It wasn’t the greatest performance of all time, but to win 1-0 away in Europe against a team that hasn’t lost at home all season is a nice result to take back to London for the second leg next week.
Alex Lacazette’s second half goal came from another Bukayo Saka assist, and it puts Mikel Arteta’s team in a strong position in our Europa League Round of 32 tie.
Read the Olympiacos 0-1 Arsenal report and see the goals here
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
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, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
Laca is in really bad moon and his confidence is low. Maybe the fans should give him a hand???
I don’t think the fans really have been on any players since Arteta joined. He’s just been on a really poor run of form dating back to mid last year (at least in away games).
There is bad form and there is average player.
Truth is Lacazette has always been average ever since he set foot in Emirates. No wonder we stopped winning anything after he signed him.
The difference between very good strikers and world class strikers is that when a world class striker misses a goal scoring chance, he doesn’t let it affect him negatively, he’s waiting for the next chance and he knows he’s going to bury it.
Another difference between a very good striker and a world class striker is that a world class striker does not let his lean patch last very long. The period when they’re out of form is very short.
The only difference you need to know is that world class striker don’t go off form, all the rest do.. luck stops world class strikers from scoring whereas the rest need luck to keep scoring..
His goal scoring and linkup play has been pretty average at Arsenal tbf, his effort has been world class though, fights for everyball and every team mate. Looks like people here judge strikers on the quality of effort they put in rather then the amount of goals they score. Laca gets an easy ride because of all the goals Auba scores so he doesn’t have to score many. If Laca was the main striker, he would’ve got slaughtered for his scoring record.
True. He is a footballer not a labourer to be judged on effort alone
I also feel like he suffers from bad luck with injuries. Always seems to hit him when he’s on decent form. Then he has to restart all over again when he’s back fit
Arsenal Player of the Year for 2018/2019. Yeah, “average player since he set foot in the Emirates”. Was also so “average” that he was headed for Athletico Madrid before their player ban ended that move.
Support your players who are going through a lean spell, instead of implying they were born shit.
Omg this again. You do realise he is Player of the year because his fanbase is as toxic and cancerous as Ozil’s right?
Speaking of ‘toxic’ fans… pots and kettles mate?
Agree with Sta, when my eyes tell me this guy has been poor during long spells in this year and last, are they wrong because he won a popularity context. Let’s not forget that Auba gave him a mercy pen last year… that’s how bad it was, that a guy racing for Golden Boot would give up a goal to help a friend. It was pity.
He wasnt my player of the year. I dont know who would have been… maybe Auba, Leno, or Rambo. Someone else chose Laca, not me.
Are you high?
I would have said low, actually… the lowest.
Utter, utter nonsense.
What I don’t like about him is when he goes down like he’s been shot at the most miniscule of contact, AKA diving, and when he sulks like a girl having her time of the month. I’ve seen less of that bullshit since Arteta took over and hats off to him for that.
Other than that he’s a good player. He’ll overcome his current spell of poor form soon enough.
Nothing like shitty analysis mixed with misogyny!
You’re absolutely right. Lacazette never dives and he never sulks. And oh my gawd, I said “girl having her time of the month”, I must be a woman hater.
At least now it is very clear what a world-class douchebag looks like. Thanks for the explanation!
Not necessarily a woman-hater, just a narrow-minded muppet with neither emotional maturity or any capacity for self-reflection. You comment was both inaccurate (you clearly haven’t watched the half dozen matches where Laca HAS been fouled in the pen, could’ve legit gone down, but has battled on – and sometimes scored!)… and in the poorest taste, being patronising and condescending
I’ve watched several games where he’s gone down over nothing and sulked like a spoilt brat. He’s a moody player and my remark was that he’s not doing it anymore. We even got s smile out of him the other day. He’s s good player with a flaw that he to my eye has worked on.
By all means call me names. You’ve never met me. Im not apologising to a bunch of butthurt children.
“Burn the witch”!
All I did was say this is a meal good enough for Jehovah!
A sexist statement is a sexist statement. You can’t have it both ways.
No cure for the easily and eternally offended.
Watch out mate – the moral guardian of the forum will try and get you banned if you swear or offend his sensitive pc soul…poor wee lamb…
From the depths of what was heading to be our worst season in (my) living memory, Arteta
continues to resurrect these players and this team. Early days, but I think he’s something
special.
That’s why he was our player of the year last season. He’s been brilliant for us and to blame him for not winning anything is absurd. You could say the same for any player including Aubameyang
I though Skinny Ricky was referring to Arteta as someone special, not Laca. I blame Laca for not winning some games last year, he had chances. Remember we only lost 4th by a point. I do blame Laca, and all his teammates including Auba (missed Pen vs Spuds – a 4 pt swing.)
Blogs review of laca’s performance not accurate imo. He played well. Again.
I thought Guendouzi was the best of the bunch from midfield & attack, not perfect but at least he wanted the ball. Luiz was our best defender, can’t remember any mistakes from him.
#unbeaten2020
Gdouzi is the most avg player I have ever seen. I don’t understand what people see in him.
“Still needs to work on his heading” is an understatement. He is the worst header of a ball I’ve seen at this level.
Mustafi, on the other hand, has a head like a traction engine.
I thought Guendouzi and Willock were the arsenal weakest links today
Yeah, I hope am wrong but I’m really beginning to think Willock is just OK, nothing more. Seems to have a great attitude but I don’t think he’s special.
I agree. When Ox and Gnabry came through it was obvious they had talent that made me excited. Even Iwobi had moments.
AMN and Guendouzi particularly make me wonder what is so special about them. But they are young and things change. I personally don’t rate them.
It seems he could be a solid squad player, but he is still lacking the vision and clever passing to be decisive in that role behind the forwards (as I mentioned elsewhere). Honestly, even at this stage of his development, I really think he should have at least found a few of the runs he neglected to play, but hopefully he’ll pick this up as he develops. Having Ozil to learn from can’t hurt, but only time will tell.
As with many young, inconsistent players, a loan and some regular football world likely do him good.
I also think we just lack something when we don’t have better skill on the ball at AM. His is just not up to the level we need there. We have a few attacking 8’s but just one 10.
Yeah, I hope he develops accordingly. I’m terms of a future prospect for the role, Emile Smith-Rowe seems like the Ozil successor to me. Really really excited about him.
Yep – would far rather see Guend out on loan and ESR playing for us right now
I’d like to see ESR get some time in appropriate matches too, but I’m guessing if Guendouzi went on loan that’d be the last we would see of him.
*As a gunner
What match were you watching? He has energy, certainly – but it is too often misplaced. He is not yet close to being strong enough for the PL midfield trenches and is too easily (and too often) just bumped off it. Which leads to his next problem… Drama – he throws his hands up, always expecting the foul rather than playing to the whistle, gets easily riled (although he was admirable in the face of persistent niggling last night). He also misplaces passes far too often. And then there’s his heading… But he IS young – just hope Mik can… Read more »
Saka-Laca!!!!!!!!!!! That is all 😀
Managing Arsenal is easy. Give the ball to Saka and flood the box. He will find someone.
Don’t know why everyone bothers with the team selection. As long as Saka is in we are good.
Booooom Saka-Laca!
Musta-Auba-Saka-Laca!!!!! don’t mind if I take it up a notch…. ?
Saka Laka Boom!
Fixed your post. ?
I’ll see your Saka-Laca and raise you one Xhaka-Saka-Laca…
Glad to see Laca scoring again, but a good deal of his play today was hot garbage.
Youngsters need that technicality that was missing for much of our play going forward. Another solid game from our back line, and Xhaka – aside from a 5 minute stretch where he was playing anti-football – was encouraging again.
On to Everton this weekend!
hot garbage, lol
How does Leno get less than a 9?
Fantastic keeping with Luiz and Mustaphi in front of him
I’ve noticed you hold back on criticism when It comes to the younger players rightly so but when it comes to guendozi you don’t hold Back at all , he’s the same age as willock yet you criticise him like he’s a senior .. weird
He got the same mark as Willock – and in fairness, he has played a lot more than a lot of the other young players.
He’s got the same mark but the Comments under his name has a criticism and under wilocks there’s none and Willock lost the ball countless times , guendozi has played more games but that doesn’t take away from his age and inexperience.
I agree with young and this means he sometimes acts immature, but I cannot agree at all with inexperienced.
Guendouzi played in 80 league games, among them 62 in the Premier League or Ligue 1, the rest in Ligue 2. In addition he played 17 Europa League games and 11 games in national cup competitions.
I’m sorry but what is so special about Guendouzi other than he is a young Arsenal player. Can anyone list his exceptional traits, other than high stamina?
Vision, heading, dribbling, defensive awareness, positioning, off the ball….. terrible. WHAT DO YOU SEE?
I’m not a huge fan, but he always shows for the ball. Today, he was stronger on it. When he was knocked off of it, there was a legit foul.
There is no doubt he was targeted today. Held his own considering the attention he got. He is a useful player, and I reckon next couple of seasons he will grow into a decent player. In the meantime, I think if your 18 or 32, if your old enough and playing in the Arsenal squad for a competitive fixture your old enough to be criticized.
Douzi has had a full season and a half of first team game time. He’s still young, but he needs to press on in his development. My guess is Arteta is demanding that from him, and thus the friction recently. He still has potential, but think he has much work to do to warrant a consistent selection in the French squad or Arsenal’s best 11 for that matter.
I read an interview of one of Guendouzi’s previous coaches or directors, in which he said something along the lines of – Guendouzi has unbreakable self-belief to the point he would deny and ignore even his coaches. This is the reason he had a bust up at Lorient and now here at Arsenal too. The boy has personality and bottle, something you can’t coach but he wants everything on his terms. He could get away with that under spineless Emery but not with Arteta.
Kudos to Arteta for starting our best keeper. It was the difference today in my opinion.
But minus points for sticking one of the world’s current deadliest strikers out on the wing… and the wrong wing at that!
I’d love to know AMN has done for Sokratis to be playing at RB ahead of
him!
I think it was a combination of having settled on Luiz-Mustafi as the preferred CB pair, resting AMN, and putting Sokratis on the field against and in front of the Greeks. He doesn’t mind being the antagonist/heel and could shoulder the load of any untoward cultural ire. He featured together with Arteta in the pre-match press, so being fit and occasionally deployed at RB, he was always going to be on the field.
It does say something though that Arteta could have reversed the positions of Sokratis and Mustafi (who has also played as the right fullback for us) but chose to have Mustafi as a centre half. Mostly it says something about the amazing resurrection of Mustafi, brought back to life by Arteta.
Maybe Arteta remembers AMN as a teammate. Just an opinion, but I think AMN has slow reaction speeds. Clive PAFC said it perfectt that AMN is good when he is in the action/fray, but not great when he isnt in FB and the game is in front of him. In other words, he has a slow football brain and goes to sleep. He lacks urgency sometimes. The way he complained about his position and made excuses for poor play trouble me shows that he is oblivous to his role as a utlity player. In other words, he has flaws in… Read more »
Too harsh on Auba.He contribute a lot with that defensive runs.We all agree that he should play upfront and laca on the bench. Also i see playing saka on the wing when the LBs are fit, he surely is TOP TOP lad.
Then the question is which youngster would you pick for LW… Saka or Martinelli…?
On this form, gotta be Saka.
Martinelli looks better in the center.
Depends on the opposition I suppose, both are very different players. Martinelli is very direct and is a goal scorer, Saka is more of a creater and likes to combine with others.
If we indeed lose Auba and Laca in the summer, depending on what replacement we sign, we could end up relying on a Saka-Pépé-Martinelli front three, with Nelson also in the rotation. I hope it doesn’t happen but at least the perspective looks a little bit less daunting than a few months ago.
Another clean sheet! So we can actually defend! This is amazing. All hail Arteta!
Amazing what a coaching upgrade can do to your evaluation of certain players.
Mustafi has genuinely impressed me the last few games, and some of his long passes are sublime. I know he’s always got a mistake in him, but outside of those Chelsea games, he’s put in a shift every game.
At the very least, Arteta may have rebuilt some of his market value. I didn’t think that to be possible 2 months ago.
I think most agree that Arteta is doing a wonderful job of reviving this squad and season.
Today I thought the starting XI was slightly odd. Auba and Sokratis on the right made that side quite disconnected.
However we got the win and a clean sheet, leaving us in a good position in the tie.
Now for Everton, a victory against them will help us nicely close the gap upto the CL places, with Chelsea and Tottenham facing each other.
A few times I noticed Joe Willock really should have picked his head up and made a short pass thru the final line to play his forwards excellent run. That type of vision and decisive passing is critical in that position. Hope he can add this to his skillset as he continues his development.
Ian Wright is just an all round legend. The Mustafi and Xhaxa resurgence continues. I still think both need to be replaced with better players but both of them are showing almost inhuman levels of mentality and professionalism.
Perhaps an unpopular one but i thought laca was terrible. If that wasn’t a tap in from the middle front of the goal it felt like a ight that he would miss it. Completely squandered a few of our best attacks. Love him and hipe he improves but hasnt been for a long time and we also really need auba in the centre. Maybe Europa will help him though
Not necessarily disagreeing with you, but that goal was a tap-in because of a fantastic run by Laca (and basically a perfect ball by Saka).
Wrighty. Truelly a special character. Cant help but love the guy.
Team was a bit hesitant and nervy, obviously told to be cautious over adventure which affected our forward play. 1) Leno – Did good today with no nonsense proactive approach and a couple of decent stops. 2) Sokratis – Not sure why Arteta is hesitant with AMN. Would have frankly preferred him in his natural position over Sokratis having to make do at Rback. Struggled first half in particular to stop crosses not helped by having Auba in front (They switched Martinelli to cover in due course) 3) Mustafi – Another good display. One poor ball from the back but… Read more »
A six for xhaka! Played like a twerp after half time.
Why take Martinelli off, he’s a powerhouse.
Yes Laca scored but failed at everything else, his histrionics are driving me mad.
Much criticism of Douzi here. Why?. He wins, keeps and distributes the ball in midfield with energy. Use him alongside Ceballos and we have a truly creative midfield.
THere’s another upside… at least you’re not in any position to influence team selections!
I agree that Xhaka looked off of it today…. he looked like the travel, time of day, atmosphere through him off a little. He was very hesitant on the ball all night.
Maybe a bad kebab in Athens?
C’mon man, Willock is waste…terrible passing, no ball control ,he release the ball way to late, no vision,always take the decision to play the ball into opponent to take a free kick ……. o I forgot ,he’s young we need to give him confidence and time to play…. And what’s the problem with Maitland Niles? ..I like the guy …
Ozil makes this team without him we all over the place in midfield
An away win in a tough atmosphere in Europe with a clean sheet? Yeah, no complaints whatsoever.
Spoken like a true fan mate!! Good on ya!
I like Laca but it is obvious that he is completely out of form. We have a world class, 30 goal per season striker wasted on the flanks just to accommodate a player that is off form. Even Nketiah was preferred in the centre forward position to him last weekend.Just doesn’t make sense to me
There is world class, very good, good and average. Lacazette for me, fits into the good category.
He is a tireless worker and team player but is not and never has been a prolific scorer of goals. That’s why i put him in the ‘good’ category. Players like Aguero fit into my ‘very good’ category because they also work but are prolific. Players like Ronaldo, Messi, Greaves, Bergkamp, etc go into my ‘world class’ category because they atand out above the others, they are almost irreplaceable…
Great result and solid all-round but performance, yet some unease sits just underneath the fizz of an away victory in Europe. Still some patchy marking in our box meant we were only spared blushes by poor finishing on their side and Leno’s excellence… on that note, we STILL give away too many cheap set-pieces in dangerous positions: Xhaka, Laca, Guend, Auba all guilty. Guendouzi is energetic and a talent but dear Lord let’s hope Mik can sort his young head out soon… he is all over the place, too much drama and those aimless jumps for headers that are nowhere… Read more »
BOOMSAKALACA!
Blogs, at times when I want to rate a comment, I am told that I have ‘already voted’ for a comment, when I have not. It has happened a few times this week (and last week). Has anyone else reported this issue?
Blogs has no clue to the problem yet. This has been the complaint from fans and nobody seems keen on fixing it in Blogs crew.
I’ve been one of Guendouzis critic regarding his absolute childish attempts to head the ball, but he won 3/3 headers today.
Why does the Ceballos avatar have jaundice?
Just love Wrighty!!!
Auba has been humble and professional not to make a fuss about being played out wide. But you have to wonder whether this is not adding to his already strong reasons why he may not extend his contract.
Yes he scored the winner but why in shits name does Laca keep starting striker ahead of the best striker in the league.