For the second week running, Arsenal went 2-0 up only to draw 2-2, this time with West Ham.
Frustrating.
Here’s how the players rated this afternoon.
Read the West Ham 2-2 Arsenal report and see the goals here
West Ham 2-2 Arsenal – Player Ratings
The ratings are 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 Aaron Ramsdale. Also, please give the ratings a few seconds to load.
Bit generous all round, really. Maybe they were written after the first twenty minutes.
The ratings aren’t loading for me………kinda sums it up
same here its just doing the circle thing like its loading but its not
Same as.
same
Me neither…
You haven’t missed anything you didn’t know before: Any player who was really, really shit still gets a 6, all our players are tired (even the ones who don’t play) Arteta’s subs are dictated by a ouija board, St Granit is the patron saint of objects with a large turning circle, there are glaciers quicker than Rob Holding and there are glaciers warmer than David Moyes. Spurs continue to suck cocks in a hell of their own making but wouldn’t it be simply lovely if they missed out on top 4 and….we…… won the league?!
Arteta score?
No he’s retired mate, but he never got that many when he played.
I remember a particular Arteta screamer vs City. For all the hysterics, a result at theirs would be massive, maybe we are saving our performances for then!
It’s time. As fans we need to stand up and give our unwavering support to this group of players and coaches.
The gutted feeling is from bitter disappointment, because they raised the bar so high we believed they were going to win the league. They can still do it, it’s even still in their own hands. We have to support each and everyone of them. 1% could be the difference.
Absolutely. We have to keep believing and supporting until the end. They’ve given us so much this season, our passion can’t waver.
I think we all knew at some level that we will slip eventually as this is a very young team and this would be the case with every team except the oil-money one that has a world Cup winner warming the bench. Their coach is a genius but they have also been given an unfair financial advantage. When the season started I only wanted them to at least lose once so they don’t break our invincible record and us to finish in top 4. But with 7 weeks to go, we’re still on top, so proud of the boys regardless… Read more »
This.
City won the league last year in the FINAL game, when they had to come back from 2-0 down.
It could be that tight for us – it was for them.
The most worrying aspect of this performance to me is that winners respond to adversity and after the horror couple of minutes of missing a penalty and conceding a penalty there was still 35 mins plus injury time for us to respond and we created precisely nothing. Last week I said I have never been so happy to draw 2 nil after going 2 nil up and the polar opposite applies today. I just don’t understand why we don’t go for the jugular whilst in complete control. Instead we started passing back to our keeper from free kicks on the… Read more »
We did go into our shell. The goals were fairly easy, West Ham looked clueless the first 20 min. I think it lulled Us into a false sense of security. From that point we looked far too casual. Even towards the end I didn’t see enough urgency. As good our subs have been in key moments, I can’t say I had confidence when Fabio and Reiss came on. And does Trossard need to do a backwards back heel pass on 85 min in midfield? It’s not a massive thing but there a few things like that late on that felt… Read more »
What is the point?
We had 73 points before the West Ham game and we drew with them so we now have 74. Try to keep up.
I think a running theme between this weekends performance at West Ham and last weekends against Liverpool, has been our inability to manage or adapt to a shift in momentum during the game. I’d probably say that we actually looked a bit better against Liverpool in the second half because we still were dangerous and created chances, although we were definitely more vulnerable there, whereas I never really felt that West Ham were going to beat us, but we lacked hardly any bite after conceding the equaliser. We were just very shell shocked. And personally I kinda feel that was… Read more »
Players looked like they were sleep walking through the second half. The team looked exhausted. We need a nation state of good moral character to buy us so we can afford two world class players at every position.
The Syrians seem nice.
Luvverly chaps but they don’t have any oil.
Perhaps if he would give some other attacking options more than seven minutes, we could rely on a squad and not an eleven. ESR: joint top goalscorer last season, saved Arteta against Chelsea, big game in the NL derby and bagged an assist against Brentford. Nelson: high scoring ratio when brought on late. Won it for us with an assist and a goal against Bournemouth. Nketiah: Scores in big games like Chelsea and United. Has scored all season long. Their defense has Fabianski and Zouma in it and Arteta has these lads sat down not warming up with fifteen minutes… Read more »
After what Saka has done this year, it takes a brave manager to subbed him. But it is moments like this that Arteta should make decisive decision. Giving Reiss 6 minutes and Neketiah at the 90th minute is more time wasting rather than tactical decisions. I hope we see more of ESR next season. He is losing confidence each day he stays at Arsenal.
if it takes bravery to sub a player who isn’t performing then he needs to be brave because getting the most from your squad is a core part of a manager’s squad. we just needed something else.
The problem is that we don’t know what sort of physical condition ESR is in unless Arteta tells us
yep. good enough to be on the bench surely means good enough for fifteen minutes. also nelson looked tidy to me when he came on.
have to say I do NOT get why he insists on playing Granit invariably to the full 90… the logical sub is Trosser (or Viera) for him, surely? Leave the attackers on, even if tired – they’re still more likely to nick one! And, whether Martin is tired or not, he still has the ability to change the game with one cross or shot.
Disclaimer: Just saw 20 mins cause I had somewhere to be.
All I’m saying is we are still top and if we win this title I want us to beat the best team to do it.
Also, don’t forget, other teams play too. That’s football.
COYG.
well said.
A few seconds to load or all evening?
All day and the next
Rather it take a bit more time to load and stays loaded, than it loading twice within the first 10 minutes and look fantastic only to then fall apart and stop loading all together, and let the opposition load instead. If you catch my drift.
Indeed
Ramsdale – 8/10 Good saves BW- 7/10 Fine great assist Holding – 6/10 it’s like the ball gets stuck to his feet never tries to release the ball quick enough enjoys taking too many touches and slowing the game down. 1 touch Saliba Missed Gabriel – 7/10 that was never a pen he held back also Partey’s fault see ratings Tierney – 7/10 good 1v1 covered well for Holding several times not Zinchenko but did okay Partey – 4/10 that was one of the worst games I’ve seen him play in an Arsenal shirt at fault for the pen gave… Read more »
Jeez, it’s a penalty, it was stupid to go to ground. Holding last week Gabriel this week. Both penalties and both clumsy unnecessary challenges.
Agreed – however the play should NEVER have advanced that far after Rice’s CLEAR handball (check this angle: twitter.com/i/status/1647609981393420290
Link doesn’t work – apologies: https://bit.ly/3mFin1C
I didn’t get to see replay from this angle, so far. I thought this is our own mess we created and it still is but after seeing this I wonder what is the point of fucking VAR.
I mean, he even adjusted the position of arm so he could keep it under control.
That’s the point – his arm is not simply flailing and the ball unluckily hits it… he clearly controls the ball with the arm. And the fact that the Hammers troll is down-voting me would seem to prove that!
Ramsdale 8?
He was shit all game. A lot of the pressure from their set-pieces came from him constantly flapping at the ball. At one point in the second half he was too scared to come off his line and get the ball (the way Gabriel looked at him summed up how I was feeling).
And he was poor on the 2nd goal.
I know he’s a cheeky chappy and he makes some great camera saves, but boy does he get away with a lot because of it.
If City score 2 goals in the first 10 or 15min you can expect 5goals by the end of the game. Arsenal if they go 1 up or 2 up early they think their safe and start passing sideways. Its a loser mentality problem. Today showed some players in that team have a panic lets keep it safe mentality instead of keep going keep up the fast pace and intensity until you score the 3rd or 4th then you can game manage
City scored 3 in no time yesterday and it ended 3-1 with Leicester hitting post and missing one on one.
key word they scored “3” not 2 and sat back 3 up before half time and they took off Haaland at halftime maybe if we were 3 up at half time then we can pass the ball around but not at 2-0 in 15/20min with 70min left to play AWAY from home like that’s stupid to start playing safe at that moment. Some of the Arsenal players are not ready to be champions I was screaming at the TV at 2-0 like go forward pass forward Xhaka kept passing back holding never passed forward always sideways to Gabriel after taking… Read more »
City can take their foot off the gas and idle comfortably to a win when they’re ahead. Arsenal simply stall the engine and get flagged down by the cops trying that….
Precisely – that game could very easily have ended 3-3. Citeh are bloody good but they are NOT invincible.
For the first time this season I didn’t feel we would win the game, and even more so when Fabio came on 🤦🏾♂️, too many passes backwards and no cutting edge to our forward play, I don’t think martinelli took his full back on all game today, still a long way to go with more twists and turns and would love it if we got a result at the Etihad
Me too. I just knew after they scored that riduclous goal to make it 1-2. We can talk about the penalty miss but frankly it shouldn’t have ever come to such a fine margin.
The biggest disappointment is Arteta’s reluctance to trust his bench. I think that nervous energy translates to the players. He should have tried somethibg new. Its a young squad and they ran out of ideas. Try some of the lads that bailed us out before then.
Here’s a view on the our penalty… and it speaks to the whole mentality question: we’re under pressure… gifted them a ‘door-opener’ and they’re coming hard; we get a ‘soft’ penalty – golden opportunity to kill their spirit, and the game; Gabi grabs the ball – I’m thinking good move… has 4 in 3 games and already scored today… smart for the seasoned pro to relieve Bukayo who has clearly been a bit off the pace for the past few weeks; instead of the skipper – and Jesus (senior player) making that call – they give it to Saka… Naive?… Read more »
im not so much bothered about the penalty because i think if arteta would just use his bench better it wouldn’t have had to come down to such fine margins.
it was a bad penalty though.
Can’t help but feel we’ve fucked it for the league now. You just can’t get the jitters after conceding one. This is about mentality and control. It happened against Liverpool and again now. Technically if we beat City or draw with them we can still win it if we win every other game. But, there are tougher fixtures than this ahead. We were strolling it and another needless mistake cost us. We have to get back on the horse against Southampton because we need to eradicate the jitters before we go to City. Now it’s all about fight, but in… Read more »
I’m now of the opinion that 10,000 passes is not the way to see out a game, and I suspect Arteta is starting to realise it too if you read his comments. I prefer Ferguson’s approach of going out and burying a team – it gives you focus and pens the other team in their own half. Plus … we have a whole week to recover from the exertion of a 4-0 win.
And – we needed the bloody goal difference as well – EVERY single metric dictated that we should keep pressing. I wrote, both before and after Liverpool, about mental laziness, sloppy moments and the mentality to kill off side when we have them by the throat.
It’s liked we learned nothing from the Scouse game, despite all the sound-bye comments from players and manager.
Walk it on the pitch boys… on the pitch!
Not loading.
How very apt.
Not loading.
I am not sure if anyone from the Arseblog team reads the comments (I understand Andrew is in the US) but like many others here, I can get the comments to load despite letting the loading wheel spin for ages. Is there anything that can be done to fix it? I enjoy reading the ratings but prefer to see them as soon as possible after the game. I will probably not bother to come back again tomorrow.
Did I just read a TripAdvisor review?
Not sure why I am getting down voted for this (possibly because of my poorly-phrased final sentence?). Basically, I was just saying I really like reading the ratings (& voting) and am disappointed that it seems like I can’t this week.
Champions don’t lose two goal leads twice in seven days.
Man City wouldn’t do that.
I hate to agree with this but I’m afraid it’s true. City won’t bottle it like we’re in danger of doing
Complacency is what I see. Play 20 like champions then decided can coast through rest of game. Partey and Saka in particular. Saka missed penalty comes from dropping level, focus, intensity and concentration. Happens when things go so easy. I’m so fucking angry tonight
I don’t like that we don’t take him off when its not working. We all love him but he’s a young lad. We had options to choose from who have bailed us out before and it wasn’t working for Saka.
No-one is above the squad. If its not your day then go sit down and prepare for the next one like anyone else.
Yup…but that’s not his call is it?
not blaming Saka at all. thought that was clear…
Yes all the reasons hemiesed the pen for all the reasons you stated…. except one.
Nothing to do with “things going easy”
Everything to do with exhaustion. For two season’s straight he has played in every single prem match mostly at an extremely high level. Doesn’t get much of a break during international duty either. Gets kicked to pieces the kid doesn’t whine or moan…but if you’ve been following carefully he’s been saying OUT LOUD that he’s exhausted. And you want to put it down to some kind of complacency?
Take a day off. Ffs.
No-one was saying he needed a rest when he destroyed the Italians recently did they?
See my comment on the penalty above mate – our most experienced, title-winning striker was holding the ball! The striker who’s scored 4 in his last 3 games! Where was our skipper? Why didn’t Gabi ‘pull rank’ – Saka is obviously fatigued – even when we were so dominant in the first 20, he was his usual dazzling self… so you load all that pressure on the lad – when the penalty may just have been the most NB one of the entire season… and possibly in the past 2 decades? Think about it: 6 pts clear of Shitty, momentum… Read more »
Saka is the number 1 penalty taker, it’s not about pulling rank – it’s how it operates. Too easy to apply hindisght to a miss.
I get that Boss, however he’s a still just a young lad, and a palpably off-the-pace young lad. I meant ‘puling rank’ in the gentlest sense – Martin and/or Gabi J having a quick word and then either one of them taking it.
Yes – it’s hindsight. But he’s clearly not been his dazzling self in recent weeks, and this was again evident even in our early dominance… my point is simply that this kind of adaptability, the ability to ‘read the room’ is what makes champions when margins are as fine as they now are.
Yes, Saka was poor but I don’t believe his missed pen was down to complacency. Better players than him have missed plenty pens down the years. He’s mentally a very tough little cookie (how else did he reach the heights he’s now achieved at such a young age?) No-one was saying he needed a rest when he destroyed the Italians recently did they?
Sorry but I’ve been saying it for some weeks. In fact the last couple of months is TOO LATE. Rotating him earlier in the season was the time. BTW I’ve read and heard many people questioning how he is NEVER rested…including Wrighty…who wondered why he was even on the field in the last Euro match. Ive heard questions from supporters on arsecast ask the same question. But most pertinent of all I have heard Bukayo say he’s tired and that he’s going to lock his door and sleep all summer. This from a player who doesn’t whine or moan…just answers… Read more »
Definitely need to change our strategy of how to protect a lead. Need to keep playing as if we are behind and going for it instead of trying to possess to the game to its end. We aren’t the level of team (few are) that can expect to win playing on cruise control, we need the intensity and drive to score that we start matches with to continue when we have the lead.
Have to think there’s a vestige of truth in this. Arsenal can only win comfortably if they’re at full throttle for most of the 90 minutes. Unlike City, we can’t go down to 2nd gear when ahead and see out the game with ease..
I’m going to be absolutely shitting it if we have to play Holding for 90mins against the T800 in a couple of weeks.
If holding is playing against city we are done. If saliba is fit we have a chance
Holding is so bad that he tried to give a pen away again but went to ground too early and only gave up a foul, and that was after Antonio ran half the pitch. Then Holding laughed about it. I’d play Tierney and zinchenko at full back and white at center back for the next two matches. Against Southampton to get used to the set-up and the against city
I thought Rob did OK and has been excellent for us in most of the games he’s appeared in since Saliba’s absence.
Holding has been great since he came into the side, and was great against Erling at the city ground.
He got subbed at half time against city in the cup. He was terrible. Open your eyes my friend
I have a cunning plan. We use our Man City insiders (Zinchenko and Arteta) to put a huge does of Viagra in Haaland’s pre-game meal.The raging stiffy he suffers from thereafter for at least the 90 regulation minutes will ensure he is offside as long as our defenders are level.
I wonder why ESR is not playing, kid has killer instinct. Saka is not at his level for the last two games..
Despite the utter disappointment of dropping two points and feeling rotten about it all day, I have had a beer and a smoke and looked at the remaining Man City fixtures . I believe they will drop a fair few points still. COYG
Join the club … City have Brighton away Fulham a Everton a and Brentford a
plus Chelshit and in form West Ham at home and who knows what Leeds. Oh and some other gun young team … bring it on … too many negative nellies on here cheers
But… we HAVE to keep the pressue on ’em. Brighton and Brentford away to finish the season will be very, very squeaky IF they are must-wins’. It’s our job to ensure they are.
Too many not on it today after we went 2-0 up. Partey had a horror show and Saka did absolutely nothing apart from miss a penalty. Arteta needs to be more clinical with his subs. Can’t be very motivating for the subs to not even get a chance when 1st choice players are not performing and they still can’t get a chance.
Something that has been discussed a lot throughout the season is the fact that we have brought in experienced ‘winners’ in Jesus and Zinchenko who have both been brilliant. I know Saka is our number 1 penalty taker but with the pressure we are under at the moment I would have expected Jesus to keep the ball and take the penalty himself. Is he not there to help take the pressure off the youngsters?
Every one of them arrogant pricks for thinking they’d won the game, reminded me of a Wenger team. They fell apart, no composure and couldn’t pass the ball. Saka’ s pen was awful, he usually puts them low so why he changed when he’s in poor form I’ll never know. Last year bottled champs league and this year the title, we’re getting there
Dude – it’s shit to drop points, but calling them arrogant pricks is absolute bullshit
Yes, but each year we bottle at a higher level 😅. If we knuckle down and work hard, maybe next year we can bottle the Champions League final and the prem on the last day. Get the double.
And – eventually – the only bottle at season’s end… is the Veuve Click!!!!
nah, Chateau de Sarsons
Wot abaht Chateau de Ooh Ah Parlour?
So if your logic is correct, we are progressing every year to a higher level but that is BAD because we don’t work hard enough to win the prizes on offer to only the elite at this higher level because we have bottled it? Is your surname Mussolini?
Piers? Is that you?
Felt prior to this one that it would be a good one to have Jorginho in for Partey from the start. Also agree that when looking for a goal towards end of a match sub in Trossard for Xhaka. And going forward you have to keep Jesus on for the full 90 if at all possible
At 75 minutes, I would have replace xhaka for Jorginho
Tierney for zinchenko
Martinelli for Trosard
And leave Jesus to leader the front
ziny wasnt even on the bench so dunno how youd do that.
imho without zinchenko to back partey up, xhaka looked his old self, so i agree with jorgi for him. trossard should have come on sooner.
Tierney for Zinchenko? Then maybe we could have brought on Ted Drake, Cliff Bastin, Geordie Armstrong and Liam Brady. They weren’t on the bench either. Were you even watching?
No need to be coc.ky…cool down
Isn’t that ‘clocky’ ?
Ziiiiinch was in the team???!
Trosser for Xhaka
Leave Ode on
Jorge for Thomas
Eddie or Reese for Saka
Wondering why every long ball is a threat to us ?
I hate to be bangin on about REFs again….but having looked at a replay; Paqueta dives (there is a tiny bit of contact, but how many of those have we been given?) – Holding is in control of the loose touch so Gabby should not be diving in either. Just before the second west ham goal, Jesus gets his his heel stood on and loses his boot – no foul for us. Should we of still won it? I guess – but it seems like we are becoming more reliant on small margins to win games (ie. the last two… Read more »
Theirs was a nailed on pen
Same as Liverpool. He brings on goalscorers with too little time left or not at all. Its a problem when its West Ham and your manager paces round the touchline biting his nails and your joint top goalscorer last season and te guy who bailed you out against Bournemouth and the guy who bagged two against United are not even warming up with fifteen minutes left and we need a goal. Saka was not at his best today. Try something else if its not working. At both West Ham and at Liverpool the players looked determined and in need of… Read more »
We could not figure how to deal with being smothered. We were too slow, maybe tight, maybe tired, and technically sloppy. On the other side, after 0-2, West Ham play their best game. Don’t think they can play better.
They switched to going long and we couldn’t deal with it. Holding in a sprint with Antonio is like watching water buffalo with the fuller figure and predator delusions chasing a puma. Tierney got caught out of position on their second. Still, we didn’t erm….lose but City wont bottle it like this in their remaining games
We hadn’t played for a week. West Ham played on Thursday night. Away. In Europe. Tired is just not on.
Likewise the Scousers – the Chavs on the Wed night. No excuses.
We’re tired of potentially bottling this. Our players aren’t tired
Both the Scouse and the Hammers had midweek games where we had a full week’s rest… pull the other one mate!
There are NO excuses for that capitulation.
I support our team in times ornlow and high. But I hate complacency. After an early goal we tend to relax knowing well that team will become desperate and try everything. We need to be more focused after early goals. Late goals are different as it saps the energy from the opponents.
Your team were top of the league before you posted and are top of the league now. ‘Low and High really? Back in my day Terry Neill was the manger and moulded the team in his own image (a misshapen hodgepodge of uselessness)
Not now only but also when they were down i support. But I hate the complacency in their way of playing once they score quick goals. Want them to keep pushing. Not that they are playing twice a week to be tired off.
You know that Rupert Murdoch didn’t invent football right?
I love him, but 6 is very generous for Saka.
Oh well we simply have to go and beat City now. And maybe we need to, to justify being champions.
Actually a draw vs City would be fine as well.
Not sure about Partey not fully fit. But as much as I like his playing style, he has made far too many mistakes or ‘being too casual’ at critical point during the matches. The flick he did was unnecessary regardless of Rice’s handball or not. He is one of the key and senior squad member but simply just not at that elite level if we are talking about consistency; fitness as well as performance.
It’s the lacklustre performance that is worrying. When we are drawing them at 2-2, our moment of the ball is mainly going back, and not retaining the ball properly.
Well things like this happens and today is one of them.
It’s definitely concerning, but I guess apart from showing the Boyz out full support, there’s pretty nothing much best to do.
Just waiting for the ‘our young boys are tired’ mantra to start up. You’re 21. You don’t get tired and think sleeping is for losers….
Especially vs the Scouse – who’d had a tough Wed match vs Chelsk. And Hammers had been away in europe on Thurs. In both cases, we’d had a full week’s rest.
6 for KT when you see some of the others who also got 6 is shocking imo….(but in keeping with how he has been marked by Blogs all season)
6 for both Saka and Partey is really generous (maybe they added UP to 6 between them?) Both were abject (but have been brilliant for most of the season so they’re only human….)
Absolutely – if Ziinch was on, we may have had more forward punch, but we’d probably also have shipped another 2 – brilliant sliding block from KT, and no nutmegs!
We created one chance after 2-2 – KT putting the ball on a plate for Jesus who somehow missed.
Not sure how most of the team are rated 6 or more i.e. above average after a brilliant 30 mins and the worst 60 mins of our entire season? Big G a 6? He went to ground to conceded a penalty when simply sheperding the player across the box (where he was heading anyway) woulda worked a treat; and he allowed Bowen to slip in behind in a rookie error – 2 moments of sloppines = 2 goals = 2 lost points. Saka 6? We LOVE the lad – but he missed a pen! He single-handedly botched the chance to… Read more »
Another comment on ‘wise-heads’, game-strategy, ruthless killing off of battered opponents: We hand WH an opening on a platter. They come hard. We resist and manage to claw our way back, to the point we get a game-closing penalty. Jesus picks up the ball. I’m thinking, YES! We LOVE Bukayo but that lad has clearly been a tad jaded in recent matches. He’s looked a little tired, uninspired even. Gabi, by contrast, has 4 in 3 since his return. He’s a champion – on multiple levels. Be ruthless… don’t load all that pressure on a young lad who’s visibly not… Read more »
Everytime we score a goal, we need to tell ourselves it’s 0-0.
When were up 2-0, it’s still 0-0.
Stay hungry, put the game beyond a shadow of a doubt. If we concede 1 goal, we must answer with 2 in return
There are also no excuses for not giving 100 % for a whole 90 minutes since we already went out of the Euro Cup in an embarassing fashion and only play once a week. What are you saving yourselves for? The next game in 7 days? But yeah, we are in the driver’s seat, draw against City and win the other games and it’s still done. Let’s see if that can be achieved. If we lose against City, in my opinion it’s over. Once they overtake us, we will not go top again, because the “momentum” is gone … maybe… Read more »
Are you Pep Guardiola? Thanks for stopping by.
Here’s a suggestion: don’t work on points, work on goal diff. This season could well come down to that. So we start that match with the mentality: we HAVE to get four today – to cut Citeh’s lead.
That way – instead of sitting back at 2-0, it’s the opposite… ‘We’re already haflway there lads, let’s go even harder… we got this!”
Imagine what a 4-0 would have done to City’s pysche… 6 pts clear and killed their goal-diff advantage.
But then… if me aunty only had balls…
If only your mother also had had external genitals….
Classy mate… dead classy.
Some real high ratings those…
Thank goodness in 1989 we didn’t have social media. We lost at home to Derby and drew with Wimbledon. And those boys were competing with a juggernaut of side in Liverpool. They done it and so can these boys.