Arsenal player ratings from Sunderland – Cech MOTM

It might seem a bit odd to pick the Arsenal keeper as the Man of the Match in a game in which the Gunners’ biggest disappointment was not making the most of the chances we created but if it had not been for the agility and ability of Petr Cech we could have come away with nothing from the game.

Cech 8 – Showed all his class and experience.

Bellerin 6.5 – Tried hard but to little effect and nearly cost us with an awful defensive header.

Mertesacker 6 – Lucky to not concede a penalty and exposed by Defoe a few times.

Koscielny 7 – Solid and on the front foot as usual.

Monreal 7 – Good game from the Spaniard. Linked up well down the left.

Elney 6.5 – Good work rate and first half but struggled after the break.

Ramsey 6 – Nothing much came off for the Welshman and one defensive error nearly led to a goal.

Alexis 7.5 – Typical energy and desire and good free kick.

Ozil 6.5 – Some good stuff but faded after the break. Looks tired.

Iwobi 6.5 – Slow start, improved but missed a great chance.

Giroud 6 – Put himself about manfully and linked up but lack of confidence is affecting him.

subs:
Walcott, Welbeck and Wilshere 6 – Okay but nothing spectacular from WWW.com

Tags Alexis Giroud Wilshere

28 Comments

  1. Feel sorry for Cech, Ozil, Bellerin, Alexis, Coquelin
    They deserve a lot more

    Ozil didn’t get on the PFA team and may not break Henry’s assist record because Wenger was too cheap to get a Top CF. We possibly could have won the PL.

    Players need to stand up to Wenger and the board

    1. Feel sorry for them??!!
      Dont they also contribute to the result?
      Arent they paid well?

      If they are so bothered let them take action and responsibility.
      It is what past chelsea teams used to do and what atletico is doing

    2. when Cech is seen as the Man of the Match against sunderland,

      then know that the opposition strike force was Fantastically troublesome and our defence as $h!tt¥

    3. I don’t really feel that sorry for Özil. He managed to prove his worth by breaking the PL record of chances created in a season, and I’m pretty sure he’s on top when averaging per season too. It takes two to dance tango (or to get an assist).

      But then again, he’s let down by his other attacking teammates and has reason to be frustrated at them, as well as angry with Wenger.

  2. Even if Arsene just came out and said ‘we haven’t been good enough and we’re working hard to improve’, it wouldn’t change where we are, but I’d feel better about it.

    Right now it’s just a case of him always making stupid excuses. ‘We were unlucky’, ‘they set up defensively’, ‘the referees made poor decisions’, ‘we played well but didn’t take our chances’. It’s just so menotenous and just reinforces the impression that he genuinely believes that this team is good enough and is performing well enough right now, and that he doesn’t think change is needed.

    I’m resigned to the fact that he isn’t going anywhere, but after he’s come out and said he didn’t think we’ll be very busy in the summer transfer window, I’m really worried about next season. This season it looks like we’ll struggle to even hold on to 4th. Next season we could be fighting for Europa League spots.

    1. Mick, Wenger did say as much the other day. He said this season we haven’t been good enough, and then mentioned how the entire squad feels guilty about it.

    1. Agreed except for Lampost would give him 0 unless you gave him 1 for putting on the uniform….don’t get me wrong I don’t hate the man my hatred is directed to someone else, wish him luck to wherever his fortune takes him back to France, he would be great in Turkey….but his stint in the EPL specially with ARSENAL must come to a timely end.

      1. Interesting wengeresque thought: Could Giroud do well as a defensive midfielder? He’s got the physique, and him tracking back kinda supports the idea. He’d probably do better there right now than as a striker :p

    2. Can scarcely believe the non-sense, ignorance and disrespect.

      The Gab/Kos pairing had been leaking goals. So Wenger goes back to Mert/Kos and voila….
      2 clean sheets in a row.

      so how is the excellence repaid? with nonsensical ratings.

      The fact is the Mert/Kos DEFENSE/GK did their job – clean sheet. It was the attack that failed. Did anyone actually SEE the game??? or the score???

      So I rate as follows:

      Mert/Kos pairing: 8
      Cech: 8
      Attack: 5.5

    3. Additionally it was in fact Bellerin’s ridiculously bad def. header that put Arsenal under pressure. Thankfully Mert handled the ball to save the goal, save Bellerin and prevent the loss.

      Does anyone actually watch these games or do they just base their comments on previously-established bias??

      Shocking.

  3. Too generous for my taste

    Cech 7 – Showed all his class and experience.

    Bellerin 6 – Tried hard but to little effect lacks end product with his crosses.

    Mertesacker 6 – Decent game but will always be a risk because of his lack of pace (could probably only out run Giroud).

    Koscielny 7 – Solid and on the front foot as usual.

    Monreal 6 – Solid game from the Spaniard but failed to impress in the opponents half.

    Elney 6.5 – Stable influence didn’t make many mistakes and seems to be trusted by his team mates more and more. Still not the leader and personality his position could do with.

    Ramsey 5 – Nothing much came off for the Welshman – he should not have started.

    Alexis 6 – Good work rate as always but lacked that decisive moment of magic. Looks like he is losing faith in his team mates.

    Ozil 6 – Looks disillusioned like Sanchez, his talents are being wasted.

    Iwobi 6 – Always looks threatening with his pace but is wasteful with the ball. Not unlike Ox when he was younger. His last few games have been average, the fact he is our best option tell us more about our bench then about his play.

    Giroud 4 – Played without conviction or urgency. Knows he has no competition so can take the time to sulk rather than play and press defenders.

    subs:
    Walcott 6 – Say what you want but it is a sad state of affairs when he delivers our best balls into the box.

    Wilshire 6 – good to have him back, if he only could stay healthy he might be one of the fighters and leaders we need – could not be expected to do much with the few minutes of playing time he was given.

    Welbeck 6 – Not the answer for us at striker but his pace caused more problems for Sunderland in 20 minutes then Giroud did all day.

  4. It’s bad that we played a team 3rd from the bottom and our best player was our goal keeper, what on earth does that tell you wenger? People on the road from 3.00am to travel and watch that display yesterday wenger, what is your explanation to them?

  5. Fully concur with much if the above. You could put a cardboard cutout of Giroud on the pitch and probably wouldn’t notice a difference. Ramsey seems to get the ball and then goes round in ever decreasing circles finally disappearing up….., well you know the rest! Why has the Coquelin/Elneny partnership been split up just to accommodate the golden boy? Thursday nights in the Europa league here we come!

  6. Yes this has been a
    classic Arsenal season.
    Loopy Lord Harris said
    we had 200 mill to spend
    and we ended up spending 10 mill 🙂
    Wenger said his scouts went all over the planet and to the moon and mars
    but could not find even one outfield player suitable for Arsenal 🙂
    Wenger assured us that we did not need a striker as
    Sanchez Giroud Walcott Chamberlain Ramsey and Wellbeck were all world class.
    City offered 40 mill for Wilshere but Arsenal said no he’s too valuable
    while contract extensions were given to Arteta and Rosicky.
    Between them the 3 have notched up about
    5 starts in 52 games and about zero goals 🙂
    We exited the Mickey mouse cup in the 2nd round
    and scraped through to the ECL last 16.
    In January Wenger said “Arsenal are contending for 3 trophies”.
    The FA cup slipped away , the usual exit in the ECL last 16
    and now no chance for the EPL.
    Now Wenger says we must fight for 4th place
    while Stan says trophys are meaningless.
    It’s deja vu all over again
    as it was in 2005/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16
    now and ever shall be
    Amen 🙂

  7. i am also of the opinion that wenger deserves all the criticism but that aside everybody who wishes for simeone should just stop being a fan of Arsenal and support chelsea or stoke or atletico or something.. sorry but i now absolutely hate simeone.. that guy is a sh*tty guy with a sh*tty character and he is the biggest disgrace of a manager!!! did you guys see the incident against malaga? i like some of of mourinhos arrogant but funny lines (same as i like ibrahimovich’s lines) but as a manager simeone is muuuuuch more irritating than mourinho, till now i thought he just had an extreme defensive style (which i dont really like, but that would be just my opinion) but what he did against malaga was just despicable!

  8. Remove cech,bellerin,koscienly,gazorla,ozil and sanchez from this team and all you remain with is a shell,a championship club…modern football demands high intensity play and workrate from players,luk at how leicester thrash teams just becoz of high work rate by their players…tiki taka or whatever it is we claim to play has been overtaken by events and we need to adapt. We alway play possesion football with no result to back it up… In simple terms we need diego simeone or bilic to take us to new heights!!!

  9. Do not understand why he does not play Welbeck ahead him and Iwobi have good work-rate together very creative…

    This also applies for Campbell I do not understand why he still plays Walcott ahead of him…We will end up losing a true talent if he keep benching him for under-par Walcott.

  10. I agree

    Welbeck, Iwobi, Eleney and Campbell have earned the right to start
    I would play iwobi or Campbell on the wings with Alexis
    Welbeck up front instead of Giroud and Theo
    Eleney instead of Ramsey

    If Ozil needs rest play Iwobi no. 10 and Campbell and Alexis on the wings.

    Theo, Giroud, Ramsey should only come off the bench for the rest of the season

    1. In the land of the Blind the one eye is King……Welbz is not the answer either, better option than Lampost maybe, we all expect too much from a man that was sidelined for a year and that in all honesty is not a great finisher himself, same we are now hoping Jack is the answer, well sit tight.

      1. Never said he was the answer of course not we need a world class striker (Dybala, Griezmann, Aubameyang)..but for the remaining fixtures I want Welbeck over Giroud…Welbeck and Iwobi seem to bring out a more creative attack and play which is what we need right now!

        1. Agree with your assessment let’s hope Le Fraud (that is going nowhere), feels the pressure and buys us any of the above whoever is available…..or look elsewhere, meantime I guess Welbeck should be given the chance

  11. Giroud was signed for a similar amount to Robin van persie. I felt sorry for him as soon as I realised he was nowhere near as good. Now I don’t. His reaction to when a move breaks down is equivalent to what you would expect from Ronaldo in a Sunday league team. He seems to think he’s too good. But its the opposite. #£40,000,002?

    1. Similar to van persie’s price? 2004 and 2012 and you call it the same price? Someone is way cheaper here

  12. I’d like to see Iwobi attack the fullback more often, around that area he would scare allot of defenders. He is such a talented boy but he needs to work on his midfield runs into danger area. Speaking of runs into the box, Giroud, my god was he bad on the weekend. Seriously, Jezuz. Ramsey, kamikaze mode resurfaces. Giroud and Ramsey, they should have had to earn their way back into the team by coming on late in games and giving the boss something to think about. Coq and Elneny looked fine, there didn’t look like a change was crying out. Giroud has looked like something you’d see down in league 2, he needs a goal yeah, but he should have been trying harder from the subs bench. At this stage Id rather see Willock or MavIdidi get a rare shot than witness Giroud smile when he does something costly.

  13. our inability to penetrate from d middle cost us d 3points….I have said it many times here that we struggles against any compact team whenever Ozil/Ramsey are playing….. Ozil is only good at distributing passes, he can’t take on an opponent. he can’t attack with d ball, Ramsey is just so useless…Wilshere or Campbell would have been introduced earlier to create spaces for the team…overdependence on Sanchez to do that doesnt make any sense….I missed Santi, Jack and Rozza technical abilities to unlock barriers from d middle…..these guys hardly make back passes, Ozil and Ramsey are just too good in making back passes

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