I was torn between the two Arsenal goal scorers for who would be my Man of the Match from the hard fought win away to Man City yesterday, and I plumped for Olivier Giroud over Alexis Sanchez mainly because the Frenchman’s performance was more unexpected after the struggles he has had since the turn of the year.
Cech 5 – At fault for second goal and had another scary moment rushing out to Aguero.
Bellerin 6 – A bit panicky and aimless like most of his team mates but dug in.
Gabriel 7 – Alert and on the front foot. His pace was crucial at times.
Koscielny 7 – One mistake but generally a solid game under heavy pressure.
Monreal 7.5 – Very good game from the Spaniard. Always wanting to get forward as well as doing his duty.
Elneny 6 – Ran around a lot but lacked composure and missed tackles.
Ramsey 6 – Some good stuff but we need more from him. Against 4-4-2 we should have domi9nated the central area.
Iwobi 5 – Probably his worst game since breaking through. Ineffective.
Alexis 8 – All action as usual and great finish.
Welbeck – Looked good and sharp before another injury blow. Unlucky.
Giroud 8 – Really put himself about. Good goal and great assist for Sanchez.
subs:
Wilshere 7 – Showed composure and class and got things going.
Walcott 6 – Stretched their defence but still struggling for confidence and form.
Coquelin 6 – Steadied the ship well.
Bob
Bellerin had a shocking game for me with Elneny. Bellerin needs to be convincing and stronger in his defensive tackling. Iwobi should not start every game as I think campbell is given a raw deal.
Welbeck and Iwobi swopped early in the game with welbeck going wide and Iwobi playing the creative roll which I think is too much for him now. Too much responsibility there. Ramsey had some decent moments but still is not convincing.
Really wanted to see Carzola yesterday but was not be. Well done Sanchez.
Cech again beating on his near post. Becoming a regular occurrence now. Not good.
something to think about: giroud and ozil created together an almost 45 goals. which is awesome. their problem is that they can disappear for long periods. the biggest problem with that is- until the boss notice that our season is already finished. the same happened before with: scsz, mert, jeck and ramsey. so basically it’s pretty much the boss fault with he’s never ending credit to certain players.
Don’t ever say Ozil disappears, he’s been creating chance upon chance for us to finish, the most in England to be exact and that’s a statistical fact. The one who’s gone missing are Giroud and Walcott, NOT our no.10. You guys always try to blame Mesut or Sanchez instead of seeing where the real problem with the squad lies.
Walcott 6?????? Do they get 5 as a minimum just for making an appearance (invisible or not)?
Sell Ramsey to highest bidder….
lol another bandwagon comment… ramsey was better than elneny yesterday and he isnt half as bas as you guys make him out to be and we started to be dangerous again after walcott came in, so its impossible that him making an appearance was useless
judging by the comments on this site it seems bellerin elneny iwobi and ozil are the only valued players
yep the most commenters on this site cant think for themselves, if 4 guys have a fall-to-guy for criticizing a whole bunch of guys jump onto the bandwagon.. for 2 to 3 years it has been mert and periodically özil etc. but now its ramsey every game he starts regardless of his actual performance
Giroud gotta have to decide if he wants to be a CM or AM
cuz he really isn’t what we need in the striking department!
nope its just that if we play with giroud we should have another second striker or sanchez has to do that more.. run onto the second ball more but this season sanchez too has often overplayed with the ball instead of crossing it to giroud or playing a one-two with giroud to shoot
@SA
I’ve seen you made a similar comment about this in an earlier post. But it was mentioning Olivier play DM. I think he’s more suited as a CB to be honest. He’s good in the air, willing to throw himself in front of a shot and just overall better at defending than at being a striker.
Cech 6 – I might be alone in this but the placement of the second goal made is difficult for Cech to stop it. Players should not be allowed to get a shot of from those dangeroud places in front of our box.
Bellerin 6 – Thought he grew into the game.
Gabriel 5 – makes me nervous every time he needs to spring to action. Didn’t cover himself in glory for the second goal.
Koscielny 5 – For his standards had a shacky game, needs a better partner next season.
Monreal 6 – Decent game but not one of his best.
Elneny 7 – Should have been paired with Coq for this game but was one of our best passers and coped best of all of our players with the pressing of City.
Ramsey 5 – Continues to look a little clueless but does run around a lot.
Iwobi 6 – Is getting too many games at the moment. Did Campbell fail a drug test of sleep with Wenger’s girlfriend?
Alexis 7 – Showed what a good finisher can do by taking his one chance well and converting it into an important goal. However seems to be on a different wave length than the rest of the squad leading to a lot of wasted energy and disrupted play.
Welbeck 6 – Looked good but still doesn’t give you confidence in his end product. Is getting injured too often, can’t rely on him for next season, need a better striker.
Giroud 7 – Worked hard and took his goal well.
subs:
Wilshere 7 – Showed us a little of what we have missed, Ramsey with a brain? If only he could stay healthy for a season (and out of the news papers for non football related issues)
Walcott 5 – One got to feel sorry for him if Wenger doesn’t sell him. Has been jerked around by Wenger IMO. Was told by Wenger he could move from the wing to the central strikers position but never got a real chance. Should have been told he would always be a winger only and been given more game time. Doesn’t seem to be the type of player who can come in with no game game time under his belt and still make an impact.
Coquelin 6 – From her to goat. Not too long ago Coq was thought of as indispensable, now been move back to the bench for Elneny. Guess Wenger really never did like Coq.
Le coq was not dropped for elneny because they were playing together, he’s dropped that headless chicken called Ramsey.
Yes. Elneny should be paired with Coq. Elneny is a deep playmaker/distributor – he is not a pure DM like Coq.
And Yes. Coq is scarified so Wenger’s little buddy can be on the pitch. This has been going on for years. The team and winning are sacrificed so Wenger’s little pet can play.
@mohawk
Exactly. Favoritism lost us the League…
Sell Ramsey………. He’s the reason for half the favouritsm going on in the team
on the wings (he displaces campbell and other natural wingers)
on the midfield (he displaces the other hardworkers like Le coq, Cazorla )
plays for 90mins unsubbed…….favouritsm all the way!
Mo wants Utd to sign Ozil, yet, Sanchez wants City to sign him … Giroud takes a selfie, whilst explaining how it feels to end his 15 game goal drought and Wenger will never sell Ramsey’s in a million year’s ?
All you need to add is a wenger contract extension and you have anot arsenal horror story right there!
Yesterday’s game was bizarre to me – we seemed to be aiming for a draw, yet were very capable of getting a goal when behind – we picked up our game when behind, and then fell back when level on both occasions – why not aim for a win then?
The substitutions were bizarre, although I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by Jack.
Even when Walcott was one on one with Hart, I thought he wasn’t going to score – I don’t know if he is just low on confidence, or he just isn’t trying? Normally it is a problem with his positioning, but that wasn’t the case yesterday.
The De Bruyne goal was unbelievable and unforgivable, it didn’t seem like a great run, or a great shot from distance, yet both our defence and goalkeeper were beaten, which should ring serious alarm bells. I couldn’t understand what Bellerin was doing, and why he was running away from, instead of tackling De Bruyne.
I agree on your assessment of the second goal. We have given up too many goals like that this season. Players are given too much space to get a free shot at our goal from dangerous positions. To me Cech was not to blame, the ball was perfectly aimed at the inside of the post, if it had not been perfectly hit Cech would have stopped it.
Our defenders should close down players who are getting ready to unleash a shot on our goal.
And nutmegged Gabs which adds to the degree of difficulty a lot for Cech!
Yes. Thank You. If Arsenal cannot close down attackers, the best GK in the world won’t help. This is a recurring theme – failure to close down attackers in front of goal.
Am I missing something here? The match finished 2-2 right? Why does the post describe the game as an away win in the beginning? Did we win on away goals?
Have you missed the whole season and the last 10 years??? We have decided to treat spineless draws as if they are hard fought wins, just to try to make ourselves feel better.
It’s like a visualization exerciser, it starts like:
Imagine a football team, your team….
Imagine it with players like Bergkamp, Adams, Henry, Vierra, Keown