After a week where Arsenal’s mental fortitude has been legitimately called into question, there is one excellent way to answer the critics, and that is to win a game with strong mental fortitude. Like the City game this was a game of two halves for the Gunners but in reverse.
Whereas the performance in the first half in the City game was good it was the second half where Arsenal looked considerably more cohesive in this game. In a sense this was a perfect outcome to regain belief in our potential as an injury time winner has that magical ability to create momentum. Here are my ratings
Ramsdale (8)
Could do very little about the Villa goals, both of which were very well taken. Made two hugely important saves in the second half when the game was in the balance that were as significant as the goals that were scored. Increasingly impressive when the ball is played back to him under pressure, although admittedly he did almost get caught out on one occasion.
White (7)
Renewed his relationship with Saka and demonstrated why he is selected in place of Tomiyasu with his constant overlapping. Was solid enough in defence but it was his forward forays that particularly caught the eye as well as his close control.
Saliba (7)
A massively improved performance and had a ding dong battle with Watkins which on the balance of things he came out on top. Could have probably got closer to the forward with the goal but otherwise marshalled the in form Villa player reasonably well.
Gabriel (7)
Put in a good shift and looked like a return to the solidity that he has demonstrated for the majority of the season. Has an increased responsibility to cover the left wing because of Zinchenko’s tendency to roam the midfield and was exposed as a result a few times but handled it well. Made a fantastic tackle on Bailey late on.
Zinchenko (6)
Gets an extra mark for his brilliant strike but for a player of his technical ability his error count was alarmingly high. Made the mistake that led to the first Villa goal and then continued to conspire to lose the ball or take the wrong option, almost resulting in another goal later in the game. The impression is that he is sometimes trying too hard and then forces a pass that isn’t available.
Jorginho (9)
As was highlighted by a few commentators on the site, I was unfairly harsh on Jorginho after the City game. He was outstanding here. Very potent in attack and showed his eye for a killer pass with frequency. This is an extra weapon that will unsettle defences because teams have been doubling up on Odegaard recently, and his presence may cause them increased consternation. Made several important unshowy interventions when Villa threatened to break.
Xhaka (5)
Looks tired. Unlike the tour de force of the early season as his decision making is laboured whereas before it was crisp and decisive. Not surprisingly as he is the last player selected to get a rest, but probably needs one.
Odegaard (7)
Was crowded out in the first half to good effect, but really enjoyed himself in the second half. Given space it is well documented how much this man can hurt you, and in contrast to my City ratings he benefitted by Jorginho’s presence as the Italian started to make the through balls that are normally the domain of our captain causing the Villa midfield the headache of having to mark two play makers. Loses a mark for missing the most glorious opportunity that could have cost two points.
Saka (8)
The boy is world class and needs protection. Not a single booking for the litany of fouls he had to suffer. Showed an unusual flash of petulance which reflects more on how remarkable it is that he keeps his calm so frequently after being assaulted. His strike for the goal was incredible.
Nketiah (5)
His emergence as a top quality striker seems to be short lived. Gave the usual effort but the difference in the intelligence and the effectiveness of his closing down and Jesus’s is marked. Having said that, he did rob the Villa defender to set up Odegaard’s miss. Should have done so much better with the one on one that he was given.
Trossard (5) Was largely ineffectual. Had no joy in the first half of note down the left wing and must have been instructed to switch the play in the second half, which admittedly he did so very well with pinpoint raking passes to Saka. However is capable of so much more.
That is how I saw it and I’m always interested in how other Gunners read the game because ratings are such a subjective review. So tell me what you think.
Peter Doherty
Fair ratings. I quite agree with all of them. It’s good that we could go back to winning ways and the icing on the cake is that Man City dropped points.
White was 8
Martindale seems to play better as a sub! So maybe that’s they say forward for him. Xhaka is the player that has gone missed the last 5 of 6 games with no runs into the box, no key passes and no shots on target. He is not even defending well. He is the weak link at present and is why we are under performing. In the beginning of the season he gave us that energy and unpredictability of his runs into the box, but now he is just making up the numbers with no positive contribution. We need a new younger fitter box to box player of high quality to replace him to raise Arsenals game to how they had started at the beginning of the season. But who is available to replace Xhaka or at least give him a rest? We also need quality natural overlapping full backs for certain games that require a tactical change when teams park the bus against us, and short term cover in certain positions he to injuries.
I’d give Ramsdale 7. He made a great save, but he shouldn’t have conceded from such tight angle. I don’t think we’ll win a major trophy if we keep conceding from tight angles, so he needs to work on that aspect or trade places with Turner
Zinchenko’s loose ball in the game and in the previous ones warrant a benching time, but he redeemed himself with a great long shot. That goal, his playmaking and defending effort should give him at least 7
As for Jorginho, I liked his positioning and passing skills in the last two matches. Hopefully he will keep making accurate long shots
Agree with your comments on Ramsdale, GAI, but time to use Zinchenko to replace Xhaka, who is labouring, and to bring back Tierney.
Agreed Grandad, I would really like to see that line up.
I’d also like to see that experiment. Hopefully we’ll be able to afford it in an EL match
That’s exactly my thinking at the moment as that will increase our efficiency in the final third. In recent games, xhaka has been ineffective unlike in the beginning of the season and our left wingers are getting doubled upon easily because there hasn’t been a left wingback play all season. Tierney an overlapping full back will support whoever play as a left winger for us like its seen on our right wing with the combo of saka and white. Zinny can replace the tiring xhaka to reduce his defensive responsibilities and hereby making him more effective.
Xhaka has virtually played every game, plus the World Cup for Switzerland. He is starting to look fatigued and needs a rest.
I believe a Partey/Jorginho partnership shows promise or should Partey be unavailable, a Jorginho/Zinchenko partnership to give Xhaka recovery time.
Jorginho as a CDM and Partey in Xhaka’s or Odegaard’s position will be an interesting experiment. I think Partey played an advanced role for Ghana and he certainly has the abilities to do it
Yes he does play the advanced role for Ghana and to good effects too.
Disagree on ramsdale – it was a perfectly taken goal and the angle wasn’t outrageously tight. Watkins hit it cleanly and with power into the bottom corner, couldn’t have done it better. Keepers don’t save those.
High-level professional tennis/ badminton players have excellent positional sense and calculations in their areas of the courts
I expect the main GK of an EPL title contending team to have a similar level of area/ positional calculations
In my opinion, Ramsdale has let in too many goals from tight angles
That goal was Saliba’s fault, he wasn’t tight enough on Watkins.
I watched it another time to look at positioning as you’re clearly looking at these details closely (and I don’t consider myself an expert on goalkeeping at all), and you may have a point in that he seemed to move very close to his near post at the last moment. Not sure if that was a “mistake” or not, but he may have had a better chance of saving it has he not made that movement.
The shot looked good to me, still, so maybe it wouldn’t have made a difference, but i suspect you have a point here, so I’ll retract my disagreement and leave it at that, if I may 🙂
I disagree with you and with Grandad, who both unfairly blame Ramsdale for a terrific shot which was NOT from a very tight angle at all.
If anyone then SALIBA was at fault for not marking closely enough Ramsdale is a top keeper and had yet another fine game yesterday. Yours is a harsh and incorrect assessment
He was well positioned as he was expecting a shot on his near post , hence exposing the far post too much.
So Trossad had an ineffective game, similar to Martenelli recently.
The reason for this is Zinchenko, he drifts into the middle and offers no overlap for our LW.
Another reason is Eddie who does not create space like Jesus does.
I think it is unfair to rate our lw too harshly as we clearly are not setup to utilize their strengths, which is what we are doing on the RW.
I would like to see Eddie benched and Martenelli in ST role, maybe him and Trossad will compliment each other better.
Eddie as I have said many times is not at Arsenal level despite a lucky purple patch, he is now showing his true ability.
These article that award players marks mean absolutely nothing, except to th person writing the article.
As I REPEATEDLY STATE, unless markings are first defined, so that all fans are marking from the SAME hymnsheet, so to speak, they are entirely subjecive in every case and are always a myriad hotchpotch of wildly varying marks.
This would not be the case though, if all understood or agreed that for example;3 meant really awful, 4 meant bad, 5 below par, 6 meant average ,7 meant good, 8 very good, 9 excellent 10 out of this world sublime!
But as it is, marks and marks type articles are completely meaningless as a true guide of real enmasse fan opinion.
I say it almost every time but it always falls on minds that don’t TRULY want to find truth. Sigh!
Just stop commentng on them dude , or dont you have anything better to do than whinge
Zinchecko has rendered our left wingers almost useless. I don’t know if Arteta is seeing it. The guy is making more errors than his contributions.
The coach should let him understand that he is a defender and one of his main duty is to feed the left winger with ball and return to the back rather than drifting to the middle of the field with ball and making erratic shits or wrong passes.
Arteta should try him in the midfield and pair him with Joginho while giving obviously tired Xhaka some rest.
agree 100%… watch Ramsdale’s reaction when he let their first goal in – he knew it was his mistake.
Totally agree with you Mrcool. Such a raw deal for Tierney too…..serving time in Arteta’s doghouse.
With this ratings you cant overturn such a difficult game with such a good team.Dont be so tight
Zinchenko without mincing words is the reason Martinelli is ineffective. Arteta should bring back Tierney and draft Zinny int midfield and giy Xhaka the needed rest. Ben needs rest. Bring back Tommy and sincerely speaking, bench Nketia. Martinelli can play there while Trossard plays LW. Arteta should be flexible in his approach and selections.
I feel we should use Tierney more so that Leo or Gab can attack. They spend most of the time defending while Zin is in midfield leaving them a hard time to attack.
Agree with a lot of the comments here.
Zinchenko inverted LB is killing the LW, and combining that with an ineffective Nketiah is bunting ue up top.
Xhaka needs a rest, giving Zinchenko a chance there makes sense.
Trossard on LW and Martinelli as striker adds teeth up top, and we can’t continue starting Nketiah. He offers nothing if he isn’t scoring, and is showing he simply is not at a properlevel to stay at our club.
No complaint with your ratings. Pretty much how I saw the game. Agree that Jorginho, Saka and Odegaard were our stand out players. Hats off to the Italian – Brazilian he has played very well in two big games for us. Wasn’t impressed with the signing initially because I wanted someone more long term, but as things stand with Partey out, Jorginho could be a season saver.
No surprise about how Jorginho control the midfield and passed the ball vertically. Sarri bought him in the first place for that very reason. He was the gem at Sarri Ball at Napoli. But then again, a lot of Arsenal fans are insufferably ignorant.
Team against Leicester if Partey is still out…
Ramsdale
White Saliba gabby Tierney
Ode. Jorgino zinc
Saka. Martinelle. Trossard
The ratings are ok except I feel it is a bit low for Zinchenko. Agreed he had a few mistakes in him but I feel overall he did quite well and he is a effective leader on the pitch.
Dont forget that ESR looks over his injury. Could well play a role on the left or in the middle
We all see now that it’s the drift of the LB to midfield that has made the LW redundant but we didn’t notice until Jesus got injured, which shows that Nketiah is meant to assist the LW more, just as Jesus has been doing,but he’s failed in that aspect and also in holdup play,
It’s time to play ;
White Saliba Gabby Tierney/Zinc
Ode .Partey. Jorgino .
Saka. Martineli. Trossard