Danny Welbeck may have missed a glorious late chance to level the scores and earn Arsenal an FA cup replay at Watford but he did score one goal and was still our best player on the day even though he only played for about 25 minutes. The introduction of him, Iwobi and Walcott injected some much needed pace and energy and nearly saved our skins.
Ospina 6.5 – Looked calm and controlled and can’t be blamed for the goals.
Chambers 6 – Good attacking threat but was involved in the farce of an opener. Nearly scored.
Mertesacker 5.5 – Very good first half, horrible mistake, struggled after.
Gabriel 4 – What on earth was he doing? Should have been sent off and it might have been better if he had been.
Gibbs 6 – Solid but struggled to impact the game and should have done better with free header.
Coquelin 6 – Started very well but struggled against the tide in second half.
Elneny 5 – Very good all round game but those shocking misses really hurt us. Shooting practice today lad.
Campbell 6 – At least he gave his all but just didn’t quite come off on the day.
Ozil 6.5 – Another assist and some sublime stuff from the German.
Alexis 5.5 – We desperately need the old Sanchez back instead of the headless chicken we have now.
Giroud 5 – Did he play?
subs:
Walcott and Iwobi 6 – Lively and dangerous.
Welbeck 7 – Great goal, shame about the miss but at least he made things happen. Must be 1st choice now.
We have not seen a lot of Elneny and what I have seen so far has not been too bad compared to some of his team mates (Flamini & Ramsey).
However in football more often than not you more or less get what you pay for. After that you can try to develop the player.
We paid £5 million for Elneny don’t expect a scoring machine like Frank Lampard.
Whether we payed for you less or more that doesnt matter,if you flop we say you’ve flopped,we dont excuse your failings just because of your price tag unless we are talking about teams with lesser ambition like the aston villas and watfords!
Elneny has shown enough to deserve to be a starter alongside Coquelin, he doesn’t leave gaping holes like Ramsey and he is calm on the ball, he isn’t a complete footballer yet but what 23 year old is???
Do I think he is worth more than what we paid? Easily. I would be saying he looks like a bargain even if he cost us twice as much as he did. What we paid shouldn’t be an indicator at his ability otherwise Alexis isn’t as good as Torres who cost £50mil… I think we would all say Alexis is better and price means little 😉
I honestly want to see him start (as long as he keeps performing like he has) until Cazorla is fit again and even then I would like to see Cazorla as 1st choice and Elneny as backup, not backup because he needs to develop but because Cazorla is such a joy to watch ^.^
READ & DIGEST:
Let me riddle the last 10 years of so called building the new Arsenal stadium hoax!
If Wenger was anywhere as astute and malleable in his tactics & management then he would instead of making excuses of all his best players leaving the club would’ve signed hard working gems from the lesser teams and motivated them enough to have grabbed the league at least thrice by now off his ‘Invincibles’ credentials.
There were so many players available at the lower clubs who could’ve done marvelously well at Arsenal and wouldn’t have costed a dime. For example, he could’ve signed Defoe after RvP left, Milner could’ve replaced Song. And what does he do?! Buys the lot like Gervinho, Squillaci & Bendtner. These are just a few to name from hundreds that could’ve done the job at least ONCE.
We have already seen it doesn’t take immense amount of spending and talent to grind to the top as Leicester is a proof. Even Fergie in his last year in charge took a very average Man Utd side and won the PL. All it needs is a bit of tactical awareness, man management and basic team motivation.
I can’t digest the fact that Wenger created the Invincibles legacy himself. It was THAT TEAM that was responsible for everything. They dug it out, fought for each other and were ruthless while the manager took all the plaudits. He just made a few jackpots with the likes of Henry & Fabregas which I will credit him for. And that too David Dein takes some share of credit for in my assessment.
All I’m saying is new stadium or not this guy with any sort of resources or situation should’ve won us the league by now with his experience and guile. I mean c’mon guys open your eyes. We have been lied to and cheated all along. I had lost faith in him a long time ago and don’t know why people were still holding onto the strings.
But now its all or nothing! We have come to this stage that we risk the reputation and pride of our beloved Arsenal. And all because of one man! God help The Arsenal!
Imma push this down every Gunner’s mind. Re-evaluate the entire scene for once!
Wow! I paste a message on 3 articles and I’m the troll. Just read the info that I’m parting with. Living far away from London this is the least I can do.
dont listen to him. his head is filled with french fries
I like french fries!
Blah blah blah.
Only truth was stadium hoax and Deins involvement.
Wenger bought Arshavin for a club record in 2007? which was after we moved into a stadium.
Wenger knew his budget was going to be hit and thus signed players like Nasri for over the odds (Nasri had resigned a short while before we bought him and as a result Wenger paid more than he should have but hey, he got his man!)
Dein told us all when he tried to get Usmanov on the board, we need to be able to reinvest what we make into the team otherwise we will stop winning things, look what happened.
If you wanna blame anyone then blame the real reason, Ivan the terrible and Silent Stan.
The more Arsenals cash reserves build up then the more the team is worth, the more the team is worth then greater loans can be secured against this asset (yes I say asset and not football club as that is all we are to him!), Arsenal is just a building block for Silent Stan to gain more wealth.
Here is a nice quote from Silent Stan:
“If you want to win championships then you would never get involved. I think the best owners in sports are the guys that sort of watch both sides a bit.”
Only an idiot would read that from the OWNER and think that Wenger has the final say on how much is spent, Wenger is just an employee.
“Imma push this down every Gunner’s mind. Re-evaluate the entire scene for once!”
I will push this down into your mind;
Silent Stan is the issue and nothing will change while he is the owner, if Wenger leaves then the next manager will be given the same objectives and would the new manager do as well????
Make money.
That is Silent Stans objective.
Next manager will have to achieve targets else get sacked.
Next manager may have players sold who was vital to his plans like how Nasri was sold by the board!
Who else was sold by the board instead of Wenger?
Also now answer me this, when has Wenger EVER put the blame on the board? At Arsenal or at any previous club? I couldn’t find any example when I looked.
Would Wenger blame the board for not doing enough to keep RvP? I can’t see an example in his character that would indicate he would so in the end the blame gets put on the player for being greedy and Wenger for being incompetent.
chambers gibbs coquelin 6?
were we watching the same game?
They were absolutely shocking yesterday
Chambers gabriel gibbs and giroud should never ever play for arsenal again.
sanchez could do with the bench now he is turning into a liability.But whose there to replace him?
Apart from ozil and ospina all those who started the game yesterday deserve 2s at best.
But above all wenger out
Hahaha……….I don’t understand u in a space of 24hrs!
How the tides change so fast!
If barca can put at least 10 goals whilst everton putting 4 goals.
Then I see no reason as to why wenger should remain arsenal manager.
He should leave as soon as the end of the first half whistle is blown on saturday
United put 8 past us once and that didn’t get him sacked, why would he be sacked now? I mean he knows he won’t be sacked no matter what and he is not leaving on his own…
We do not need a pLayer Ratings…………. GO AWAY!!!
Our returning injured players are turning into absolute sh*te this season.
Coquelin is playing like a charlton midfielder.
sanchez is playing like a barca reject.
Atleast welbeck is trying
Many of our players have been average this season
koscienly bellerin giroud and sanchez fall into that list.Cazorla at times too
Whilst ramsey walcott and chamberlain have been mediocre.
This is cause for concern
I was disappointed with Elneny and Coquelin, signs of the old problems. Plenty forward and defenders back but there was huge space between both. Alexis started brightly enough and was by no means one of the worst offenders, his spark has gone . Worst offender goes to Giroud and Gabriel. Giroud, I am getting used to it at this stage, I really wanted to give him full support but I am back to feeling how I felt when we first signed him. Ozil is pure class, seriously clever player. Gabriel, not a very intelligent player but still plenty of time to turn things round, but like with Flam …rash.
Our returning injured players are
turning into absolute garbage this
season.
Coquelin is playing like a charlton
midfielder.
sanchez is playing like a barca reject.
Atleast welbeck is trying
Many of our players have been
average this season
koscienly bellerin giroud and sanchez
fall into that list.Cazorla at times too
Whilst ramsey walcott and
chamberlain have been mediocre.
This is cause for concern
AFC = 1 star bed and breakfast in peckham.
Great foundations but being run to the ground by lack of investment and poor project management. Needs restoration!!
Are you people even sane? No other then ozil was man of the match. I never felt pity for a player before, but ozil in this team is sad to watch. Could have easily make 4 assist. Every of his pass was a pass which made a player face the keeper in a 1 vs 1 situation.
retarded fanbase. how some of you can doubt his class is still a mystery to me.
Spot on gooner!!! Ozil is just too good for us
Walcott was lively and dangerous? He gets the same 6 rating as Joel Campbell and more than Sanchez who was explosive on the right hand side after 70 minutes ? Go and see the last 20 minutes when he came on. Walcott wasn’t even part of one attack. Iwobi was far more dangerous and looked like a player more experienced than Walcott. Had 3 shots 2 just wide and 1 of the post. Walcott is just easing his whole career getting easy and quick money. Same as Wilshere 90k a week for being in the treatment room.
You have to play Sanchez on the right. It has become too predictable that on the left he always likes to cut in. The moment he switched to the right (70mins) he was explosive yesterday.
You can count on 1 hand the players that Wenger has bought over the recent years that improved. To many players have gone backwards.
This tells you Wenger’s system of play is a busted flush. Even inferior teams seam to know how to cope with our attacking formula and our defence is an open book.Money will not be a no object so we’re stuck with the irish jig wearing cowboy unless Arsenal start losing money.I’m afraid the future is not looking bright with him,this board and the French lacky hold the reins.
Demo’s and lots of them would be a start
Ozil has been our player of the season imo
He deserves a trophy
Yeh, the “I throw the best tantrum when everything isn’t going my way and people are tackling me” cup.
Or “I’m the best player at Arsenal and love to go AOL when I’m needed most’ shield.
Or how about the “it’s not my type of game” trophy.
Only joking: Still our second best players after Santi.
*AWOL
Gabriel – 1 (should’ve seen Red, and was solely responsible for the 1st goal)
Ospina – 2 (can people finally see him for what he is – a very average, and a short keeper… “unstoppable” shot my arse – Cech saves that one with his eyes closed)
Ozil – 10 (it must be sad to be a genius among sheep)
You said, “Another assist and some sublime stuff from the German.”, and yet you give him a 6.5? LoL
our problem is not the defense
we cant just score goals with so many attempts we shoudl have scored 4-5 goals and win it by 5-2
without a creative midfielder like Cazorla or Ramsey(when he plays well) our attacking play is very predictable maybe playing Iwobi instead of Elneny or Coq is at least better
But Wenger’s biggest mistake was to play Chambers instead of Bellerin
Bellerin with his pace opens up the opponents. Why did AW opt for Chambers? he is awful as RB better in the center
man of the match was Ozil
Ospina 6 (could Cech save the 2nd goal? maybe)
Chambers 4 Mert 5.5 Gabriel 4 Gibbs 5
Elneny 5 (missed a sitter) Coq 4
Sanchez 6 Ozil 7 Cambell 6 giroud 5
wellbeck 6 walcot 4 Iwobi 5
AW 3