It was not a good day for Arsenal and they have lost their swagger in recent weeks. The only plus was that we didn’t lose our unbeaten run, somehow!
Here are my ratings:
Leno 8
A truly magnificent performance from the German. He will stay first-choice from now on for sure
Bellerin 5
Not a good day for the Spaniard in attack or defence
Holding 5
Didn’t seem so assured after a good run
Mustafi 6
Strangely enough Mustafi wasn’t too bad for a change.
Kolasinac 5
Not assured as a defender, and wasn’t much better going forward. Where’s Monreal?
Torreira 7
We needed Lucas to steady the ship today. It’s a shame everyone else wasn’t on the same page.
Xhaka 4
Definitely an off day, and totally to blame for Wolves’ goal
Iwobi 5
Back to his inconsistent old tricks. No final result at all
Ozil 5
Mr Marmite couldn’t spread himself today.
Lacazette 5
Struggled for service and was held well by the Wolves defence
Aubameyang 5
Another one with an off day in front of goal. Should have scored.
Subs:
Guendouzi 6
Brought in to help an under pressure defence. Not a bad day
Ramsey 5
Should be left on the bench until he gets his head straight.
Mkhitaryan 6
A lucky goal but hopefully it will improve his confidence after a poor few weeks
I think you are being harsh on Bellerin and Holding and while Xhaka was culpable for the Wolves goal on two accounts Kolasinac was poor throughout the match.I am not at all impressed with the left back and this is a position where we need an upgrade as soon as possible.
Xhaka even looked better than Kolasinac at LB in his short time there but the defense was a complete shamble.
Kolasinac used to be promising when he first came and I heard he was one of the best fullbacks in Bundesliga two seasons ago
Still not losing hope in him and as long as his contributions in attacking are good, I would not really care about his defending. If he fails, we have still got Maitland-Niles and I hope Lopez can step up
How can you possibly say you don’t care about his defending when he plays at full back, ie in defence? Wenger was like you , as he never cared either, about defence or about our regular RB, Bellerin, even being in the correct defensive position when our defence was under attack. Your comment is outrageously silly.
How does Lucas Torreira get a 7 and Leno an 8?Torreira deserves a 6.5 and Leno a 9.5 for his heroics.The whole back four were average and should be given 5 each.
Why does Emery keep starting some players?Our defence is badly exposed so I suggest we move to a 4-3-3 with Torreira,Guendouzi and AMN in the middle and Iwobi(LW),Mkhi(RW) and Aubameyang(CF) in attack.We are wasting our time with this No. 10 system.
Agree. It would be better if they implement Emery’s high pressing strategy to force the opponents to make mistakes. Rather than waiting for a perfect pass that rarely comes
We need to strengthen our defense in January
We cant rely on Goalkeeper heroics every time
especially CB position
Torreira and Guendouzi have covered a poor to average defense
In the summer we need to focus on ventral midfield and wingers i think
i believe if arsenal pay ozil the money he deserves he will show up more in matches,come on the 300 is too small for a player like ozil,damn he’s a World Cup winner and should be treated like one,give him more money,he should be on the same pay with the Messi and Ronaldo’s.i can count more than 6 defense splitting passes he made yesterday
I think kolasinac should be 3 iwobi 3,ozil 8,and xhaka 4,to be honest I think only ozil and Leno deserves 8,if not because he was substituted later I believe ozil would have been the man of the match,I love he’s defense splitting passes.
I feel like I can’t be bothered with Ozil anymore. Same old from him. Some of us his critics seem to be repeating ourselves season after season. Same old criticism for 5 seasons. Excuse after another from his fanbase etc. He will always have a very good game in every 5-10 games.
The guy is the most overrated / overhyped player i have ever come across in all my decades as an Arsenal supporter. Too much hype from his keepers and protectors but too little to show in terms of performances.
To me Criticising Ozil nowadays is like continuing to kick a already dead horse. He will never get to the level I was expecting him to reach at Arsenal. He just turned 30 years old. If a 25-29 year old Ozil in his prime has been a joke for us, then what can one expect from a 30-35 year old Ozil?
What an anticlimax of a player. Smh
The Arsenal board don’t know how to spend money relative to transfers and Arsenal players at all.How did we give him a £300K a week contract?Btw is it £350K or £300K.Was it the same so called stingy board that sanctioned the signing of Mustafi and Xhaka all for £35m each?Is this the same board that were ready to pay above £90m for Lemar?Thank goodness that move didn’t come to fruition.
Goonster, I so agree. Any star number one player at any top club who is on far more money than anyone else at the club, HAS to deliver the goods or he is shortchanging the club, team, fans, manager and himself. Ozil has been here long enough now and just doesn’t cut it at that expected level, EXCEPT very occasionally. Our frustration is all the more keen because we all know he HAS sublime ability but just doesn’t show it. Personally I have had enough of him now and so have very many, judging by many comments on here. Phil and a few others have stood by him and continue to do so but , thougn I agree with Phil as to the level of his best ability, that ability has to be regularly shown, in my view, or it is next to useless. Frankly, we would be better off without his wages millstone around our neck and with someone in his place, even at lesser ability, who will deliver to his best level, week after week. Ozil has had far more chances than almost any other player we have had and not shown up. Over his least season or more , which is what most matters, he has been, overall, a failure and that needs to be said and no more non believable excuses made for him. What WILL happen to him, I don’t know for sure but I want him gone and think those realists in charge of our recruitment and selection are surely NOW thinking along those lines too. It would be only natural, so watch this space. Top teams do not and cannot carry passengers, however talented they be on their rare day.
Leno has been brilliant.. as has Torreira ?
That is the first time I’ve sat there at the Emirates feeling really frustrated & being very vocal (mainly towards Iwobi, Xhaka, the ref & the linesman) normally I’m just singing along… but not yesterday ? the highs & lows of being a supporter I guess. Need this international break to calm down & regroup & go again against Bournemouth… can see there being goals in that game & Leno will be busy once again COYG
You guys who have been going to Arsenal games for the past ten years have really been through stuff.Kudos to you guys for sticking by the team.I for one know that one day one day we shall return back to where we belong through hardwork and the will to succeed.I don’t know what was more annoying to me watching the match,if it was the terrible streaming or watching a team which can barely pass well.
I don’t attend anywhere near as some on here… after the Liverpool game (which I wish I’d gone to) I was buzzing, so to then sit through that yesterday ? I was really pis*ed off if I’m honest…
Sorry sur it’s difficult being an arsenal fan especially when you have players like iwobi and xhaka in the same team,but thank goodness we have in ozil a world class player who can carry the team and change the game in a blink of an eye,we are so lucky to have ozil,long may it continue
@ leno happy, are u being sarcastic
Yeah and the savior of AFC Emery was guiding us to a top 4 finish just 2 weeks back with all his tactical heroics and turning our players from duds under Wenger to the balon de or contenders, all i can say is that the buble has burst and Emery is just an average manager. What can we expect from an ageing overpaid squad to untested youngsters( save Leno and Torrera) and expected to win? Wenger did the wise thing to walk. AFC is theoutcome or paying the price for having a non football background CEO for 10 years.Sad but true
Show me one person with one comment saying that Emery turned Wenger duds into Balon Dor contenders. Show me one person who believes a top four finish equates to Balon Dor winning gongs. Tactical heroics, if you mean Emery has won games after making tactical decisions, well yes, Mr Obvious. And you say the squad is aging overrated players along with young and inexperienced players save but two – And you say he (Emery) has been average all along, you seem confused mate. Are you sure that it’s not just you who thought all of this and are regretting ever thinking it?
Bro/sis, Emery cannot finish off Wolves at home and had to wait for some fluke goal.2 weeks back every 1 was talking of how he fixed the defence, the new Xhaka, belerins assists, new iwobi blah blah! And check the ages of auba ozil monreal socrates lich mikhi and the experiences of mavo holding guendozi iwobi, the errors of xhaka mustafi belerin and the disappeance of ozil and ramsey. And a manager who could not win the UCL wirh PSG.That sums up AFC the club of my childhood.
Literally no one has said Emery has fixed the defense. Hes certainly improved it but we all know mistakes are still in there. Hes only 3 months into his first season, with an almost identical first 11 as last season, and hasn’t lost in 16 games now. Yet you’re already turning on him? Pep didnt light the league on fire his first season, yet you’ll shower him with praise I’m sure. He also didnt win the UCL with a dominant Bayern while being there longer than Emery had with PSG, who was dealing with dressing room conflicts. And Wenger didnt walk away, he was respectably pushed out. It takes more than 3 months to see the fruitions of a managers philosophy
Wish i could give you a hug for your comment WR.
Some fans on here man…
Red and White is in a very small minority, who think Unai Emery is “just an average manager.” I’d rather listen to the assessments of people who know a bit about football management, who appear to hold him in high regard.
How can you give IWOBI such a small ratting ,he was the only player that try to make thing happen in first half of the march.At least he was putting in effort when ozil was no where to be found
Ooh my brother that’s where you are wrong,wenger didn’t walk he was sacked and yes I agree with you on something,we shouldn’t expect much from that squad and you are also wrong to call emery an average coach,even guardiola cannot do much with this team,but at least we still have some world class players in ozil,with him in our squad,anything is possible,we can win the EPL with him in our squad
I think your being a little kind with the ratings, I know everyone rates differently, but for me 5 rating out of ten is basically saying – bang on average. These guys were well below average, average this season is actually ok/decent because they’ve (our attack) been consistently good this season. So, well below average is what they gave. I wouldn’t mind but they don’t even have the excuse of a midweek game making their legs heavy, except Guendouzi, Iwobi, Holding and Aubameyang, all the others got to put their feet up and concentrate fully on the next opponent.
The big players really let us down.
Lacazette has been a bit off form lately, I know he scored the pool goal and played a great defensive game that day, but I think his last three or four games his game has suffered a little. He can be creative and a huge threat in the same game, full of ability, but we haven’t seen that from him in a while. I mention him because he’s one of the big players that we rely on.
Ozil, he’s a little off this season, he’s shown some magic, but he’s our number one creator and after a game like that one, you have to say no, that is just not good enough. I know Wolves done a good job man marking in the final third as well as setting up a very decent looking wall. We expect more, after being rested also we were playing at home, we expect allot more.
I don’t even want to mention Xhaka, it was that bad.
We expect more from Kolasinac and Bellerin, you could see that the forward guys were having too much difficulty finding space further up, when that happens you need your fullbacks overlapping and taking players on, as well as sneaking to the back post. They were poor going forward, weren’t great in defence neither but they didn’t get good protection.
We expect more is right, even Emery couldn’t give them a kick up the bum, and he didn’t seem to make a game plan for these guys we faced, in the end he done an Arsene and just threw on more forward players. Upsetting, and it seems to be a bit of a reality check.
I was amazed at how slow Mustafina was Vs adama !!!!