West Ham 1 – 2 Arsenal Player Ratings by KJ
Szczesny – 8
Claimed a lot of balls into the box with settled us massively during the first half. It was clearly instructed by Wenger and worked really well as it prevented West Ham gaining much momentum after they scored.
Debuchy – 7
He struggled defensively at times but aided the attack well. He tended to play more defensively than usual, again probably a command by Wenger and it worked well enough.
Mertesacker – 7
One of his better performances this season but he is still making mistakes here or there.
Koscielny – 8 (MOTM)
He was absolute quality today. He anticipated well and defended resolutely for the entire game. He makes Per play far better because they have a good relationship on the pitch.
Monreal – 6.5
He was on the back foot defensively for a lot of the game. O’Brein and Amalfitano were having a field day on their right. Monreal did sort it out eventually and provided good balls out from defence.
Flamini – 4
He was frankly non-existent for majority of the game. He didn’t get on the ball much at all and was easily bypassed when West Ham have the ball. He is a truly woeful footballer.
Coquelin – 7
He was actually impressive today. Showed good composure on the ball, didn’t hide and was good with interceptions and tackles in general. He needs to deputise as second choice DM over Flamini.
Oxlade-Chamberlain – 6.5
His football at the moment is patchy. He tends to go missing for periods of the game because he doesn’t occupy the right spaces. He does well on the ball but his end product tends to let him down. He even managed to get an assist today but there was a lot more there for him if he was a bit more intelligent on the ball.
Cazorla – 8
Another quality performance by the Spaniard. He seems revitalised at the moment. Maybe it’s because he’s playing centrally quite a bit but it’s great to see.
Alexis – 7
Generally, he was good on the ball and provided a lot of penetration on the counter. His finishing left a lot to be desired though but he was still the main driving force.
Welbeck – 7.5
He was very good today. Good dribbling, passing and he was always a threat. Scored a good goal and caused West Ham a lot of problems. He also defended well from the front.
Subs:
Gibbs – N/A
Came late on and didn’t really impact the game
Chambers – N/A
Same as Gibbs.
Kash
Agree with kj for once..
Happy for the win……but beating the top teams and finishing above 4th have always been my desires for Arsenal….. Or i’m i being too ambitous or wanting too much?
the rating is fair but CAZORLA is the MOTM for me, and then followed by Coquelin and kosielny together!
Even if he is right, the law is that u must never agree with KJ.
Mert played a better game than kos. He did well in his match up to Carroll. Where was kos for the goal against, Debuchy for whatever reason was where kos should have been. Debuchy had a bad game, and by far Cazorla was MOM. Szcz could have been at fault if they had of capitalised. Other than above our players played from good to very good.
i think WENGER deserves credits for his tactics because when he gets it wrong and he does he gets hammered for it ,you know credits where its due and all that….
Agreed. Coquelin did well.
Gd stuff arsene
I agree with everything apart from welbeck having a higher rating than sanchez.
The only teams in the top half we’ve managed to beat are Southampton,Newcastle and West Ham this needs to change we must start beating the big boys!!
I’d say Cazorla was the MOTM but since we won I really don’t care who was the MOTM.
Just out of curiosity those that went or saw the game did song get a decent reception? When he scored he did not celebrate so fair play to him for that unlike the rapist van persie!!
When his name got called out he got a big cheer from the arsenal fans. When he scored the goal that never was, it looked as though he wanted to ground to swallow him up lol.
Nice rating except for Mert. He was again wasn’t that good.
I love how Coquelin plays. He is untidy but he is aggressive. Someone we need who actually goes in and fights for the ball instead of waiting for the attack. He is the kind of DM we need. Not to say we shouldnt buy a DM (beacuse we obviously need to buy one). But he is the kind of player we need. Hope Wenger keeps playing him so he would get more experiences.
I think he will play at St. Mary. Coquelin was pretty aggressive, liked the fact that he is defensively focused even when we were on the break. He looked very disciplined yesterday. All he has to do now is to take advantage of the huge chance he’s having now with Ramsey, Wilshere, Arteta out.
Ramsey (when he’s back) and Coquelin should be our deep midfield.
Flamini? Meh…
He could prove a very valuable player for us if Wenger doesn’t strengthen at DM in January. I was really impressed yesterday as he broke up a lot of play and distributed well. Hopefully he will get a run of games now.
perfect analysis, I actually would like to see a midfield base of coquelin and arteta when he’s fit, I think that would provide us with better protection and allow our attackers more freedom as unlike ramsey, coquelin likes to sit in front of the defence and anticipates danger quite well (really impressed with some of his tackles yesterday). Until we find the complete midfielder like matic who can initiate attacks and defend at the same time, or a quicker ball playing cb instead of per, we need two midfielders shielding the back four which gives our fb’s more freedom to operate further down the pitch
I like the premise of an Arteta and Coquelin axis but it would be a big call to drop Ramsey once he’s healthy, particularly as it looked like he was getting back to his best. Completely agree with you though that it proves just how valuable a Matic-like DM would be to the balance of our squad.
I agree – not enough attention given to the term “balance” when people assemble their wish-list team. Simple truth is that Arteta/Coquelin with any perm of 3 attacking MFs in front is better balance and a better platform than a Ramsey pairing in MF. Hate Chelsea with vengence but you have to say their 1st X1 is perfectly balanced.
this is the problem as I see it though, as soon as ozil jack and ramsey come back wenger is going to put santi or ozil on the left when its clear as day they play better centrally. It was clear earlier in the season ozil and santi lost form and confidence playing wide, but to accomodate his favourites jack and ramsey centrally, he just puts them all on at the same time. I don’t believe we have a squad capable of winning the league even when everyone’s fit but I think better team management might not have seen us this far off the top in january
There was the game at Villa where I liked what I have seen even if Sanchez didn’t played. Cazorla moved defensively and Ozil left to roam everywhere. Looking retrospectively I perfectly understand now, having Alexis in the field then meant that he and Ozil would step on each other foot every time. I don’t know how Wenger will solve this (having Ozil and Sanchez in the same team) but he being the manager he should sort this out. Ozil must really put some more fight into his play when losing the ball. Cazorla on the other hand looks like he’s on his second youth now. And he’s not very offensive these days, is like he’s Ramsey from the last season, exactly on the right spot.
the problem I have with ozil is that when I’ve seen madrid fans commenting on his form some have mentioned his tenacity has dropped since coming to arsenal, unfortunately I never watched a full match whilst he was at real but I believe to have been such an integral part of the team, especially a jose mourinho team, he must have shown more defensively . I understand its not all about running and part of me seems to think his attributes are better suited to a counter attacking team, but watching santi play it seems like he can provide the passes mesut can and offers more defensively. I think you’re right though, its hard to accomodate more than one player who needs the freedom to move around the pitch at will as defensively the organisation is compromised, tough decision for wenger but I think for 8m a year he can get his head round it
Ozil has always been a luxury buy. It was Suarez that we needed last season, not Ozil. Why buy another CAM, when Cazorla was the best CAM in the league the previous season?
cazorla and suarez, that would have been mesmerising
I think you’re right though and it seems ozil’s arrival affected santi’s confidence because he was not the same last season even after recovering from injury
Imagine Sanzchez and Suarez in the same line up.
decent ratings..but i think santi was motm..
I missed the game, but I heard Cazorla was the MOTM. KJ’s ratings will always be off by a bit anyway.
It was a good win yesterday, a deserved one too. Things are looking up, but if we don’t beat Southampton we could easily lose our momentum again..
Massive boost for us with Schneiderlin suspended – just look at their record when he’s not in their line-up. We are very fortunate that he has missed both PL games against us. I’m not optimistic that Wenger will sign any difference maker in this window but if he could some how get his hands on Schneiderlin I’d be ecstatic.
Coquelin is indeed very impressive..provides the pace, strength and tackles…
he needs to play regularly to improve…..
Unfortunately hes not good enough…
we need to spend big to bring in a quality big strong and fast DM…someone big name and big game …
i think the MOTM was Cazorla by far, Kos and Coq was also great, more than likely it will be the same team for the next game hope they get some rest
Three problems are persisting: Finishing of AOC and passing of AS. AS just takes one too many touches and passes a bit late. And Welbeck’s first touch is horrible. No control, no finesse.
Dan what are you saying? That your remark on Van Persie is wrong, he has never celebrated a goal against us.
He celebrated at old Trafford when he scored he ran towards manc supporters and slid on his knees with hands on his ears taunting gunner fans the bloke is a Judas scum bag!
Against Southampton play Gibbs and Chambers instead of Monreal and Flamini respectively
Chambers started as a midfielder and he can play CD/RB. SO I think he can play the DM role.
Gibbs is slightly better LB than Monreal
Also, even though Welbeck and Coquelin played well, maybe we should start Podolski and Rosicky.
Unfortunately, Southampton is a tough team that we MUST play Sanchez, even though he needs rest. I’m very worried about Sanchez staying healthy and not burning out. At some point we NEED to rest him.
podolski…..sanchez……walcott
carzola
coquelin..chambers
gibbs…koscielny…mertsacker…debuchy
shezney
my team against southampton