys who can’t see the truth of the situation (or don’t choose to see I should say). As for the defensive formations, did you expect a new manager to play slick and smooth football… Read more »
If at the beginnning of season Ozil and Ramsey weren’t on the team I would have expected bad attacking team even with our 2 strikers. You need players that can set them up.
If you are going to make a point to phase Ramsey out and bench Ozil you better look good doing it. Meaning if you are going play defensive formation with most defensive players and AM that aren’t consistent in the final third the defense should be rock solid. That isn’t happening. We look worse than we did last year defensively.
Look at the players we have on defense: Kos is a year older and coming off a major injury. While I really like the guy he shouldn’t have to play every game. Mustafi is a sliding error waiting to happen. Bellerin is out for the season as Holding. Monreal is a year older and starting to fade & Kolosniac flat out can’t defend. Our defense looks worse than last season b/c our most consistent defenders (Monreal & Kos) from the past few years quietly got old while the ones we bought to replace them (Mustafi & Kolosniac) can’t defend.
You are right. This is basically the same players we had last year in the back. Last year Kos, mustafi, chambers, holding we’re our top 4 CB. Sokratis, Kos/holding(I would put them together since we lost holding and gained Kos around the same time, mustafi and whomever you want to say is out fourth is better than last seasons top 4 even slightly. Last season we were afraid of the what if bellerin gets a major injury who backs him up and the genius idea whomever it was Sven? Unai? Raul? Thought Lichtensteiner would be awesome choice. That’s on the… Read more »
We had virtually no budget and most of our young defenders had no idea how to defend. As a back up to Bellerin for a year I understand the logic as Lichtensteiner could mentor the younger players on how to actually defend while give Bellerin a break against lesser teams. The issue is Lich. doesn’t have the legs anymore to play against the top teams so when Bellerin got injured it became a real problem. Lich. wasn’t a bad signing baring a catastrophic injury like occurred.
If you needed licht to mentor the younger right backs than you should have asked him to hang up his boots and become a coach. Lesser opponents? He can’t hang with the mid table clubs in the premier league. AMN would have been fine as a backup and not waste out money in licht as a player coach.
It’s one thing to get burned because a young player like AMN or Jordi make mental errors but can play the position physically but it’s another when you just can’t play the position physically anymore.
the problem with older players is their legs suddenly go and they just can’t hack it anymore – see any list of examples such as Steven Gerrard or since you’re a US guy it happens all the time in the NFL to quarterbacks – it’s not the arm but the legs (Brett Farve, Payton Manning, Joe Montana, etc.). We thought we could squeeze a year out of him and it simply didn’t work. Sometimes that happens.
He’s 34 going on 35. How many 34 yo are in the prem? Playing fb or wb?
Not to discriminate but I’m going to discriminate lol just looking at his age and how he was doing at juve would have been red flags as a player.
Mslintat wasted money.
90k a week.
We have AMN and Chambers could have been used this season in at Rback his natural position for Soton, as well as right of Cback and even midfield.
The issue with older players including Sokratis and Koscielny is they will be more susceptible to injury and wear and tear issues.
They Wil be in and out of the team and these creates a lack of consistency at the back.
But midfield has been as much a prob
Care to weigh in why we start Granit instead of Torreira?
Anyone who dont think highly of Nacho, I dont understand.
You have a foggy memory.
We were largely playing Sokratis Mustafi Holding in our unbeaten run.
Koscielny only came in recently.
Mustafi did not feature much when we lost poo r dropped points to BHA Soton and West Ham
What error did Mustafi do today?
Scored a goal btw as well
I likws your word “today”. Yes, only today.
But yet we bring in Denis Suarez!
I haven’t seen y we bought Dennis Suarez
People are not talking about Mustafi and Papas who saved us tonight coming from defence. I thought and said here that Mustafi was the only player we have that poses real aerial threat to oppositions and was important for this match.
Not to mention clean sheet.
Instead same fans and same trite about Mustafi and mistakes.
Because he does a lot of mistakes usually, dont you watch arsenal games?????
Disgraceful comment. Support another team.
Disgraceful comment. Don’t tell other who to support
I don’t really see what other gunners were expecting this season. Judge Emery this time next season.
Clear philosophy of what we are suppose to be looking forward to offensively and defensively.
Why do you need to wait 2 years? We have gotten worse since the season started.
Injuries are part of the game. Not figuring out how to use a player or players on the roster is in him. He knew what he was getting into before he got the job.
Excuses sound like ozil and Ramsey were pushed into him after he accepted the job? The back line was changed without his knowledge after he accepted the position.
Why do you need to wait 2 years? 1. Because you have no part to play in the clubs working and have no right to petulantly expect anything from it 2. Because changing from a 22 year reign Does. Not. Happen. Quickly. 3. Long-term success requires a change of culture and attitude which inherently is a lengthy and messy process Sometimes I genuinely question whether some fans just watch Arsenal to complain and thrust their anxious negativity on the world or do they actually connect with the club and enjoy that connection. Imagine having you as a life partner, I’d… Read more »
Maybe he’s being overly negative but it’s perfectly within the realm of appropriate behaviour to criticize Emery and think he’s doing a mediocre job, for any number of reasons (treatment of Ozil and Ramsey, negative/cautious football, over-reliance on fullbacks cutting the ball back, lack of creativity, very poor defensively, constant changing lineup and formation, little to no discernible style or philosophy, etc).
You may disagree with this line of thinking, but your ad hominem attacks in response lack substance and ring hollow.
The substance is all in there just not for the seekers of comfort in lies.
lol than you can’t sit there and tell me the club needs to give him 2 years When you are getting worse as the season is progressing that is not changing for the better. If it was a long term project the club should have gone with a manager on the rise and not someone who has failed at his last job. I never said it was easy but there should be progress made by the middle of the season. Not getting progressively worse. If there needed to be a wholesale culture and attitude change than he should have pushed… Read more »
And do all of that plus play attractive football in 8 months? Maybe you should be the manager if thats how good you are. I’d love to watch that unfold.
Change is hard and takes time and by absolutely no means does it have to be a linear graph up from the start. It can go down and up especially in the nebulous beginnings. A linear trajectory only soothes your anxiousness and nothing else.
If I was a professional manager by all means give me the job lol I’m not. Like I’ve said it’s not easy but you don’t handcuff yourself to make your job harder. Youbuse everything you can to win because as you know results matter. If he isn’t around next season whatever he is trying to do now or prove is worthless. It’s not some upward trajectory of wins or some stat to prove the club is going in the right or wrong direction. It’s the way the club is falling apart against clubs that should be relatively easier to enforce… Read more »
Your argument or your point of view lacks perspective and is thusly correctly criticized. You cannot lose three vital players for the season from an imbalanced squad that excelled at passing the ball sideways all last season, one sterile performance after another, with an aging defense and expect dramatically better results. It isn’t realistic.
Those 22 games unbeaten run which put some fans on high expectation and can’t accept our horrible performance after so many injuries prolly one of many factors.
Who the hell votes down a post urging fans to get behind the manager? And pointing out that hes deprived of both personnel and funds? Shame on all 19 of you (so far). We are the Arsenal, not Chelsea. We do not sack our managers two-thirds of the way through a season, with the team one point off 4th place and in the latter stages of the Europa Cup. This was always going to be a transitional season: Emery inherited a largely mediocre squad and, with a crippling injury list in defence and no funds to strengthen, it’s absurd to… Read more »
“flick the switch at the top above Bernd Leno”
Switching out the name for a template-style “the goalkeeper” would probably be better, but on the other hand I think we all get it.
Our attack had such more potent with Ozil in the game. Just take a look at how available he was between the lines all the time going forward. That’s why you use a nr 10 and we got a really good one. With Laca in this line-up who’s work at target really completes our attack. Too bad we’ve had so many injuries (as usual) but an offensive setup with Xhaka – Guen – Ozil – Auba – Laca – Miki would work against most team that sits back. Ofc Iwobi is useful in his driving against defenders but he lacks… Read more »
Could not agree more. That lineup would frighten defenses.
On the other hand, Bate Borisov.
I think the formation helped a lot too, not to take anything away from Ozil at all. 2 deeper lying midfielders and 3 attacking midfielders just seems to make us look so much more fluid and creative. I don’t genuinely believe Emery has been sticking with the back 3 and the lineups he has recently for anything other than injury and personnel. If we can keep players fit (fingers crossed kos) and maintain some consistency that would be great.
I’ll just go ahead and say it: we looked more dynamic in the final third with Ozil in the squad. At the moment, how well he’s performing relative to how much we’re paying him is pretty irrelevant – he’s under contract, that’s literally a sunk cost and we’re foolish to focus on that. The only thing we should care about is whether we’re better with him in the squad or better with him not in the squad.
My vote is we’re better with him in the squad.
I agree
We played the same club back to back games and seen the big difference he can make. Especially playing in a more aggressive 4231 formation.
There are 12 matches left. How many points do we think we can get without Ozil or Ramsey?
So let a derailed train crash and burn because its stupid to stop and redirect it? Ozil was (and probably is) not performing up to the mark for the new manager’s expectation so he wasn’t playing. He is now so he will play. Emery has made that crystal clear.
He is now? Lol
Coincidence that he’s desperate for any kind of offensive spark.
What are the odds if we had won last week 1-0 , Ozil would have played this game?
There are no absolutes.
4 at the back or 3 depends on tactical situation and available assets.
Ozil will depend on the backline issues to some extent as well
Why isn’t Ramsey playing more minutes up to this point? He isn’t performing at training? His idea of an ideal player is Suarez? Yes earlier in the summer I remember him saying something like he would rather win 5-4 than 1-0. I know he was probably joking. You have to use the players that you have. The less you play Ozil the harder it’s going to be to get rid of him in the summer. Why would he go anywhere to accept less money? Why would any club pay decent fee for him if he isn’t playing and showing he… Read more »
You answered your own question. The only way Ozil will leave for less money is if he is frustrated out of the squad because of low playing time. If he is playing every week why in the world would he let go $350k a week ? He’ll just leech off us for average performances and brilliant Instagram posts till his contract runs out.
Seems to me your assessment of Ozil’s performances is as negatively skewed by your disliking him as the “Ozil fanboys” you criticize are biased in favor of him. He’s barely played this season, and a significant chunk of the time he has played (the run in the side at the beginning of the year) he was played out of position on the right. Yet still people peddle the line that he’s out of the side because he–out of the entire, mediocre squad!–has been benched because he was falling short of Emery’s expectations. Fact is, he was first benched at Bournemouth,… Read more »
Your last point is exactly what I think is happening. We need that wage off our wage bill. I would take an Ozil on $150k with open arms any day but this wage is preventing us from further investment and we’re not getting our moneys worth from the current investment. Ozil is the 10th highest payed sportsperson in the world, do you think his performances have merited that (over the past 3 years)? or that he’s single handedly winning us trophies to be paid that kind of money?
It’s pure business. Nothing personal.
I would disagree he’s the 10th highest in the world. I could think of 10 each here in US in NFL,NBA, MLB. Purely football probably right Let’s just suppose that’s what they are doing (Raul and emery) driving out ozil. How much do you think we would have to give him to compensate him to leave the club? If he is worth in your opinion 150k, with 2 years left we would have to give him 20M to leave and join another club. How much would that club give us in a fee? What’s the net gain here? That net… Read more »
Do you honestly think that Addas would be giving us 60 mil a year if we didn’t have Mesut in the squad? He’s an Adidas marquee player and they are very supportive of him. Mesut’s contract costs us about 18 mil a year and at least 10 of that is already accounted for in the shirt deal. Get over the salary, it’s irrelevant. Like it or not he pays for himself, it’s because he’s among the most popular sports people in the world, and his performances haven’t been nearly as bad as you make out. Mesut’s salary isn’t stopping us… Read more »
You took the words right out from my mouth. It’s a case of a corporation attempting to shove-out its highly paid senior employee. What do you do? Make his life miserable. Make-up stories of his ineffiencies. Move him to smaller room. The Mesut Ozil case proves that the club is deteriorating and losing its class and principles. The manager himself is in the position that he is only a fresh guy being evaluated. He does not achieve anything yet for the club. It’s not just the players are being evaluated. Perhaps Emery is harshly too soon to stamp his authority… Read more »
I would believe any player would want to leave if they are treated the way ozil has been this season by their manager and upper management.
Would ozil leave without compensation? You would be stupid to give up 350k week out of frustration. Especially on his last big contract. He could either play or not play and collect his pay.
I think everyone would agree with that, including the manager. I really would love to know what’s been going on one day cos I don’t genuinely buy that emery is depriving himself of a player that good just to make a point or fuel his ego
Bernd Leno? 🙂
Finally! We master bate.
I hope we never play this team again, purely cos of the hundreds of fans who have thought they’re hilarious by using this joke… 😛
Cum on, don’t be like that!
Wax on. Wax off.
I’ll have you know Arsenal had a long history with Seaman.
Get a grip on yourself…
The boys did stroke those balls nicely this evening.
Unai Emery: Head coach.
Agree about Monreal. He embiggened that role with his cromulent performance.
A heat map hotter than a Seville Siesta.
My favourite bit of the game was when the commentator on bt said ‘Heeeeeeeeeres Xhaka’ just before he shot
Iwobi ran down the left…
And created plenty of opportunities
The image for Suarez is disturbingly realistic.
Not going to take a ton away from this match due to the opposition, but it’s amazing what can happen when you put some creative players out there.
Blogs – I gotta ask why the constant 6’s for Mhiki. I thought he was one of our brighter players today. Did very well on and off the ball, and was really driving at the defense. He’s an important player for us, and I can see him filling the role vacated by Ramsey.
6.5!
Let’s get behind the Armenian! Thanks Blogs!
The problem is that his end product looks alot like Iwobi’s. Iwobi is 8 years younger and much, much cheaper. Mhikii was known as Missatyrhan his first year at Dortmund. Then he bloomed into a stone cold killer. We need him to get there for us before this year ends.
yay, for a second there I thought we couldn’t masterBate
The sharpness of 17, 14 and 34 is not good enought.. but some corners saved us…
Cant get scorless in first leg next round…
It is ironic that this season we are crying for football like that because this was a copy-paste Arsenal performance from last year’s home games. Not taking anything away from Emery but it was way to similiar to be just a coincidence. Imo players had a lot to say for this match preparations and how we wanted to play. The whole system was different/old. We weren’t so toothless only because we didn’t play Mesut. We played with Iwobi and Mkhitaryan which are 2nd and 3rd best playmakers in the team. The difference was approach. We were much more fluid, we… Read more »
Err, we played like this quite often before our injury crisis, even if not consistently. It’s wierd, if we play shit it’s emery and now we play well it’s because the players coached themselves? Emery said himself the idea was to go at them and if we score keep trying to score. He’s a 4231 manager and we played a 4231, we played out from the back and we pressed when out of possession. We worked the ball wide to our fullbacks regularly (hellooo cutback f.c.) and, yes, most of these players were here last season so it would make… Read more »
No we didn’t. The style of football yesterday was completely different of what we have played before this season. The formation has nothing to do with the way of playing. He played before 4231 but we were still mostly relying on Kolasinac and Bellerin. Yes, we also worked ball wide yesterday but it wasn’t the same idea what to do with it there. It was more fluid and we improvised more. We also had more passes in the final third.
Guendouzi’s cromulent display really did embiggen my expectations of him
But..but… he isn’t white sir Donald… is that allowed?
Iwobi. There you have a guy who needs a mental coach. I like the guy, but his legs turn to rubber and his mind into gluelike jelly when he get close to the opposition goal. He barely shoot and when he does it’s like a Sunday League fotballer. His passing is fairly accurate in midfield, in last third it’s a happy-go-lucky approach, he passes the ball in a general direction and hope for the best. He got a lot of talent , but he need to step ut his offensive game a lot Tove a top player .
Incoming ‘ Let’s play Ozil’s comments. Loved to Congress one, but Arsene is right about him. He has gotten a bit too comfortable in current situation.
He wasn’t talking about him. Watch the whole interview and you will see he was avoiding answering the question. He was speaking generally. And if he was was speaking about Ozil then why did you ignored the part where he says he values him as a 100 million player. Just imagine he would say that he disagree with Emery. He would be crucified. If he was really training that bad then the players surely wouldn’t support him.
10/10 for the word “cromulent”
For sure, the word of the day.
Agreed. Nacho embiggened his role at LB today
I thought we looked slow, stagnant and lack of ideas. I almost fell asleep, and I was at the ground.
Good result though…
I was also at the ground, and you’re trolling. It was a very enjoyable match, and the crowd around me was happy and singing, and pleased to see some good attacking football.
Maybe Captain Khan should lay off the sedatives before he attends games- mind you, the first leg against BATE could have demanded a handful of valium…
Did the dooz pass it well? Anyone know his completion percentage?
Hes great, especially for a 19 year old, but I cant help feeling that we too often put him in a spot which requires him to make an inch perfect Fabregas/Bergkamp kinda land-it-on-a-postage-stamp pass. And he just doesnt have that in his locker (yet).
I actually focused on the Guendoozer the entire match and he did have some fabulous pin point hard passing, like Cesc and Dennis used to do so many years ago. Clearly saw some progression from him last night but we need to take a measured view as that was Bate. He’s going to be a great future baller for Arsenal.
I actually didn’t think that Ozil played well at all. I thought much of his forward passing was off and he missed two clear scoring chances which someone of his caliber should have taken better. Watching Ozil tonight confirmed my suspicion that Emery just doesn’t rate him that highly and I’m loath to say that he probably has a good point.
Bonus rating: 10/10 – Özil getting a game. Having him as an option really embiggens our attacking options for the rest of the season.
Arsenal master Bate. Emery had a good time!
Play musafi as striker? Maybe can score some goals as an impact sub
Just passing by….checking on change of narrative here :D.
*No Emery out brigade?* 😀
Not sure who rated Monreal. We love Monreal cause he is a trier, but like Lich, his legs are gone now. All their dangerous moments came from the channel between Kos and Monreal. So, max a 4 for me.
Also, Mikhi now plays the ball without a touch, he has 0 control in his passing. Not sure, why we swapped Alexis for him.
Saurez looks like a faster Cazorla… Hopefully we see him get a start soon
I was just thinking that some of Suarez’s close control was at the least noteworthy and made me want to see more.
Bate late than never