Arsenal suffered their first loss of the season as they were beaten 3-1 by Liverpool in a very tense game that they will feel they deserved to get more from for their efforts.
On more than one occasion Arsenal went very close and if just one of those opportunities were taken it could have been a very different scoreline.
Here are the Arsenal player ratings
Bernd Leno – 5
Tough game to be an Arsenal goalkeeper as the Reds attacked relentlessly, made a few saves and could do little about the goals.
Kieran Tierney – 4
Struggled against Mo Salah and the Egyptian kept him so busy that he hardly contributed to the attack.
David Luiz – 6
He was commanding in the air and did try his best in his duels, but his efforts were still not good enough against the Reds.
Rob Holding – 6
Had a tough day. Could only do his best, but Liverpool was in top form.
Hector Bellerin – 6
Tried his best to be involved in the attack, but struggled against the impressive Mane and was yellow-carded.
Mohamed Elneny – 6
One of Arsenal’s best players on the night. Made good use of possession when he had it and battled hard to gain some foothold in midfield.
Granit Xhaka – 6
One fine pass set up Lacazette, but he spurned it. Worked so hard in midfield against a very strong Liverpool side.
Maitland-Niles – 6
Very effective down the flank and opened Liverpool up in the build-up to Arsenal’s goal.
Willian – 4
Very anonymous display. This shouldn’t be a frequent occurrence.
Alexandre Lacazette – 4
Scored an opportunistic goal, however, missed two clear chances and top players simply cannot keep missing so often otherwise they are no longer a top player.
Aubameyang -4
Liverpool did a good job to keep him out of the danger area. When he had a chance, he tried to pass instead.
Subs
Dani Ceballos – 5
The intensity of the game was just too much for him to influence it late on.
Nicolas Pepe – 4
Wayward corners when Arsenal needed to score goals. Couldn’t change the outcome.
Eddie Nketiah – 5
Worked very hard to get a goal back and was a willing runner when he came in.
Ratings from Ime
There’s absolutely no reason of making Lacazette a scapegoat.
Every player misses chances… Sterling has missed more clear cut chances than him.
Does that make Man City fail????
This “defensive” 3-4-3 setup is going to cost us top six. Like it or not.
This is not a set-up for a big club.
Lacazette created the first goal with his excellent first time pass to AMN, so 4 is slightly harsh especially if you give 6 to Holding who cannot pass to save his life and Bellerin who is not good enough at defending to be a defender and not good enough in attack to be a winger.
And can’t handle a simple throw-in
Lol yeh twice he failed.
Never EVER seen the same player have two foul throws disallowed in the same game!
This was probably one of the most average performance I have seen for a while. Collectively speaking that is. There were not many 50/50s being won by Arsenal in any part of the pitch.
Not good enough..
👍 👍
Dont compare lacazette to sterling .sterling is a more skillfull,hardworking,brilliant attacking player that performs week in week out.he was liverpool best player and was 2nd to none and was joyful to watch b4 mancity came for him .lacazette is a lazy ,non challant striker, that has no futbol brain and needs to be moved on asap.but its unfortunate no clubs are coming for him!!
I only talked about the impact his missing of chances causes to the fortunes of his team.
Please I want logical reasoning.
chaii, sometimes it is better to stay silent and be thought a fool, than write and confirm the fact.
I actually think 4 is been generous you can’t miss 2 sitters in an away game at Anfield as a striker and if he had controlled the first goal I’m almost certain he would still have missed it.
Everybody is blaming Lacazette and rightfully so but the real story is that Liverpool found a way to tame and neutralize Auba.
Auba cannot create his own chances and if defenses control him as easy as Liverpool did, good luck scoring this season.
I strongly disagree. Aubameyang simply was his usual self and not necessarily nullified – useless except through on goal. Those glaring opportunities Lacazette spurned are typical Auba finishes – at least you’re sure he would easily pull on away.
It’s so troubling to me seeing people compare Aubameyang to TH14, and even ‘blaspheme’ he’s better because he’s scored more goals in a shorter while.
Henry’s everything you could dream of a player, and Aubameyang isn’t even close to being as good as he was – STRENGTH, SPEED, STRONG CHARACTER, DRIBBLING, PASSING, SOLO GOALS, ASSISTS, LEADERSHIP…
…and if I’m being very honest (with absolutely no sentiments), I’d play RVP ahead of Aubameyang in my team if I have both at my disposal.
Not talking down Auba’s good contribution to the team, but he’s never the player to look up when the team isn’t ‘clicking’. Only smart attacking and creative MF like Ozil and Cesc could really help him thrive. He’s smart to make those runs but unfortunately we do not have the quality to always spot him and ‘drop’ those measured passes that should set him up. We need CREATIVITY in this team like hell – average Ceballos shows us glimpses of what that brings.
There are chances missed that you credit the goalkeeper for; those were rash tame shots from Lacazette – what I’m not even sure Eddie would do. For his quality, you’d expect better from his movements, touches and shots in those situations.
“except through on goal.”
It just happened to be his main job.
It helps to play with Dennis Bergkamp and a midfield of Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Viera and Gilberto Silva.
Right on point. The same goes for Ozil me thinks.
There they go again! That’s easily the laziest baseless point you guys always raise on this comparison crap.
For such a forward, De Bruyne only managed to match Henry’s numbers in assists just last season, and if you can’t make the most of that alone, I wouldn’t know what else…
Peter Drury always said “you don’t teach that – it’s either you have it or you don’t!”
Those solo goals, passes, skills, assists, finishes, toughness and leadership… We were so lucky to have had that name with us – thorough all-round beauty to watch.
Enough said, I bet loads of you only started watch Arsenal about a decade ago, since you seem not have a clue on who and what Henry was.
I do not remotely see our team performance against what is an exceptional opponent as being anything other than heartening , overall. The individual marks given in this article do not reflect the teams performance at all IMO!
I expected a two goal defeat with a brave and committed performance by us and that , to my mind, was exactly what we got. I even predicted a two goal defeat on this site , just yesterday, mainly in frustration at the excitable hotheads who thought we would win and whose idiotically hyped comments in our club , constantly heap unwanted pressure on our team.
Sober reeaists like me will be proud of what this team is achieving each game and how marked the steady but obvious improvement is. They should also look, were they wise instead of hyped fans, at the quality of the opponents.
Truth please, not misery NOR hype but sober reality. THAT is the true way to help our club.
Finally à comment full of common sense and dare I say football knowledge, I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Exactly my point..Good one Jon fox. Finally someone with reason & clarity. Thanks
Avi and Frederic (just above your post). Thanks for your kind comments and I am hearted to see some names I have not seen very much on here before. I know from Admin Pats direct email to me sometime ago that this site has far and away many thousands more readers than merely those who, like me, post regularly.
I am very aware that many shrewd and sensible fans from all over the globe read this site and many of them must despair at the polarisation of comments. Nothing much ever seems to be other than all bad or all good, if you believe the daft fans at either end of thr spectrum.
As a man of seventy I know from long life experience that life is not like that . We all have low and also high periods but most of the time things are somewhere inbetween and that INBETWEEN – WHAT I LIKE TO CALL SOBER REALITY – is where our club is now.
This article painted a far too gloomy picture and was simply not correct about our performance. Neither are we world beaters or title contenders as some would have us think.
Thank goodness there are so many sober realists around, even if some of them prefer not to post much (and I well understand why!). Onwards and upwards then, steadily but surely, IN GOOD TIME!
@ Jon Fox, this is siamois, somehow the auto-fill put my first and last name!
That’s true John fox, I have been following justarsenal.com for about ten years. I rarely post, but read most articles & the following comment section. Am aware of the major players here on this site(you your self, Sue p,Sue , Edie, admin pat, ozzy Gunner & the rest…..)
It amazes me how snowflake & black and white arsenal fans have come to be .
Indeed the fan base needs a cultural change…
I believe if all things being equal Arteta is already stirring the ship in that direction….. slowly but surely…
👍 👍 👍
I see reasons with you and can hardly disagree. BUT we were poor, even by our own standards, bar a few who put on decent outings. We made a few mistakes at the back and squandered our best chances.
We should have at least picked a point.
“Sober reality”? From someone who, immediately after last seasons humiliation at Anfield posted the comment “ Never have I been more certain than I am now that Unai Emery is the right person to be manager of Arsenal”.
Think you probably had half a shandy too many before that comment as no sober person in his right mind would have posted that.
Obviously in reply to Jon “pass me that bottle” Fox
Hi Phil back again then, I am pleased to see(yes really!) and with your usual attack JF trademark. Good to see some things stay the same in this fast changing world then. I have NEVER claimed to be right all the time Phil, despite your attempts to misrepresent me, which in a perverse way I have to admire for their passion, even if not for their accuracy.
As for the drinking Phil, I leave that to you as I know from your own words how much it means to you, at football certainly. If you want to debate more rationally you will find me only too willing to do so but I do not respond to unwarranted attacks borne mostly from jealousy of how I write and how I think.
As for your own long term championing of Ozil, I let others on this site judge, which of us is badly out of step with team reality and which is the sober minded realist!!
Not an attack on you at all Jon- merely a reminder that “Sober Reality” was not the case when you posted that comment
Thats a lot less aggressive Phil. Even bordering on trying to meet me half way. See you can do it when you try. And AS YOU HAVE NOTICED SO CAN I. We are both super passionate and thank God that we are; the alternative being not to care which basically means the death of what we love to us. That will not and cannot happen So lets KEEP PASSION of course but lets be nicer to to each other . I freely admit having been nasty to you too. No more then, EH?
Bl..dy inconvenient too, just as I was beginning to think I am God Almighty! But I don’t take Sundays off for rest, so I can’t be!
Well JF- we can try.
For the record, you would count the number of alcoholic drinks I’ve had in 2020 on the fingers of one hand. I now drink very little and have been like this for a number of years. So my thoughts might not be as everyone’s but the term “Sober Reality” could certainly be applied.
You take care Jon- and be nice to the new guys on this site.
So according to you when we’ll we get back to competing with them???
We’ve bought expensive players left, right, center,,,, so what is the problem?
Fans in so called”comfort zones”, going with the flow of pundits, who cannot distinguish between a poor team and a poor coaching tactics are just lagging us further behind.
Jon
I felt last nights performance was on a higher level from other times when we have visited anfield in recent years
Much more discipline with the set up
Of the team and at this moment in time Liverpool are an exceptional team to play against so there was no shame in going there and losing.
Was disappointed that we persisted in going short rather than long and over the top and turn there back four
Still not sure if we made the right decision in retaining our GK as no.1 but what is done is done
MA has done a remarkable job in the short space of time since he took over and happy with the progress we are making
I think a lot of people on here are a bit disappointed that we didn’t get some thing from the game even though we were pinned back most of the game which speaks volumes for what MA is doing and giving us…BELIEF
ON WARDS AND UPWARDS
MY FELLOW GOONERS
everyone keep well and safe
Alan, PRETTY MUCH HOW I saw things too. I thought we did try to go long at times though and both Lacas chances came from long balls over the top.
Against such quality opponents chances will always be rare and to have any hope of winning you HAVE to take them. We did not and so were punished . But we could and should have been 3-2 ahead going into the last few minutes, even though that would not have been a true reflection of that game. No other opponent will approach the ferocity and effectiveness of Liverpool last night, mercifully.
Wait did we all watched the same game?
Holding a 6 alongside David Luiz who was our best CB last night?
The same Holding that struggled with tackling and his passes?
AMN a 6 too?
What’d exactly did he do? Hardly there to assist or help out Tierney, was poor in every way last night.
Xhaka a 6? I’ve been crediting Xhaka for his turn in performance, but Yesterday was a poor one was a 4. Xhaka did nothing and could do nothing at all. He was poor yesterday, I ain’t afraid to give him credit, but it won’t stop me from criticizing him either.
It seems you had no idea why Mikel Arteta took him out instead of Elneny then when we were trying to get back in the game.
Willian for a 4 is fair enough.
Ceballos came in and became our best player, did more than Xhaka did during his whole time on the pitch and he gets a 5 ??
Come on bro.
Even Bellerin that was caught sleeping alongside Willian and gave away two foul throws got a 6?
Really??
Lacazette who I’ve blamed for missing his chances did better than PEA and he gets a 4?
He missed those chances, but he made himself available for them in the first place. He deserves a 5 at least if you were gone be sharing 6 to pisspoor players last high.
The only players that deserved 6 last night should be Luiz, Elneny and Ceballos
I was going to write a post but you saved me the effort, at least we watched the same game.
This player ratings thing is just opinion. In his opinion those are the scores he see every player deserve.
If that’s how it works, the admin you should make sure we see an official rating of this site after our games? Makes more sense doesn’t it?
JustArsenal’s Player’s Ratings and not Opinions Player Ratings.
What happens if 5 of us submit Ratings as articles?
I think Pat and AdMartin should be in charge of this one
Wouldn’t it be still an opinion? What I mean is how did you exactly come up with 5 for Lacazette and how did the writer come up with 5 for Leno? What is the process to get these numbers?
I know it will be an opinion, it’s actually why I stated why not ratings we can say is for this site itself?
If AdMartin or AdPat did it, it won’t be put out as an opinion. We’ll all know we’re reading JustArsenal’s official ratings
Eddie I much agree that for ratings from various fans to have ANY meaning, there has to be this sites table of what each number or mark actually means. In newspapers it is widely agreed that six is average, five below average and seven is good. And so on pro rata!
You beat me to it Eddie! Luiz got a 4 really? So did Lacazette even though he scored, OK he missed 2 chances but his overall performance deserved better, Auba who was non existent got the same rating? Eddie is right not only last night but previous games, sometimes I wonder if we watch the same games, also a player like Elneny no matter how well he performs will never get the rating he deserves, sad!
I swear you beat me to it Eddie. I wonder how people watch football games really. No mention of Leno’s poor foot work either
1. Time to drop Willian for Saka
2. Pepe should not take our corner kicks
3. Ceballos must start
4. Elneny should be more adventurous with the ball
5. Lacazette played well but really should be putting those kind of chances away
Totally agree with 2 and 3….👍
Agree with 1.
Chelsea is no fool for letting him go. Using Willian as a substitute for a spark makes sense, but using him a starter is a liability.
That dude was meant to be competition for Pepe like I’ve been saying. During the past two league games, both seems pretty useless to me.
What do you do when the competition you bring in for a player seems as useless as the player you want to create competition for?
Another questionable signing. Spending money on a 32 year old winger and committing to him for 3 years is questionable. Pepe has Saka as competition so why bring in a 3rd winger when the team needed a midfielder?
The body language of Willian was not good at all. He didn’t look that interested to me. But then, neither did a few of them. Pepe has been a massive disappointment since his arrival. What did the club see in him to even justify the ridiculous £72 million they paid?
Given that Tierney was playing at left centre back, which is not his natural position and never has been, and was charged with looking after one of the most dangerous wingers in World football, how on earth was he supposed to make a contribution in attack?Granted he was partly culpable for the Mane goal, as was Leno, but that apart, Salah never actually dribbled past him during the game.AMN ought to have been detailed to man mark Salah , leaving Tierney in the left wing back door where he is a natural.Arteta has done a great job since he arrived but like all Managers, he is not immune to making tactical errors, and on this occasion he got it wrong.As for the rating given to Xhaka, he was totally ineffective, slow and lacking in pace and energy, and was rightly subbed.
Leno – 3
Not at all good enough with either crosses or his feet
Bellerin – 4
Overall poor at defending.
Luiz – 7
The best Arsenal defender overall and on the night.
Holding – 5
He’s actually very good at heading the ball, but playing out from the back????
Tierney – 6
Good overall play. He’s going to be spoilt by these stupid formations.
M-Niles – 5
Another good player going to be spoilt by useless formations. Back then, he was one of few players who would actually dribble…
Xhaka – 4
Calamitous as usual,, cheaply giving passes to opposition players. How he’s still in our starting 11 is just beyond me.
Elneny – 6
Better than all our defensive minded midfielders with good ball retention and distribution.
Willian – 6
Very hardworking and trust me he’s massively disappointed in coming to Arsenal because we’re still suffering from “mentality” issues.
Aubameyang – 5
Continue playing him at the wing and you’ll get similar results.
Lacazette – 7
Best player along with Luiz. Hardworking, and most of all, improving immensely on his POSITIONING. Keep positioning yourself that way and you’ll score more than 15 goals.
Arteta – 1
Stupid formations and lineups expecting different results.
Herbz -1
🤣🤣🤣
You’re surely something else Dan Kit! Can’t stop laughing 😂
But at least I agree with just some of his ratings on Bellerin, Luiz, Xhaka, Elneny. Got only comments spot on Holding.
Others? Lol.
Dan kit you get 100. 👍👍
Ratings are strange to say least.
Pepe gets a 4, and Ceballos a 5?
“The intensity of the game was just too much for him to influence it late on”. Did the writer even watch Ceballos? He made a huge impact when coming on. Pepe was absolutely dreadful! Yet only one point in ratings between these two?
I thought Ceballos deserved a 6/7 rating, whilst Pepe was about a 2 or 3.
Pepe deserved a 1 if we’re being honest.
I’m running out of patience with him also.
The Ceballos rating is a huge joke
I would easily give Ceballos Arsenal MOTM. That was the only player on the pitch that acted like he wanted to get something from the match.
👍
Spot on Maxis
There is no need to blame Laca for everything, atleast he is one player who does not shy away from trying all the time. I dont understand why MA did not start with Ceballos and I agree that 343 system should be used only in extreme cases and the sooner we get Partey and Aouar the better.
What baffles me the most is how we can’t make SIMPLE PASSES and keep possession. This is the worst Arsenal team I’ve seen doing this so consistently, like they aren’t even pros or do not train together – our passing is way too awful and how we give the ball away so often is just criminal.
I have completely lost faith in Pepe – he refused to man up, and I won’t mind shipping him out ATM – too ‘fragile’ and barely makes any smart/good decision – Saka should have come on in his stead, and IMHO a “flop” already.
I wonder the trash MA says about hardwork, because going by that, Pepe should be nowhere in the team IMHO, if Matteo and Ozil can’t make it – it’s crystal clear that those two aren’t picked due to footballing reasons – it’s lies.
We’re in dire need of creativity and that can’t be too stressed! Ceballos shows us flashes of that. We aren’t seeing Ozil who should be doing that, then the board should move asap for the Auoar (so talked about to bring that); Aubameyang is suffering because his game is all about making smart runs behind defenses, get through on goal and finishes. He’s never the ‘hustler’ when no service gets to him.
Tough game but we had our moments to pick a point. Over to the next game; we move on and progress, hopefully.
My friend, smell the coffee,,,,
All comes from poor training methods.
I asked pple last time. Why is Gabriel not giving more frequent forward passes yet he was one of the very best at that in Ligue 1.
Now that what’s called”MENTALITY PROBLEM”
Ceballos was good yesterday, ya he did get caught and defensively he was weak but on the attacking front he made some superb line breaking passes which shouldve been converted.
Elneny did what he was told and i think that was a fair performance.
Xhaka coming off shows how great his performance was but he built up the first goal…
The truth is Klopp cracked the 343 bus yesterday.
Its true that we cant go toe to toe with liverpool but giving too much respect is also not gonna help.
Hector bellerin should work on his throws, seriously…😑
And one more thing Salah is super strong
I can confidently say that Ime didn’t watch the match last night..
Because even if you dwell on just highlights, even Ceballos ratings would be better. He made not less than 4 key passes that led to goal scoring chances. Even the commentator said “He seems to be everywhere”. Ceballos totally changed the 2nd half and Bellerin and Holding get more ratings than him?
I think the admins should oversee these ratings immediately after the match as Skysports does. Even Skysports gave Ceballos a 6.. Common JA
People are blaming Laca who scored for a 3rd game in a row, yes he missed a couple of chances but at least he got himself in good positions and tried to make things happen, where were Auba and Wilian? Wilian was responsible for one goal for not tracking back! people want Auba to be played in the middle, there is no way he is going to press, run back, hold play like Laca does and if he were he would be wrecked after 45 minutes! Also blaming MA is ludicrous, individual mistakes cost us the game we were still in the game until the 3rd goal on the 88th minute, had we scored an equaliser, it would have been a different game, what about giving Liverpool some credit, they had to play near perfection to beat us, can fans remember the last time we were able to say that? Let’s not forget about the quality of their team compared to ours, also Klopp has been there for 5 years and MA not even one year, Klopp had the time and money to improve his squad, the difference between the 2 teams yesterday didn’t reflect all that, fans should look at the positives and there are few, we’re not even a year into the process but MA has improved players, they’re are hungrier, more determined, better organised, we are no longer getting rolled over, imagine with more time and signings of players of better qualities! We are talking about Liverpool the best European team with perhaps Bayern, it might seems like it but we are not going to play them every week, lastly expecting MA to play the arsenal way against Pool or man City… Is not only unrealistic but stupid with the players at his disposition, I remember fans complaining about it during Wenger last years and Emery tenure when we would get hammered, bullied… with no chance of winning, people need to make their mind up, do you want to be competitive against top 6/8 clubs or not? If yes then, with the players we have we need to be realistic and compromise on our style of play until we get the players we need in, expecting us to be at the same level as Pool is unrealistic and doesn’t make any sense! like Jon Fox said despite the individuals mistakes, not playing that well we didn’t give up COYG, this our first loss not the end of the world, better days are ahead! That’s my rant for today done with!
👍 Sound post, class and settled confident winning team showed with Liverpool. Refereeing didn’t help.
Frederic, How cathartic to read a well constructed post from someone who not only has a fine brain but uses it. This sort of rare quality post is what keeps me on here at all , ever hopeful among my constant despair at the unthinking hype and gloom merchants on this site. So a hearty thank you for just being on the site and for your superb post. PLEASE post more often, if only to save what little sanity I have left!
BTW, TO ME A “RANT” MEANS PASSION AND WITHOUT PASSION WHAT IS THE POINT OF FOOTBALL AT ALL. Or even life itself!
While I agree with some of your scores, some others look quite bizarre to me. Scoring Nketia, over Lac eg looks not only funny, but quite nauseating. I could not fathom any single move Nketia made that would earn him more marks than Lac. Even when Auban made a cross, the only impactful move that guy made thru out the match, Nketia was out of position to utilize the chance. How do you score Lac 4, who got us the only goal of the night even though u cynically tagged it opportunistic & he almost got the equalizer. By the way, to me, scoring any goal by a player is opportunistic, because the luck factor determines if a player’s goal bound shot can actually get into the net for a goal or not. This luck factor came handy for Lac to score that opportunistic goal, while that same luck factor decided to stay away from him, making him miss those other chances you are so embittered about. But the fact of the matter is that, that is the reality in football. You win some & you loose some. Several instances abound in our everyday life, where well established strikers & players miss far worse chances. Ironically by my estimation, the only few most active players in that better to be forgotten match of yesternight, were Lac, Niles & Cebalos, when he, Cebalos came on. For fair play, the trio must earn the highest scores, inspite of some of the errors they might have committed. But which player did not misjive in that match, anyway?
Lac, as someone earlier noted, must not therefore be made a scape goat. The blame should all be shared by the players & the coach, who decided to approach the match from a weakling position, with air of inferioty taking the better part of them. I can’t understand why a team like Arsenal should come to a match full of fear. This was clearly evident in the first half. To my dismay, our legend pundit, Ian Wright was even in league with that nonsensical notion. It was this fear notion that influenced the coach making ludicrous selection & opting for a negative approach & play, particularly in the first half. How on earth could a team like Arsenal play without any creativity & strong midfield? We could see what an attacking midfield could be to a team when Cebalos came on. It’s only Arteta that can explain, how on earth he has strong & creative midfielders available, but insists on not utilizing them. For a team to get results, selection, attitude & approch must be right. Arteta & the players got it all wrong yesternight But I admonish Arteta to be bold enough to own up to such his bizarre shortcomings. He got it all wrong. Let’s therefore wait for Thur & see if any lessons were learnt.
What I can’t understand is defence has been our problem for sooooooo many years. We finally buy two defenders that look really promising and hopefully will help our mistake riddled defence and against one of the best club teams in the world we don’t play them???
We need to give William S and Gabriel the chance to form that dream partnership we are all hoping for!
I am not sure we watched the same game…
Leno doesn’t deserve more than 3. He was poor, especially when trying to build from the back and conceded 3.
Tierney: Yes he had a tough game against Salah (who doesn’t?), but we can’t blame him not to contribute in attack when you ask him to play in a back 3. At least he didn’t make any wrong pass like Holding or Luiz did. Deserved a 5 or 6 for me.
6 for Holding?? seriously? how many times did he lose possession? For a defender, this is criminal
AMN: OK, he runs very fast and his presence sometimes disturbs the opponents. But, playing a right-footed player on the flank is really a mistery for me. And it showed: did he complete a single cross?
4 for Lacazette and 5 for Nketia: I would reverse the scores. Lacazette missed 2 golden chances, but he scored one, he worked hard, had defensive work. Please watch Nketia’s game again and you will see he was walking 10 min after substitution. Not my idea of working “very hard” for the team.
Ceballos created Lacazette chance, he was the only player able to build from the back. 6 or 7 would be a more deserved score.
I always wonder why so many fans get so heated and passionate about what marks others give our players. Surely a wiser attitude would be to acknowledge that we all see things differently and thus the marks will follow personal thinking.
To have any REAL MEANING at all, numbers (or marks) need to be laid out by this site as to exactly what EACH NUMBER represents. In newspapers it has long been accepted across the industry and understod by readers that five means below par, six is par/ average, seven is good. Higher and lower marks than those follow pro rata. Unless you have a level playing field all mark will continue to start arguments.
In truth, two other thoughts occur: this site and its Admins WANT arguments, as that means more posts and more money for their site.
Secondly, even with a table of laid out meanings for marks, there will STILL be arguments. Where you have passionate human beings, you will have arguments. The only cure for that state of play is death. Sober reality as usual! Who disagrees and if so , why?
A few years ago I emailed Neil Ashton, who wrote in the Daily Mail back then AND used to host Sunday Supplement. When some of “his” newspapers marks given were wildly out of sync with his report of the game(I forget which game). He replied to my, then, astonishment to say that he did not do his own matches marks but someone else on that paper did instead. Well, at least that explained the discrepancy but rather made the marks we read pointless. This is far more common in papers than some think and I also used to be naive about it. No longer!
I understand what Arteta was trying to get them to do, because on a few occasions, it worked. Opening up a space between defence and midfield through the middle because Liverpool had to press so far forward. The reason that it didnt work as well as it should have – David Luiz.
Luiz was not worthy of a 6 (or 7 as someone posted) in that game. A 5 AT MOST. He had a nightmare trying to play short from the back. His first touch was below the standard required and gave the Liverpool attackers more time and opportunity to press.
When given the choice between 2 passing options during all that short play, he seemingly always made the wrong choice, which tended to be the player 3-4 yards away who was under the most pressure.
It also seemed to me that, when put under pressure, he would always pass to his left. If I could see it, then a video analyst at Liverpool sure as hell could. That player would then lose the ball because they were put in a no-win situation.
If this occured once or twice, I could stomach it, but this happened over… and over… and over again.
You can blame Arteta for thinking that Luiz was up to playing this way against Liverpool, but ultimately it showcased that Luiz’s reaction times are in decline and that he should not be in the lineup for this type of underlying strategy.
So yeah: Luiz – 5 (and only because of some decent defending)
People are putting way too much pressure on Artera. The man is no genius and needs time to learn. Even if you give him the signings he wants it will take time for him to gain experience.
Arteta will realize the mistakes he has made. Dont really know what he wanted from the midfield. Dani will press, and is capable of creating a chance yet he didnt start. Saka can dribble out of space yet he didn’t start. Pepe gets subbed on for what reason? I dont think Liverpool ever struggle to read this guy. Most teams dont. Going to a 433 and getting rid of wingbacks made it much easier for Liverpool. Zero threat of getting ball to a wide space and finding a runner. Instead we try to play through the pressure and failed every time. It’s fine that Arteta made mistakes since he is new to managing himself, and hope we do better in the future. I get the feeling he does want a 433 but as he figured out after lockdown, we dont have the right players for this formation. Sidenote, many are being kind to Lacazette, but i wont be. You’ve got to be a ruthless striker at Arsenal. You cannot miss easy goals like this on a consistent basis. It really doesnt matter what he did the game before. It matters what he is doing at the moment and its another game where Lacazette’s shoddy finishing costs us points. He’s going on 30. This is as good as he’s going to get.
RSH, when did we switch to 4-3-3 ?
@Grandad, definitely looked like that for much of our defending. It was definitely not the same formation we played the last 2 times we faced them
Rob holding 6??? He was our worst defender by far! Many misplaced passes and some errors that resulted in scoring opportunities for Liverpool but they didnt score from them. Holding was awful! Leno is a great goalkeeper but he is not a leader and he cannot guide the defenders and instruct them unlike martinez (not blaming anyone for his sale cirmustances had a huge say).. Aubamiyang, Niles and lacazette were pretty poor aswell
The writer has given some biased ratings. As Mr. Jon and others point out, we lost to the better team. Period. They were helped by some refereeing decisions IMO, but those were out of our hands. What was in our hands was playing true to our style, and I feel we did that or at least try to do that for most parts of the game. Time to support the team for the next game. Onwards and upwards.
COYG!
Auba’s performance was one of the worst I’ve seen from an Arsenal captain! I would give him a two at best.
I rate Liverpool players 5-7. They did not gave a 100 percent acording to Kloop. The rate would have been 7-9 if they met Real Madrid or Bayern and won by 3-1. They met a team that I rate 2-3. Sorry!