A great performance but Arsenal may regret not scoring more

FT: ARSENAL 3-1 VALENCIA by Alfie

A fantastic result after a difficult last 10 days. Whilst conceding an away goal makes us vulnerable, you would expect us to see out the tie now despite our atrocious away record. We started poorly, understandably portraying a lack of confidence and nervousness, and this was reflected in the scoreline, as Valencia took the lead from a corner, an area where we have been strong defensively this season, but appear to have lost that of late.

We looked deflated and lost for ideas in the opening exchanges but Lacazette and Aubameyang’s beautiful interchange saw us level and from then on our confidence was rejuvenated, and we began to control the game, playing with increased incision and intensity. We ended the half on the front foot, despite Valencia still looking threatening, and could have had more goals had we been more ruthless in the final third. This pattern continued in the second period, with both teams looking threatening, and the fact that we only added one more goal may come back to bite us as we missed 2 or 3 glorious chances.

A much needed performance and it was nice to see us control a game again, having not done this at all in recent weeks, taking the initiative like an Arsenal side should do. Ultimately, our strikers won us the game, both looking very impressive not just scoring goals but creating and holding the ball up well (the most complete Aubameyang performance I’ve seen this season). They will be key in potentially winning this competition. We move onto our final home game of the season at Brighton.

PLAYER RATINGS vs Valencia:

0️⃣1️⃣ Cech 7

2️⃣0️⃣ Mustafi 7

0️⃣5️⃣ Sokratis 7

0️⃣6️⃣ Koscielny 8

1️⃣5️⃣ Maitland-Niles 6

2️⃣9️⃣ Guendouzi 6

3️⃣4️⃣ Xhaka 7

3️⃣1️⃣ Kolasinac 6

1️⃣0️⃣ Ozil 7

1️⃣4️⃣ Aubameyang 9

0️⃣9️⃣ Lacazette 9 –

1️⃣1️⃣ Torreira 6

0️⃣7️⃣ Mkhitaryan 7

1️⃣8️⃣ Monreal 6 –

Tell me your thoughts below, and if you don’t understand some of my ratings, ask below and I’ll give some justification…

Alfie Culshaw

10 Comments

  1. Kolasinac assisted once and his overall defending was good, so his rating should be at least 7

    Valencia exposed Arsenal’s weakness in set-pieces again. The lack of good towering CB must be fixed in the summer

  2. Regret not scoring more? I wonder what planet people live on!!!!

    We’re lucky to have a 3-1 lead going into the next tie considering the 1st half should have had us dead and buried.

    1. Well said !! 3 goals away and it,s not enough??ask Chelsea who score a goal against a mediocre team

  3. Sorry Alfie but have to disgree with some of the score ratings
    Some players barely deserve a 4 or 5 let alone a 7
    A few decent tackles or passes masked over the cracks for some of them..no names mentioned but it is all about opinons..
    A win is win is win
    Glad we got the 3rd as I think we might need it
    But so happy that we have a least one foot in the final

  4. Xhaka and Socratis were poor.Countless moves broke down at the feet of Xhaka who failed to get off the ground to challenge for their headed goal.During the past two months Socratis has become a liability and he was very fortunate not to be at least booked on two occasions.I fear for him being sent off in Valencia as their players will target him and Mustafi to lose their cool.The are both sub standard centre backs who should be sold on asap.

  5. Your ratings are regularly too high all round Alfie. They are out of kilter with other football ratings , where 7 is good and 6 average. 8 is very good and nine only rarely given in most games. As you gave 7’s to four players who had poor games I now treat all your marks as the clearly biased ones they are. You should either get real or stop giving ratings. No one deserved above a seven and those only for our strikers. Most were 4, 5 or 6 if you are truthful.

  6. No sense,scoring 3 goals away is not enough,ask chelsea and the other english teams,one more goal and we are through!by the way people who criticised the coach for decided to have auba to have his operation,where are they?keep playing fifa and let the decisions to the coach.

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