Was there a good performance by ANY of the Arsenal players against Ostersund? They should all hang their heads in shame after such an abysmal performance. All of them should be fined a weeks wages and the entrance fees returned to the poor Arsenal fans that expected to see a massacre. They should show some humility and apologise…
Anyway, here are my ratings, for what they are worth….
Ospina 5
Can’t really be blamed for the goals, but looked generally nervous..
Bellerin 5
Did Hector just forget how to defend? Or was he just left on his own without any support?
Chambers 3
Wenger must be questioning why he renewed this lad’s contract. Will never be first choice at Arsenal
Holding 4
Ditto, not much better than Chambers. I’m not really sure who was worse to be honest!
Kolasinac 5
Scored, but he obviously wasn’t told to defend either!
Elneny 5
Was Mohamed supposed to be the defensive mid? Or the second striker? I think he needs to be told, although at least he looked lively!
Maitland-Niles 3
Gone downhill recently and this was one of his worst ever. Needs a break probably…
Mkhitaryan 4
Obviously not used to his team-mates. Perhaps he should only play when Aubameyang is in front of him?
Wilshere 5
Where was his drive and passion? I have a feeling he will be dropped for Ramsey on Sunday…
Iwobi 4
Why does Wenger keep playing him no matter how badly he plays. Should be sent on loan to the Championship
Welbeck 3`
Does Wenger really want to give him a new contract? Let him play last few games of season then get rid. Rubbish
Subs:
Xhaka 5
Definite improvement after replacing AMN
Willock 5
Better than Iwobi!
Even I’m better than Iwobi ???
AC Milan v Arsenal is a real heavyweight encounter in the Europa League.
Between them, they’ve won seven European Cups…..
Going to be 8 this year
didn’t know they won 7 muff
I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like slagging the players for these past couple games and going forward.
Can’t name one player that’s going to consistently look good under Arsene. The shape we play, our tactics on the day, the lack of balance, that’s all down to Arsene, and for me as a result the players aren’t playing well.
For starters, we have no true winger/dynamic wide player, yet Arsene continues to persist with formations that are benefited by those specialists — 4231/343. Then he deploys players that would prefer to play centrally in those positions – Mhki, Mesut, Iwobi – and we’re quick to down them when they don’t play well.
Mhki & Mesut are clearly superior 10s than Jack, and Jack has shown brighter as an 8 than a 10 in my opinion, and yet Arsene will pick Jack over one or both of those two as he did yesterday.
ElNeny not good enough. Xhaka not good enough, and yet coquelin is gone.
Hector regressed ever since arsene made him a wing-back, and now he’s trying to be a full back again with no true winger/partner in front of him. Struggling.
Chambers not progressing (maybe was never good enough) Holding not progressing.
All being ruined by this version of Arsene Wenger.
I wasn’t a fan of Chambers when we 1st got him but he won me over, he lacks experience and confidence IMO.
Something that George Graham would have installed in the lad by now, he would have drilled Chambers to deal with different situations and gave the lad confidence from being taught and having the training to rely on. Some players excel at coming to the conclusion themselves but they can be a liability until they learn how to deal with things and in failing to deal with things, their confidence gets knocked through failure.
Bould has been castrated and TBH I think it was the loss of Song and the training incident that happened between Bould and Song that ended Boulds influence. Wenger dislikes confrontation and there was Bould being well… bold XD Wenger rated Song and I don’t think Wenger appreciated Bould doing that when Wenger may have been trying too sweet talk him into staying.
Before then our players did look like they was learning a few things in training on how to defend but downhill since.
I like how Gazidis is making changes, if I could dream then I would like to see coaching taken away from the manager, why should a single man be responsible for training def, mid, att oh and GK?
Why not get a specialist def coach in for coaching the team how to defend, same for GK and CM and Att… No longer rely upon a sole man for all of that.
For me, the manager can be reduced in this change down to a tactical manager with good political skills.
Obviously not Wenger XD lol.
Midkemma; great post and I couldn’t agree more. Please elaborate on the Bould/Song inciident; it may explain a lot.
Wenger was a 1 at best, he was the real fault, too many players looked unsure of each other.
Iwobi looked like he is trying to become a blend of Alexis and Theo and not the good parts, lose the ball how many times? Also looking like a headless chicken with no real idea what he wants to do when he has the ball apart from run into the opposition and give it to them.
Welbeck looks like he doesn’t care and to be honest he was never good enough to buy and obviously been shut out as a CF with 2 WC signings coming in, I would much prefer young Eddie Nketiah get game time over Welbroke. He knows he is on his way out and it shown, he didn’t look like he has the fight in him to be an AFC player.
Chambers and Holding chown a clear lack of confidence, that backpassing looked like them being scared of the ones making a mistake and giving the ball away for the eventual goal that was bound to happen.
Lacking self belief and maybe lacking confidence in the game plan… or rather lack of game plan. Wenger fault if so.
Sead got the goal which was good but looked slow at times, he isn’t match fit and it shown, Wenger has not given him enough mins.
AMN and ElNeny are not a good partnership.
WTF was ElNeny doing being the DM when AMN is a freaking DM!!!!!!!
AMN lacks experience and ElNeny lacks leadership, WTF is going through Wengers mind when he plays them together in CM?
ElNeny picked up once Xhaka came on but we all know Wenger likes Xhaka as a DM and Xhaka is more of a leader, he did control the AFC CM better than ElNeny/AMN partnership. ElNeny pushed up and was closing down quicker than AMN was, AMN lacks the experience for such a role and IMO needs to play DM where he is allowed to step forward occasionally due to a deep lying playmaker being able to cover him for brief moments.
I want to see AMN in the DM role with Wilshere as the deep lying playmaker, Wilshere could have been rested for the FA Cup and let Xhaka partner AMN against a weaker opposition… but instead Wenger chooses the yorkshire terrier and newbie AMN.
Wenger had the opportunity to play some hungry kids who want to progress but instead of fielded what looks like a a team which was half filled with potential sales, trying to promote sales for the summer window…
So much negativity. Guys we actually won. Who cares if it was pretty or not we are through. Becoming sick of arsenal fans and the sense of entitlement. I agree wemger needs to go and tactics need to change but damn unless we get a clear massive win its all negative take the qualification and laugh we played a 2nd string team. Yes they could have and should have done better but lets get behind the team. See you in millan lads
Shortboygooner,
I agree with your views on negativity and whether it was pretty or not. Clesea fans weren’t worried wh We went through.en they were outplayed in the champions league final because they lifted the cup. Also the sense of entitlement comment.
But that display last night was one of the worst I can recall.
Wenger and Bould need to look at their role in this debacle, but the players were culpable of some of the worst performances I have seen from “players” wearing our shirt. We had internationals playing out there and they were outclassed, outfought and don’t forget, beaten!!
It’s nice to agree with Jon Fox on one thing.
The club should respond to the fans over this unacceptable display, either in ticket pricing next season (a one match fee deduction) or a cash / credit note refund (Food voucher?) for those without season tickets.
One game doesn’t make a season and if we win on Sunday and advance to the last eight of europa that will help, but you just can’t overlook this display and neither should the club.
Hate to tell you Shortboygooner that although Arsenal won the tie overall 4-2, this famous club lost 2-1 to Ostersund at home!
ALL the players who played for us in this match shou;ld hav ethere money deducted until every penny paid by fans who were cheated by turning up has been refunded to them. I now despair of any players playing under Wengers “management”. All he ever does is demotivate them.