There were good performances from a number of Arsenal stars last night, as well as another spirited team effort to see off an impressive and up for it West Brom. Lacazette’s two goals capped an all round sharp game, while Alexis Sanchez continued towards his best. But the star of the show, for me was Nacho Monreal who has had a lot of recent criticism but was brilliant all over the pitch against the Baggies.
Cech 7 – Fantastic early save onto the post his highlight.
Koscielny 7.5 – Had to stand strong and did so. Not as in control as usual perhaps, especially in 1st half.
Mustafi 7 – Still looks to have a mistake in him but a good game in general.
Monreal 9 – Glorious goal line clearance, highest passing accuracy, most tackles and interceptions, most impressive!
Bellerin 7.5 – Always a threat but left us exposed at times.
Xhaka 7 – Some brilliant passes but also some poor and dangerous moments.
Elneny 8 – Super and energetic stuff from the Egyptian. That pairing looks promising.
Kolasinac 7.5 – Always willing, tireless worker and another strong game.
Ramsey 8 – Some great stuff with more free role Just needs better final ball or finish.
Alexis 8 – Great effort and some super skills from the improving Chilean.
Lacazette 8.5 – Sharper all the time and once again showed striker’s instinct and finish.
subs:
Giroud and Ozil 7 – Both looked keen and had an influence in their short cameos.
Maitland-Niles – No time for a rating.
Bob.
Monreal is also my MOTM but some players there got higher ratings. Generous rating for some..
Anyway, good win. 3pts
Sorry but I think Xhaka should have been subbed at half time and he’s a 4 imho. Yes Monreal had another good game and has really grown into the back 3 formation. Ramsey and Mustafi also played really well and I’m also impressed with Laca’s movement and workrate.
Yeah, i’m happy for xhaka to start on the bench tbh. Would rather wilshere/elneny or ramsey/elneny at the moment.
His crossing was also dreadful. None of his free kicks or corners found an arsenal player.
Agreed, Xhaka and Elneny looked good in the 2nd half but only because it was made easy for them, the game opened up and we had all the possession.
The 1st half however, was a different story.
I’m still not too convinced by either of them, neither are strong enough to be imposing DMs, both get muscled off the ball too easily and neither are skilful enough to be creative CMs!
I miss Santi!
Xhaka is an accident waiting to happen…. He is so sloppy with his passing, his positioning is bad & his ball recovery & tackling abilities are even worse… Wasted 35m…
I agree with the ratings although am very poor in this regard…
I really enjoyed and appreciate the win but i think our boys are still nervy and not confident enough, we almost conceded the same way we conceded against Stoke, a simple attack we could not defend well, we need to work on this…
And then i think Koscielny should be in the middle of the back three as Mustafi is shaky IMO.Also, Mustafi has a bit more pace than Koscielny to run down that flank…
Just like someone said yesterday, ‘All i want is 3 points and i don’t care how they do it’….
Am happy for the win and am happy for Lacazette…coyg!!!
i woke this morning saying these words inadvertent “how the f*** did he manage to do that”. so its that monreal contribution that resonates with me. Last night his defending was incredible and he deserves to pick up the champaign MOTM (agree completly).
Good ratings – agree.
You could actually add an 8 to Wenger for picking a tactical clever line-up and not his usual (prior?) Gung-ho, which could have cost us important points.
Only one Id completely differ with is Mustafi, I thought he had a very poor game. The way he gave that penno away, and he was the last man back so that’s prob why the ref played advantage, we were home team. He had another moment when he backed off a little, the way you do when you show a player down the wing, only the player was running straight in on goal he wasn’t going down wing. It could have really hurt us, was a little bit jittery at times. If the ref had of allowed the penno and then sent him off, I think people would not be so forgiving. Xhaka’s is too high, seven is a high score, 5 is average by his standards and six is slightly above, 6 is not doing anything wrong but not really doing anything of note by the same token. 7 is you done well son, made no mistakes and looked dangerous, made things happen, he was not a 7. I’d say Lacazette is man of the match, pressure from only joining and not wanting to let the fans down, but he strikes the ball ever so sweetly. His reading for the first goal showed us what we hoped, that he smells situations, he’s an opportunist, really nice stuff. Monreal did have an extremely efficient game, his passing, his choice of when to bring ball out or be another body up there. His partnership with Kolasinac as they know that side very well, he knows where Kolasinac will be, and he won imortant aerial duels and important interceptions, I can see why people would give it to Monreal. For me it’s Lacazette, WBrom were not too troubling on our defence, they had a patch in the first half when we struggled a bit. Lacazette’s game winning efficiency wins it, he was the difference, and I just love for now seeing a player score with ease that isn’t Alexis.
Great 3 points. Unto the next game. I love ARSENAL
Tough one for me – I agree Monreal had a blinder and everything he tried turned up trumps. Great energy but it wasn’t a disciplined performance, where was he playing? I’m sure his heat map was all over the place. That’s not going to work against top sides.
I agree with earlier comments about Mustafi. He seemed unusually nervous to me. And no way was Sanchez an 8. A few nice free kicks doesn’t make up for the number of mistimed passes he made, although he seems to be slowly coming back into form.
Yes, great observation. Montreal was found to be in the midfield at times. Also Mustafi was way too forward and often played at RWB! Discipline is needed to chase 4th.
i thought Sanchez could of been a lot better last night i thought for a minute he wanted a red card, he was holding on to the ball for too long and losing it, his trying too hard to be special rather then a team player but he did start to come around in the mid to later part of the second half,
good performance a good win , we should not moan about decisions going our way anymore recently we have had most go our way unlike a few years ago,
Kolasinac was a beast again but hats of to Monreal
it was sad to see Gibbs with the opposition shirt 🙁
he played well last night and good luck to him 🙂
Most of the ratings I agree with, but three I would change for sure.
Cech – 7.5 Didn’t have much to do, but pulled off a WC save at a very crucial moment.
Xhaka – 5 How he got a (7) is beyond me! Very poor game again.
Ramsey – 6 Again, not sure how he got such a high rating of (8). Great energy, but terrible passing, as always! I think that goal line clearance from Monreal came about because Ramsey couldn’t make a simple 4 yard pass to Elneny.
Ramsey didn’t have a bad game, he may have lost the ball a couple times but so did Alexis, why not bash Alexis for his high risk game?
I think Ramsey shown some good runs and he also did help us win the ball back more than Alexis did, Ramsey had a couple half chances and on another night he could have got a goal.
Ramsey wasn’t throwing himself to the ground and rolling around after a player slightly touched him like Alexis did, I was cringing at Alexis play acting during that game but that gets ignored?
Oh and whose run was it that got us the penalty? Ramsey!
He has failed us a lot over the years but he done well against the baggies, it can only be beyond people if they are taking his past games into consideration, Ramsey did make a couple mistakes but he done well. Not perfect but not a perfect rating, he done well and deserves a good rating.
you’ll never succeed in convincing anyone that ramsey outshines sanchez your bright enough to know that. lets agree sanchez’ contribution led to lacazette goal then the determination of ramsey resulted in another goal. contrary to slating ramsey, which i admit i view him a risk, i can see he’s picking up form (again) so i like to think he’s turned a corner, he needs to work on his passing and ball retrieval. Other than that i see his efforts will soon be rewarded with goals.
Apart from winning the penalty, he was extremely poor… His (and Xhaka’s) careless miss placed passes led to 99% of West Broms chances! Including the Mustafi incident.
He seems to want to be the “Big Man” at the club:
– Throwing strops when he doesn’t get the ball,
– Always furthest forward when 1 nil up, vacating enormous space in behind.
– Only occasionally can be bothered to track back to defend.
– Doesn’t score or assist enough to warrant playing futher forward.
– Panicks when a scoring opportunity presents itself.
& finally,
– The bloody tricks and flicks…! If i could punch the man for all times he’s lost the ball trying something like that, I’d have no right arm left…
You could argie this applies to Sanchez, but the difference is, he actually scores, assists, tackles, presses and create chances, so he warrants a strop every now and then. Ramsey is awful…
all true but you will never convince the 4th place junkies … Ramsey should be playing for a team like WBA its his level … i still have to laugh at the hands off barcelona brigade who bought in to the fake news of a couple of years ago…
i noticed ramsey does strops if he don’t receive the ball (normal i guess??). sometimes i put his behaviour right at his boss’ front door: being as wenger lauds ramsey as a future arsenal captain, reckless advice (imo).
Agree thought Monreal and Elneny were absolutely outstanding
Don’t see how Ozil deserves to start – Ramsey provides so much more when in more advanced position
Granit xhaka needs to improve or be chopped from the starting line up. Sentiments aside, the guy is so slow on the turn, clumsy in possession and misplaces many simple passes. Its sad given how much I like the guy. But truth is, unless he sorts himself out, he is disaster waiting to happen.
These marks overall are way too high. I agree with the poster who said six is for those who were neither good nor bad. And to me many of our players fell into that category. Monreal was MOTM by a country mile and now looks at home in his back three., so 8.5. Go back two years and his form was dire but he has improved immensely and is now a key player in defence. Lacazette was a 7 to 7.5 and looks to really be a player, once he fully settles in. His link up play proves he is a highly intelligent player and a true Wenger type. Also thought Bellerin had another good game and his form is now back after a few good games in a row, so 7. Hugely disappointing was Xhaka, a 3.5, who constantly puts us in danger by atrocious shortish passes-so no excuse- straight to opposition and I want him sold in Jan and a more reliable and mobile, faster replacement bought. Sanchez also was good and bad in equal measure, constantly losing possession but always looking dangerous near goal, so 6.5 for me. Cech 7 and pretty much everyone else a 6 or 6.5, apart from Kos who was a 7 or 7.5.
Ramsey gets an 8?!? Are you blind, he was sloppy and wasteful and had the first touch of a baby elephant.
He’s a liability, I don’t understand why people don’t see it. It baffles me.
COYG.
8 for Alexis? Was I watching a different game? Time to pull your head out of your arse, mate. Sanchez played for himself once again yesterday, and it could’ve cost us the game. Luckily it didn’t, but I still didn’t appreciate his showboating. There’s a place and time for that, and yesterday wasn’t the case. Perhaps he can do it against BATE on Thursday. Also, Xhaka and Mustafi didn’t have the best of games, so 7 is a bit generous, IMHO.