After giving my best ever ratings for the win against Southampton, I am very sad to have to post one of the worst for this abysmal home defeat to Watford. One thing should be said… this was a completely different side than the one that beat the Saints. This one was supposed to be Wenger’s best XI!
It is no surprise the fans are thinking our season is already over. Well… this is what I made of it…
Cech 6
Can’t really blame him for either goal, so can’t be feeling as bad as the rest of them…
Gabriel 5
Everyone wants to know why Bellerin didn’t play, and rightly so…..
Mustafi 4
Probably one of his worst displays for Arsenal, and he has lost his ‘Lucky Charm’ label as well….
Koscielny 6
Probably the only good defender on the pitch….
Monreal 5
Not up to his usual standard in defence, but nearly scored an absolute cracker. Nearly…..
Coquelin 5
Our best midfielder – but considering he is the only one left that is faint praise indeed
Ramsey 3
20 minutes of hell from the Welshman. I hope he is avoiding the internet today for his own sake…
Iwobi 6
Brilliant goal, but not much else to be said…..
Ozil 4
Our World Class midfielder looked anything but… Didn’t influence his own elbow…
Sanchez 6.5
Always the best trier on the pitch for Arsenal, but perhaps in this game he was the only one. Dread to think what he is thinking about his team-mates today….
Giroud 3
Back to his usual self when starting. Hasn’t Wenger worked out he needs to be a supersub yet….
Subs:
Oxlade-Chamberlain 6
Should have started, but he was definitely better than Ramsey!
Walcott 5
Started the second half well after replacing ineffective Giroud, but sizzled out again…
Perez 5
Another one that should have started. Nearly scored a great equalizer. Nearly….
arsenal have the dumbest fan always want to blame giroud Gabriell. we never lose a game when bellerin play ozil Sanchez iwobi Chamberlain Ramsey Wolcott ox Francis are just not that good ozil Sanchez are bench player for top club do any of you arsenal think ozil Sanchez would play for Man United Barcelona Real Madrid Bayern Munich Juventus Chelsea Man City week in week out
Crosses to OG yesterday 0.0. Sanchez and Ozil have much much more of the ball than OG. Why couldn’t they unlock that bus they played?
There is no movement from him, you have to play the cross directly on him. When he comes on as a sub he has more movement up top like he has something to prove.
The cross from Sanchez earlier this year was way behind him and he scopioned it. When he has his hand up it means cross not wait till he makes a run.
This season our midfield is the problem mainly as a whole.
Then you have bit part players or as I call them 20 minute players, thats how long they play good in a game. There are many of these. Too bad the Manager doesn’t see it. We won’t be winning the title so long as the Manager overlooks this.
Wait and see us beat Chelsea at the weekend most supporters will think we’re back in it, I don’t think so. We would be 6 points behind and they would’ve already played 3 of the 5 closest teams behind them already.
We let a winless in 9 Everton beat us, and a winless in 7 Watford beat us. Sorry but you don’t lose against out of form sides like that. Turf Moor is more of a fortress than Emirates.
jamaicanarsenal is talking nonsense… i was soooo angry at gabriel what a rubbish performance!! and the rest of the team.. they should all be ashamed and why is sanchez again the best of the bunch? he was bad too, he fought because of that i am not angry at him but we should stop worshipping him lets be honest.. IWOBI was the only one who can be proud of his performance, everything good we could do went through him even that chance of walcott was through iwobi beating some players..
what a crap performance this is why the media makes fun of us and why we the fans know that arsenal wont win the league.. bunch of bottlers.. and i am one of the supporters who always try to be supportive!! really disappointed
Fully agree. I don’t know why the discussion is about people who did not play. The 11 men Wenger put out were good enough to win the game and they should have with their performance. Th reality is that they did not do their job. How is that the manager’s fault? Will u be saying the same thing if we had put out Welbeck and Bellerin and they got injured. I keep saying this- a champion team does not depend on a few players to take them through. You will always be missing your key players at some pt in time in the season. The whole team needs to stand up. It is about playing with different players and combinations and still managing to get a result.
Coming to Wenger – I am no AKB and I hate Wenger when he says we are unlucky to lose; he should accept that such performance is unacceptable and should have a go at his main players; What message is he sending to his players. We never managed a shot on target in the first half. I don’t care who our right back is – if we cannot manage a shot on target for 45 mins I would pull up each and every player in that dressing room and question if they deserve to wear the Arsenal shirt.
I blame Wenger for not being able to instill a winning mentality in the team for the last 13 years (and not for the team selection). Both the goals that Watford scored were soft goals and this happens – even to the best of teams. But what a champion team will do is pick themselves up and relentlessly pummel the opposition and get a win. Instead we just wilted under the pressure and looked clueless in the first half.
Before winning the PL or the CL the first and foremost thing is to take pride in wearing the Arsenal shirt and show the courage and strength befitting of a club like Arsenal and in all those respects our team has failed us miserably
our title fight was ended by watford at home. now let that sink in.
Our title run was ended by City and Everton almost 2 months ago…
Watford loss is just the beginning of the yearly cycle (last season it was home loss to Swansea).
Now what will happen is, we will lose to Chelsea. 2/3-0 I reckon. We will also lose to Spurs at WHL, but we will begin our drive around March when the team realizes once again that they need points for the Wenger Trophy. It happens every year, like a clockwork.
I would so love to contradict you but the facts speak for themselves. I can only hope for the best now !
I actually thought Iwobi deserved MOTM. Scored our only goal, caused a lot of problems early on in that second half, although he did fade away later on, probably from exhaustion. Sanchez did get an assist, but held onto the ball too long on so many occasions, and tried “Hollywood passes”, when easier options were available. He did work his socks off as always though.
Only positive is that Wenger cannot pick Ramsey now. Although knowing our luck, we’ll beat Chelsea without Ramsey, Ramsey will then make a miraculous recovery, and Wenger will start him against Bayern haha.
We need to SELL Ramsey for the teams sake and the player’s ! cannot recollect a single match where he made the difference. Gets paid way too much to run up and down the pitch with no real impact !
Iwobi played well and took his goal well giving the manager a substitution headache. AW got the final sub wrong as the two reasons we were able to push Watford back (and score) in the second half was Walcott coming on (to inject pace and replace the static Giroud) and Coquelin shielding the back two (since Monreal and Gabriel also pushed up). Iwobi played well until he was shifted into a CM role to accommodate Perez. The boy was tiring and was being asked to do what he has admitted he isn’t good at? It just let Watford back in.
Both Ozil and Sanchez missed good chances with Sanchez spending way too much time dribbling on the ball. Yes you can dribble, pass the effing ball and get it up the pitch. Ozil had a good chance to shoot but wasted ait as an incomplete pass to Monreal. The first half was really poor and the subs should have come earlier. The Ramsey injury should have brought Ox and Walcott (or Perez) on. I suppose Bould wasn’t bold enough (pun intended) to make that call. It would have been risky with only one sub left but we would have pushed Watford back and had more time to get back in it/win it.
To be fair to AW/SB Giroud looked a good call against a towering Watford defence but as soon as AW/SB sussed out Watford’s gameplan- they should have switched it. I will say again AW unless forced to never makes timely subs.
Giroud is a good CF, but sometimes he goes in goaless Spells, like last season 12 matches without a goal.
We were better when Alexis was CF. He was consistently scoring. Giroud was doing well off the bench trying to prove himself. Put Giroud back on the bench and put Alexis up front and for God’s sake start Lucas. He has proven that he is good enough to start and why buy him if we won’t start him.
Also Ramsey has been consistently bad, why start him. Yes we have an injury crisis in midfield but Ox was very good in cm. Play Ox with Coquelin or even Adelaide. He can’t be that much worse. Force Ramsey to improve.
Honestly I blame Wenger for stubbornly playing Ramsey, not starting Lucas, not putting Alexis back up front and not starting Walcott. He scored a HAT-TRICK
Start Walcott, Lucas and Alexis
Start Coquelin, Oxlade and Ozil in CM
ozil was fantastic giroud on Gabriell were the problem Wolcott one on one with the keeper. im still analyzing Sanchez game not world class for me. world class play make the game look easy not over dribbling and passing how long its going to take for us to realize ozil is a fraud would Tottenham trade ozil for ali
“would Tottenham trade ozil for ali”
At the moment, no.
Arsenal has never lost a game that Mustafi had started 😛
2 more points
(1) Gabriel needs to go in the summer. Very sad to say that but he has not progressed. You need a cool and composed person at the back and Gabriel is always an accident waiting to happen.
(2) Mustafi should either play the ball safe or work on his passing. He is giving away the ball way too much for comfort. Just get the ball to midfield and stick to the basics.