Well, that was a shambles, wasn’t it? The fact that Arsenal blew a two-goal lead against the team at the bottom of the Premier League is bad enough but the manner in which they absolutely capitulated in the second half is unforgivable.
I have waited a good hour after the game finished to calm down before I do these player ratings but I fear that is not enough time, a week may not be enough.
Anyway, here are the player ratings that are as fair and balanced as I can muster.
Bernd Leno 7
He did absolutely nothing wrong today and if it was not for him Arsenal would have lost the game, he has no choice but to play out from the back because he is under orders and he was not at fault for either goal.
Maitland-Niles 5
Out of the defenders I actually thought he did ok in comparison, he was edgy at times and does not look the long term solution down the right but he did get an assist.
Sokratis 2
A Woeful game, totally to blame for the first Watford goal and at no stage did he look comfortable, he really is not a top-quality centre back.
Luiz 3
Gave the penalty away that led to the Watford equaliser and I am not surprised, I have said he is a liability and he is proving that in abundance, he could have got a 2 but he did try to show some leadership shouting out instructions but I get the feeling the other players look at him as a bit of joke.
Kolasinac 5
Similar to Maitland-Niles, is not Arsenal quality really but he at least tried, he had an assist for the first Aubameyang goal and that has bumped his rating up.
Xhaka 4
Didn’t really do anything wrong but neither did he do anything positive, totally overrun in midfield, offered no outlet and was found wanting more often than not. Bewildering how he keeps getting starts.
Guendouzi 4
A complete contrast to his performance against Tottenham, he ran around like a headless chicken and on two occasions gave the ball away in very dangerous areas. too inconsistent.
Pepe 4
I am still showing patience waiting for him to come good but apart from a couple of clever flicks he offered almost nothing and for the amount of money Arsenal is paying for him you expect a little more penetration and creativity.
Ozil 6
Thought he had a half-decent game, to be honest, he helped set up the second goal for Arsenal and when he got the ball tried to be creative, an above-average performance but that is about it.
Ceballos 6
I thought the young Spaniard done well also, cannot work out why he was subbed as he was one of the very players on the pitch that showed signs of trying to create something in the second half.
Aubameyang 8
Arsenal man of the match, he did his job which is to score goals, the only criticism I have is that he becomes anonymous when the chips are down and he really needs to do better holding the ball up but at the end of the day, he scored two goals.
so many new faces…most of them had only played together for 1 season….
a bad day though but they tried
Thank you for not even bothering rating the subs.
A N M – 1 for the cross.
NILES worst rb who played for us..
You can say his not a rb. But neither was bellerin
This guy is so over rated that you think he may even
Have a footballing brain
Gibbs was the same at left back in his time with us.
A non tacking, non cross stopping, stroll about the park full back ??
And where is Gibbs now ? – my point entirely !
Arsenal have faced 96 shots this season, more than any other side in the PL, Serie A, La Liga, Ligue 1 & the Bundesliga. Some effort that.
Only Ben Foster, Craig Dawson and Etienne Capoue failed to have a shot for Watford today.
Five players had an effort on target.
We can’t even out play bottom table team and top table teams so what’s the difference between Arsenal and middle table teams and we are happy with Emery our coach,the worst of it I don’t even understand stand the style of football we are playing….
This is what captain Xhaka said, according to BBC :
Granit Xhaka admits Arsenal were too scared against Watford. No-one wanted the ball. In the end we are happy to take a point,” Xhaka said.
This is from a guy who had the chance to take his famed “left foot screamer” with no one in front of him, but chose to pass it to a Watford defender.
Xhaka is the Boris Johnson of the Footie world ,a bumbling idiot ,how he’s first on that team sheet every time is a mystery that won’t be solved anything soon .
Beats me, Dan & Sue, as to how Emery screws up every single time, with his team selection and strategy.
Happy to take a point.. what a joke!! After being 2-0 up… ffs!!! And that’s coming from our captain.. laughable! Feels like yet another bloody loss to me, and I’m not happy with that point!
Agree Sue, one of the most worst post match interviews. And he’s our captain??? Great for morale don’t you think? Looking at what we’ve got, top 4 will be a miracle.
A miracle indeed, Andrew ?
If it were Arsene Wenger at helm of affairs, everybody will be calling for his head. Let me remind you once again, Wenger also inherited a not so good team and in his first full season he won the league. So dont come here and say he left a bad team that is why Unai is not performing. He is below average and the earlier we realise he needs to go the better for us. Another miserable week…
Wenger didn’t inherit a good team? That is a ridiculous thing to say! The entire back line and keeper was already sorted, Bergkamp and Wright upfront as well. Midfield was our weakest area, but we still had decent players in there.
I’m not saying Emery is or isn’t the right man for us at the moment, but I feel he inherited the worst squad of Arsenal players in over 30 years.
I wonder what you guys would’ve said if Emery had inherited the likes of Santos, Squillaci and Chamakh..
Eddie,, just think, the club has spent over£200, 000, 000 since UE arrived, and he still doesn’t know his best team,, his tactics and has his favourite players.
Yet here we are bringong up AW’s players in order to cover the worst football ou4 club has played since the days of Billy Wright.
Furthermore, I read it’s not fair to judge him, because of all the injuries…how ironic that two of the three players we have to wait for in order to judge him are…WAIT FOR IT…part of the worst squad for thirty years…WAIT FOR IT…the squad that won three fa cups in four years up till twoseasons ago.
Every sigle mistake made out there thaat led to Watford’s goals, were from players signed by the new regime…all defensive players (and without lichsteneir) signed because Wenger “left a shambles”….well, if that defence was a shambles, why would ANYONE want to try and defend what we saw today?
Tactically, even in his last two terrible years, AW tried to play attacking football, not this suicidaal playing out from the back nonsense.
HE had more tactical knowledge in his little finger than this excuse for a “coach” will ever have.
Why can’t people see the mess that UE is creating himself, despite that £200 million investment from the owners?
I note that the “we’ve got our Arsenal back” brigade are getting fewer and fewer and quiter and quiter, but they STILL manage, somehow, to switch it all back to AW.
Thought Mesut proved a point today, class IS permanent, yet another classic blunder by UE in making him another scapegoat for his own failings.
Ken, please explain to me where this £200 million figure comes from?
Wenger didn’t inherit them either, so I don’t get your point?
I don’t know how you can still defend him ,surely it’s plain to see that he’s incapable of pushing us forward ?
Not sure if you are happy with playing EL football every season because that is exactly bwhere we are going once again.
He needs to go It’s obvious he’s out of his depth .
Honestly what was Arsenal position a season before he took over? And what was their position on the 1st of October 1996 when he presided over his first arsenal match? Why was Graham’s successor fired that brought Wenger in? You are telling me how good the players were individually and I am telling you that as a team they were not so good. Check your records and get back to me on that.
Not with this kind of players at his disposal… only Liverpool and man city should really prove to be better than us… I’m sure we’ll be title challenge wif Wenger handling this set of players.
You are right..
Bsquared Kagoro
You obviously have no idea what you are talking about because wenger inherited the best back four in the PL and a legend called Dennis Bergkamp.
But Wenger inherited a fantastic defence and left us with a shambles-Lets not forget that
What happened to Torreira.He seemed lost today and out of form.Eunai needs to rethink his squad ASAP.
He hasn’t played regularly since the middle of last season. Emery keeps starting and dropping him randomly while Xhaka is somehow the mainstay. There are rumors that the players dont undestand Emery’s instructions and Torreira is definitely one of them. It seems he hasn’t been allowed to just be an all out CDM that we know he excels at.
UE and Mustafi, Xhaka, Luiz, Sokratis are all kdhsgfjckslanxhfhfjsk blah blah blah
In a few other posts I talked about Leno not being vocal enough. Today AMN chested a ball and it went out for a corner and we all could see AMN asking Leno to be vocal and be heard. Same happened last year with Guendozi, who was far more animated than AMN. Leno is a good shot stopper, but I believe he gets overawed by the penalty takes, because he is meek.
I tell you guys this match was clearly fixed. I can’t prove it but it all seemed like it was acted. For the first time in my life I bought the idea that a match was fixed
One of my friends predicted correct scores for both Tothenham and Watford;
If he has another correct prediction I’ll stick with watching Liv & ManC play; at least it’ll be entertaining
Same as me, did you saw Unai Emery wink at the Watford coach after the final whistle?
If my memory serves me right, I once read that Emery prefers to win 5-4 rather than 1-0. but where’s that mentality gone ? And I’m wondering what Chambers done, why isn’t he getting a start ahead of Luiz, Sokratis is sh!!8 but at least with chambers they got the first clean sheet and an away one at that too. Play chambers and holding against eintracht and then villa, they just won’t be any worse the greek wrestler and the samba clown.
Manager hasn’t got a clue. Sokratis & Luiz are horrendous. They are so bad that Mustafi actually comes back into the fold.
Mustafi might not be that bad after all. Am I making any sense? For the love of God, Steve Vai . Chill, looking ahead to Miedema skinning Manure alive. At least I’m gonna enjoy watching our lovely ladies, especially Miedema.
Seriously this team needs a strong leader right up from the coach position, Emery ain’t that leader.
like it or not, before Watford’s first goal there were up three slip ups in front of our goal, you’d have thought a proper coach would’ve yelled at the boys and give them a proper knocking.
We should’ve lost the game, Watford deserved three points.
Every one of us can list players who should be benched except Emery.
Hell at this point I’ll gladly let Mustafi and Chambers play and see what’s up.
Sokratis and Luiz ain’t it
We have the worst midfield. I miss Cazorla, Rosicky, Wilshere, Ramsey 🙁 at least those guys knew how to entertain.
And for all of you who taught Nelson was a better option than Iwobi, shame on you
Thought*
Unay should be sold for applying that back start when under pressure if I was the keeper I would just pump it forward no back passing stupidity
I am a die hard Arsenal fan and today I have clearly understood Troy Deeney. Arsenal truly lack cajones.
I don’t agree with your rating for xhaka he saved us a lot he was solid in front of the none showing back two must really get a higher rating even when gwendozi gave the ball away early in the 2nd half xhaka was there to nip the ball
It didn’t require rocket science, Watford were going to slaughter us right from the start, the midfield seemed too narrow and we kept getting slaughtered from the wings.
We were lucky to get that first goal,Kolasinac and Auba were sharp enough to take advantage of Watford’s slumber after losing the ball.
It was so obvious this Diamond formation is crap and disastrous.
Niles kept getting slaughtered, he never got any cover or anyone to support him, same for Kolasinac.
This whole changing formation and team every game is depressing.
Please we’ve had enough of this búllshît, don’t give me that Emery needs to know his best team crap.
This is his second season.
Fifth game and yea we don’t have a standard formation or line-up.
Next game expect to see a different lineup and formation
This is the worst all time football Arsenal has ever played. I am pissed up. Players and manager collecting millions of pounds and play like school boys.
Should have given Wenger time. Where are his critics. This coach is confused about the Premiership.
Wenger had to go and we made sure of it, but UE just feels really wrong, MAX I’llAgree.
Well then Invisible, if you think your that powerful, why not get UE out as well?
Can you see any improvement on the field, despite the £200 million spent?
AW realised it was time to go, isn’t it ALREADY time for UE to do the same and resign as well?
Ken, Emery only has to the end of this season to impress management, otherwise his contract will not be extended.
I’m still waiting to see where Wenger goes next after more than a year in the “transit lounge”.
Mkhi scored on his Roma debut.. Unbelievable!!
Mkhi was playing for us under UE, no wonder.
He was also deemed expendable under AFerguson….remember his first few games for us under the old regime?
Let’s revisit at the end of the season.
Someone said that the team tried. Not sure if I saw that at all.
And what did Sokratis do to deserve 2. Just give him 0 or -10 and Emery deserves the same.
If Sokratis whom we all have to agree is a joke gets a 2, why shouldn’t Guendouzi? The mistake must not lead to a goal first before he realises he was acting like a headless chicken. I think he was the reason Watford started closing down that way. He gets the ball and takes 3 seconds to choose between which of his legs to use on the ball, this made Quique Sanchez device a new plan on pressing all the arsenal players Knowing one will make a mistakes as they live on making mistakes which eventually led to the goal and Unai Emery whom obviously is a big fraud couldn’t see this to change the “playing out from the back” tactics!! Complete Joke.. We never needed Mustafi to cost us points because other people in the squad are ever ready to
Maybe Mustafi knew everything all the while just waiting for us to realise that the main man UE is at fault. He choose to bide his time, fully aware that he’ll outlast UE, wily fella.
Emery out,Emery out. Rob holding for manager ??????
Ozil was useless – Aubameyang raced past him to defend
This guy is finished
Are you joking ,what an absolute proper moronic comment ,I get some people don’t rate him but if you know your football you would know what he brought to the team today nothing Ozil could do About that result his job was done ,that defeat is down to bad costly defending and another masterclass in management from Emery .
You John are not an Arsenal fan
Xhaka’s rating cracked me up though… “didn’t really do anything wrong”, but u went ahead to say he was overrun in the middle of the park, and he offered no outlet… those are wrong things to do man! ??
Lol ?
The coach is the cause of this as I keep on saying he need to be sacked no second chance for him.poor coach.how can u play that uncultured information from back whilst football is all about scoring goals
What kind of training is those Arsenal players really doing every morning????.Same mistakes game after game.Sokratis and Luis must be benched.
Maitland-Niles was absolute rubbish in our half of the field. Count the number of times he gave the ball away. Shocking! He couldn’t keep up with Delofeu.
Niles needs to watch the Liverpool full backs to understand the way the game is played,is too casual but has ability but not awareness ,surely Chambers will be a massive upgrade
Luiz is a calamity and Socratis wouldn’t get in any top ten team in the premier league
I still struggling to understand what UE says,his English is appalling and surely that doesn’t help
It is time to drop Zhaka and try something different and at least with AW we always had a football style and philosophy but now everything seems random
The bottom team in the league has 31 attempts on goal no more comments
Today’s match was lost by the manager in the same way he lost the Liverpool match. I don’t really blame the defenders. They got away with passing from the box on more than 3 occasions. On more than 10 occasions the defence was left without cover. On one of those occasions David Luiz have away a stupid penalty. Yes he had already been beaten but the striker still had work to do. If Watford had been more efficient this would have been a rout. Arsenal played the whole match in The same way they played the last minute against Spurs. They were so open that a train could be driven through the midfield.That’s the manager’s fault. Going by what we saw today, it’s going to be another frustrating season characterized by pathetic away performance. Does the coach even know his most balanced 11? I doubt