Considering that Arsenal had a daunting collection of players on the treatment table, and we started the game against Tottenham with an Alexis running on empty, a Cazorla that couldn’t see straight and a Koscielny that wasn’t 100% fit, the fact we ground out a draw against our bitter enemies begins to look impressive.
The Spuds will surely think that they deserved all three points, but I say they can count themselves lucky that we didn’t have a fit first team out or they may have been severely embarrassed!
Here are my Player Ratings for the game….
Petr Cech – 7.5
The big man has already proved he his worth his weight in gold this season, and he was directly responsible for keeping us in the game on many occasions.
Mathieu Debuchy – 6.5
Can’t have played any worse than his other appearances this season, but he has suddenly been made to play three times in a week. He is at last improving but he is some way off match-sharpness at the moment. Bring back Bellerin!
Per Mertesacker – 6.5
Looked more solid alongside the Boss but, although fine when we are under the cosh, he can’t deal with breakaway attacks any more when he is stranded on the half-way line.
Laurent Koscielny – 7
Not his usual dominant self, but allowances must be made for not being 100% fit for this one.
Nacho Monreal – 7
He has looked consistently solid this season, but even he looked very tired at times and gave the ball away more than usual.
Francis Coquelin – 7.5
Earned his money today. Couldn’t influence the game as much as usual but was firefighting consistently.
Santi Cazorla – 5
I thought about putting N/A for Santi as he didn’t really get play at all. Was obviously sick and should have been replaced much earlier.
Mesut Ozil – 8 MOTM
There is no way we would have had a point if Magic Ozil wasn’t on the pitch. He was everywhere and is now our most consistent player. Record breaking assist king!
Joel Campbell – 6
He’s a trier but was way out of his depth here. It’s time for Wenger to try other options on the wing. Get well soon Ramsey!
Alexis Sanchez – 6
Started in lively fashion but it is clear he needs his batteries recharging at the earliest opportunity. A shadow of his former self.
Olivier Giroud – 6
Simply not Ollie’s day. We all saw his misses and his petulant spat with Vertonghen. Looked more and more frustrated as the game progressed.
Subs
Matthieu Flamini – 6
Couldn’t help but be an improvement on a sick Cazorla, but hardly a game-changer
Gibbs – 7.5
Brought some much-needed energy to the side when replacing Campbell. Immediate impact for his second League goal ever!
Arteta – N/A
A cameo performance but it’s good to see another player returning to fitness.
Özil is world class, but Cech is my MOTM.
Wenger needs to Learn to know that subs can be made at exactly halftime…………… Imagine if gibbs had been brought on after halftime mark, alot of things would have changed(possibly more goals to our name)……. But waiting until the 70th minute to alter can be so annoying……. Wenger is indeed a stubborn man!
I said Gibbs over Campbell three games ago and definitely for the Bayern game, I didn’t see you holla his name, but now with a goal and a good display behind him it makes all the sense in the world.
It would leave us vulnerable at left back since tv;5 left we don’t have a third left back look how stacked we are on the right back
wenger got no balls to bench a player like Mertesacker…………. Where could we find free balls for him?
if a player doesn’t show impact, and we are a goal/goals down ….why keep him all day on the pitch????
Because a goal can come at any time, including the last minute of the game. I’ve lost count of all the times we got a match winning goal after 90min.
Can’t knock Cech or Ozil.
Basically they were the only two players that did not look quite as tired as the rest of them.
I think Flamini deserves better. Spurs were enjoying themselves in the midfield and then Flamini comes on, throws in a couple of kicks and lunges and suddenly, Spurs looked lost.
He bossed the midfield yesterday for me.
Couldn’t agree more. He made a huge difference. He is known for lunging in to players but if you actually look at his challenges he is a very good tackler
Flamini was badly needed, but he really should have come on half an hour earlier. The need was obvious.
Ozil is back fully and the only positive of the last transfer window is Cech. I think he will give us more than 15 points John Terry talked about. Am not too bitter that we did not win though I wanted a win at all cost. But consider we were playing with only 10 men in the first half because of Cazorla’s condition.
Ozil and Cech were in the game yesterday. I’ll add Kos and Monreal in the mix. Every other player looked tired. Flamini did ok when he came on. Gibbs scored so big shout out to Him for the draw…..
Quick recovery to the injured players!
………. and the so-called pundits said that Ozil is not physically suitable for the EPL
Ozil must be frustrated that he is putting so chances on the plate for Giroud. I know Giroud is trying, but I think his concentration levels are poor. He reminds me of the wicketkeeper in cricket, who drops simple catches, while taking a blinder, all of which can make a huge difference to the result. I am 100% sure strikers like Vardy, Benteke, Aguero, Kane, Lukaku and a few others would relish being served by Ozil at the rate he is dishing them up.
No point in Giroud being angry at those misses as Wenger said…..he needs to understand that these are the kind of games where a lack of concentration, needless barging and getting angry does more harm than good to the team cause.
Vardy is in his late twentys, he looks like he should have been doing this all his career but what has he been doing. Lukaku and Benteke are at a similar level to Giroud however I’d definitely take Giroud over Lakaku. Benteke is quicker but other than that there is not much between them. I’d say Kane is less wasteful than Giroud but not prolifically so. And Aguero is the one true gifted player in that list, he should be mentioned along with Suarez Neymar Bale etc.
Hi Trevor. The view I was trying to get across is the number of chances Ozil creates is something other strikers would thrive on and I only looked at the those currently in the Epl . True Neymar, Ronaldo, Saurez, Messi, Ibrahimovich and Lewandowski will attempt to score from more difficult assist oppurtunities from the kind that Ozil creates.
The problem I see with Giroud is that the easy one’s even go to waste. He might be scoring, but not as much as he should be in relation to the number of chances that come his way, and that is more due to his lapses of concentration at times. He can be a top top striker if he is focused and posseses an instinct that tells him where exactly the goalposts are, He is strong in the air, has a good shot from either foot and is physically strong, lacking only in the hunger that should come with these qualities.
Benteke? Kane? lukaku?……. okay Maybe lukaku…… benteke?
thought maybe kane also helped us by missing a couple of chances, could have been a day to forget.
Once again rubbish biased ratings, for goodness sake let them be realistic atlleast. Everyone and thier dog could see Spurs battered us for atleast 70-75mins, to say we played poor collectively is a understatement so how majority of the players have got 6/7 is beyond me.
No one bar cech and ozil even deserves a 5 thats how gutless a performance it was, the subs in thier 10mins showed more fight, We bottled it once again when we had a brilliant opportunity to go top.
Massive game in 2 weeks away to west brom who will be defensively sound and park bus, These players better get thier act together becuase at the moment only Ozil & Cech are showing that inner desire of actually wanting to win something this season.
oh and fans need to get thier heads out of Koscielny backside YES it was him who was at fault for the goal not Mertasacker, Koscielny didnt push up & Boy am i glad Keown addressed it on MOTD & shut some fans up who always luv sticking blame on Mertasacker.
I’m a Mertesacker fan but he had a very poor game in comparison to the other defenders he only won 3 tackles all game
Cech MOTM for me. He kept us safe.
While awesome ozil might break titi’s assists record… Sh***y sanchez might just break di maria’s record of giving the ball away most no of times in a single match…