There was a record amount of goal attempts by Arsenal yesterday against Sunderland, and Mesut Ozil created a record number of chances, but I just have to give the MOTM to Alexis Sanchez, who scored two goals but could have scored loads if it wasn’t for a few misses and a world class performance by Jason Pickford.
So here are my ratings….
Cech 7
Obviously most of the action was at the other end, but the veteran was excellent again when called upon…
Holding 7
Looked more like a striker and had an easy chance with his head go awry, but he is looking better and better the more I see him..
Mustafi 7
Again not much to do in defence, and hit the bar late on. But I can’t find much to criticise him for…
Monreal 7
Another striker in defenders clothing. He provided a comedy moment with his back pass but otherwise excellent
Bellerin 6.5
Not quite as good as the others, but he is a natural attacker and will be much improved next season. Great to have as an option…
Xhaka 7
Is looking more and more like a good replacement for Cazorla, once he learns to dribble and tackle, but his passing is awesome…
Ramsey 7
Seems to be revelling in his new attacking role, but that elusive goal probably won’t arrive until next season…
Gibbs 6
After some great performances recently he just seemed like a good backup in this game…
Alexis 9
The Duracell Bunny is back. Could have secured the Golden Boot yesterday with a bit more luck…
Ozil 8
He seems to have regained his form. Him and Alexis are the dynamic duo and must be kept together next season…
Giroud 7
Couldn’t get past Pickford but had loads of chances. Maybe he’s better as a super sub?
The subs weren’t really on long enough for a rating, but we didn’t score until Welbeck and Iwobi came on, so we’ll give those two a 7 as well…
Giroud should have been up front all year. He has the most goals of any player per minute than any player. Sanchez can score from anywhere because of his movement. Yesterday the keepers fingertips prevented 2 more goals from OG. Wellbeck, Walcott, who have had many minutes don’t come close to OG. It’s not about just goals with OG either. His one two’s were incredible yesterday.
Alexis was best CF, best winger, and best no10.
Thats becuase he normally comes on and scores when it doesn’t matter anymore. Most of the time when we’re looking for the deadlock to be broken Giroud can’t score.
His overall play is not good enough for a team like Arsenal, most of the time he is missing and it’s like playing with 10 men. Even more so when Walcott is on. When Walcott is playing we are essentially a player down.
If we had a better CF, Perez maybe even, we would’ve been top scorers in this league.
He usually scores the first goal of the game.
Alexis must stay and be given anything
Ozil turned up finally
Belerin can’t cross or pass
Wenger doesn’t have a clue
Jason Pickford 🙂
I can never understand why the man of the match is 95% always a goal scorer or someone on ones own team. Despite Sanchez’s, Ozil’s and Xhaka’s heroics, my man of the match was Jordan Pickford.
i can’t believe someone on this site recognize that giroud is our second best player not ozil arsenal players are not good enough to play to is strength is inference to the game go unrecognized
How I wish arsenal repeats this type of performance n improve on it next season
Sanchez seemed motivated to get the top goalscorer title. Hopefully he will show similar determination in the next two games and stay with Arsenal next season.
Ozil looked frustated a little. Maybe he is going to be sold once this season is over?
Giroud is better in the air, but he is not as fast as Welbeck.
Bellerin needs to study Dani Alves’ movements if he wants to improve as a wingback. Otherwise Chamberlain will always start ahead of him.
Cannot wait for the drama of the player transfer to start. What kind of expensive player will we get next season? I hope he is a midfield general that is able to dictate the tempo like Cazorla, Verratti, Messi, Sanchez, Modric, etc.
What you’d get will be a mediocre player on free transfer. Don’t be gullible.
Those well known midfield generals Messi and Sanchez??
I have always said arsenal does not play to Giroud strengths, therefore he scores less goals than he should, compare crosses for the big men in the league, Ibrahim, Swansea striker , Carol, benteke, lukaku,. I think it would be interesting stats.
Giroud is not my preferred striker, I think welbeck type would be my preferred choice, good pace, good aerial ability but still lacking in finishing. We still need to upgrade.
As is the tradition of the club in recent years, we are supposed to add another marquee player this summer to the likes of Ozil, Sanchez and Cech.
However, if we lose one of Ozil and Sanchez, the logically I’d expect that we would add 1 marquee player (Sanchez/Ozil level) and 1 very good player (Xhaka level). I’d prefer for the marquee player to be an Iwobi-style winger, so Sanchez can continue as our main No 9. The “very good player” can be a CM to complement Xhaka nicely.
If we lose both Sanchez and Ozil. Then we need to bring in two marquee players. A sophisticated No 9, and an Iwobi-like winger.
But none of the above is likely to happen.
That’s the thing, only less talented teams rely on those tactics. If we played to Girouds strengths as a style of football, we’d be a mid table club or lower. Of course you need to be able to do it from time in a match, but never should we be a team that plays to his strengths. Last season Ozil done it well, he played perfectly to Girouds strengths, but then when we needed pace and passing, Ozil found it difficult to read the forwards after being used to working with Giroud for so long. Giroud should only have ever been a sub for us, people saying he should always lead our line haven’t got a clue what they’re talking about.
He’s a good option if you need to mix things up a bit and also defensively against a set piece team he’s handy.
Funny he is close to 100 goals as a full time/part time player. That’s 20 a season. Playing with a target is a great weapon to have. So many think that it’s solely his responsibility to score goals but both wingers on this team have chances because OG plays back to goal and they get he through balls.
I know you have a hard on for Alexis, and he’s a great player, but can you for once see beyond the goals? Gazillion misplaced passes; several golden opportunities missed; some poor decision making; etc. And he should say a big Thank You to Ozil and Giroud for two goals that he scored. On his own, he didn’t create much. Ozil – easily MOTM yesterday.
The forwards have to produce misplaced passes, miss golden opportunities and made some poor decision, because they have to be creative and produce goals. You could see how Messi and Neymar play, then try to count those things you mentioned.
If the forwards play too safe, you will see players that play like Ozil. He listened too much to the critics, made him produce too many back and side passes. Currently I prefer Mahrez than him.
Forwards should be adventuruous, but they also have to retrieve the ball from their misplaced passes, like what Messi, Neymar and Sanchez did. Everytime they lose the ball, they usually will try to chase it back.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!
Dude is almost on course to becoming the league’s highest goal-scorer.. and you going to flog him with “poor decision making”?!!
What is a pass if it doesn’t lead to a goal? What is an opportunity if it doesn’t lead to a goal? Every goal is testament to good decision-making, and Sanchez has 23 of them in the league this season. Goal is the name of the game.
“See beyond the goals” my foot!!
Tell that the gazillion amount of clubs who are lining up to sign him this summer. And Arsene is scared of losing him because the manager and the team are so insanely dependent upon him Arsene is going to play him even if his right leg is amputated.
Ozil is great! But I’d prefer a player who is very good at creating for himself first and then for others.
You can “see beyond his goals” all you like. But you can look past his exemplary hunger, his burning desire to win ALL THE TIME.
A record 32 goal attempts and we only score 2 when our destiny could come down to goal difference ! Ffs who did we have playing upfront…stevie wonder ?…no giroud ! Got in the way of a goal bound effort from sanchez, missed 2 sitters, constantly gave the ball away, couldnt hold up play, fell over, stuck his tongue out….we are all as deluded as wenger if we feel the lampost is as good as some on here think…he needs to be shipped out in the summer along with all the other deadwood and a 25 goal plus a season worldy bought in ….dont know who would come to us now but top striker must be the priority.
Or could it perhaps be that Pickford was having a game of his life, and made like a bazillion saves?
Admittedly he stopped a cricket score but how many attempts from giroud ? Vlad, 32 attempts and how many came from giroud our so called striker ?
I’m tired of getting top 4 and going out of last 16 so it won’t bother me if I don’t see Arsenal in UCL next year for the first time in my life.
But there is a more likely scenario than Middlesbrough beating Liverpool, thats Watford beating City. If City lose by one goal (low scoring 1 goal loss) and we beat Everton by 4 goals, we will secure top 4.
That is why yesterday was more important to score more goals. I doubt Arsenal can get near 4 goals against Everton, unless they collapse due to not wanting Liverpool in UCL.
Ozil tried to get us to stop celebrating so we could score more. Must say, I prefer seeing Ozil angry, it suited him better than it suits Xhaka. Xhaka loses focus a bit when it happens to him.
The dynamic duo will surely do one, dynamically!
Ramsey 7 – are you blind?!
Probably his best performance all season and he was still shocking!
Wenger out and Ramsey out!
Boro draw with pool and we go through in 4th, if we win of course.