The Gunners had an abysmal performance yesterday against a Brighton team that had lost their last 3 games and are probably worth in total as much as Aubameyang’s big toe! I think we could also all agree that Unai Emery didn’t have his best game for us either….
Anyway here are my ratings, this one is rated Over 18s only!
Leno 5
Call me radical, but could it be about time that Cech got another chance? Leno didn’t have much to do but should still be alert…
Lichtsteiner 3
His awful mistake for the goal must have dented his confidence because he didn’t get any better..
Sokratis 6
As solid as usual. He has grown on me. If only we had three of him!
Koscielny 5
Not as bad as Lichtsteiner!
Kolasinac 5
He has looked great recently, but sadly not in this game
Torreira 6
The Uruguayan looks like he desperately needs a rest, but he is still a trier
Xhaka 5
Needs to stay in midfield where has is still effective. Someone tell Emery he is not a defender please…
Guendouzi 5
Another tired young man. Maybe we need to remember he is still a kid really
Ozil 5
Rubbish in the first half, but he could have improved if he stayed on. Maybe… Perhaps…
Aubameyang 6
Great goal as usual. But drops rating for missing the next two. Where would we be in the League without his goals?
Lacazette 6
He makes Auba a better player and should never have been taken off..
Subs:
Iwobi 4
Replacing Ozil? Really?
Ramsey 4
He always needs regular game-time to get to his best. Not getting there at the moment..
Maitland-Niles 4
Not at his best in defence and looked a little unbalanced going forward..
Still under the illusion you know how to manage a football club………………laughable
No where does he say he knows how to manage a club does he ?
He’s giving his opinion and like most fans I agree with most of them.
It’s a post filler which a lot of fans on here like to discuss so maybe keep your 1 liners to yourself
Xxnofx, I can’t agree more – well said!
Easy to denigrate other peoples posts but it takes guts to ADD something entirely of YOUR OWN and put YOUR head on the block for others to criticise. Care to grow a pair and do so? Only trolls and cowards limit their comments to that line of yours, “brave boy”!
Me thinks you are too hard on Licschester look at the replay he did at least get a touch if he was yes a bit faster he would have met it full on the forehead and cleared away from goal. But who else do we have at that time available. You need strong 90 min players not Ozil type who is waiting to play a nice ball but sod all else. For Liverpool play a couple of youngsters who have heart fast wing backs and Xaca in Mid with Ramsey,Iwbi LacseteAubanayang
A lot of 5’s…. too high imo. A lot of players looked tired… what great shape we’re in before heading to Anfield not…. we’re going to be run ragged all over the pitch!!
For Iwobi to ask what formation are we playing as he came on… well that just summed up for me how hopeless he is (sorry Th14)
An utter shambles from everyone… did like Auba’s goal though.. he could have had a hat trick, but that’s the norm now ‘he could have had’ ‘ …..yes I agree where would we be without his goals, but on the other hand where would we be if he hadn’t missed all the chances he has!! Gutted right now
Blame Emery not Iwobi… that guy is constantly tinkering with the formation.
so we are ignoring that Iwobi is trash ?
Apparently so….
No I’m not
Iwobi is probably on par with the Giles grimandis and denilsons of arsenal ex players
He shouldn’t be anywhere near the team and I’m not quite sure what wenger and now emery see in him ,I would rather we resigned Walcott than have to look at iwobi running the ball at of play 20 times a match
don’t you dare say that Xx, take it back please walcott really?it took me ten years to finally see the back of him and you want him back, please take it back now 🙁
I can’t mate
That’s how low I rate iwobi ,I’m sorry I truly am ,it’s just to the stage where I would rather watch Walcott running the ball out than iwobi
Hell be here another 4 years contract man… deal with it
I would question how well Emery conveyed his message to Iwobi.
While it is good to have a manager who can use more than 1 tactic, I do think the constant swapping can have a negative effect, along with not playing players in their position.
Iwobi should have asked Emery what the game plan was, not Xhaka after he got on the pitch, Stupid Man!
The worst for me is Unai….I don’t like his treatment of Ozil and Lacazette….we can’t know what would have been the result if they stayed on longer. Unai is behaving like a small team coach. He should be able to manage the egos of big players otherwise he should ship out!
If they were tired in the last match, God help them against Liverpool. I hope Liverpool are tired too
You’re not wrong Innit. I thought how fit Emery and his staff had Arsenal players in previous games, as they were finishing strongly over the top of teams in the second half. The only explanation now is that injuries have taken toll and players may be playing with minor injuries, because there are no replacements available.
Ozil performed better than Ramsey, and the same as Guendouzi? Auba and Laca somehow get the same rating? And I wouldn’t put so much blame on Leno, as Lich left him in no man’s land.
#OZILOUT
It’s one thing to play bad and it’s another to not give a shit and help out the team at all.
Just get rid of Ozil he is a disgusting player.
Wish we had Cazorla instead of the clown Ozil.
While I have not once said Ozil defending is good enough, I do question what people are thinking when they watch our side nott trouble their GK after seeing Ozil come off?
Kola himself said how players know how good he is and make runs because of him.
Even if Ozil is having a quiet game, players around him make runs and this makes things happen, even if Ozil isn’t the one who profits from other players around him playing more flowing.
It isn’t just Kola who has said stuff like that, Ronaldo has said how Ozil knew his moves infront of goal, it gives strikers that confidence to make runs that won’t be wasted because of teammates not having the vision. Like Kola said he made that run cause he knew Ozil could pick him out.
When Ozil came off, who was the team looking towards to make those forward decisive passes? Laca? He was (in my opinion) our most creative CF and he got dragged off when we needed a goal… Thanks Emery.
Well said Midkemma. Players had nowhere to look for creativity when Ozil and Laca came off. Iwobi dribbles but accomplishes nothing, and Ramsey’s runs are barren with no one getting him the ball.
Still scratching my head why Emery went so defensive against Brighton. Lich showed why he doesn’t play much; crosses nonexistent, offered very little. Jenkinson at least playing to find a new club.
Bad setup from Emery in my opinion, and the obvious possession tactic accomplished little. Hopefully he learned.
Ozil was trying to make runs and get into space but the midfield struggled to find him to get him on the ball which resulted in him coming deep and being ineffective. Too much sideways passing and lack of vision in trying to play out from the back
On a positive note a nicely taken goal by Auba. Leading scorer in the PL with 13 goals. Ahead of Salah by one.
I am also enjoying Sokratis in the Arsenal shirt this season. Hopefully we can get it together this weekend against Liverpool. Going to be a tough ask though as we all know.
?
???Glad to see others watched the game in detail. Ozil was a lot better in this game than some are making out.
@Midkemma
Ozil came off at half-time because he offered ZERO creativity. Guendouzi was more creative than him! I can forgive a player like Ozil for not doing the dirty work, and giving us the off the ball work rate, as long as he’s delivering in the final third…which he rarely does!
If my memory serves me correctly, I think only once has Ozil put in a WC display (Leicester game). He’s gone missing in 100% of the big games he’s appeared in, and even his performances against the lesser teams has been very inconsistent, but more on the side of poor. Emery has proven we’re better without him, and slightly more creative if anything. I just cannot see ANY justification for disrupting the collective work ethic of the team, to accommodate Ozil?
I am constantly told he isn’t suited for away games, and big games. He’s not suited on the left, the right, and the middle! I have never known for a player’s consistently poor performances, to be constantly excused with a variety ridiculous excuses! He isn’t a WC player, and he isn’t even an important player for us.
I was talking about this season, not Ozil’s Arsenal career overall, which I forgot to mention.
Sorry ThirdManJW, I have to respectfully disagree. What a lot of people fail to see is how heavily marked Ozil is. Also because so much of Arsenal’s attacking play goes through Ozil, the opposition strives to cut off supply to him, requiring him to drop deeper to chase the ball.
Arsenal needs a quality CAM to take the pressure of Ozil.
“off” not “of”
Unai Emery looks likely to face action for kicking a water bottle even though he immediately apologised, however when Jose Mourinho smashed about 12 bottles against a wall no action was taken. Also Mohamed Salah blatantly dives to gain a penalty against Newcastle, no action taken. I honestly don’t know how long I can carry on watching Premier League football while it’s so blatantly bias towards Liverpool and Manchester United. Between Sky Sports, The FA and the PGMOL the games has become totally corrupt conspiring together to run the football in our country. So bias they don’t even try to hide anymore.
Dermot Gallagher said the penalty was the correct decision as Salah didn’t dive (but then he would wouldn’t he?!!) & our goal shouldn’t have stood as Laca was offside in the build up…. more doom & gloom Kenny
Dermot Gallagher is a disgusting idiot and English media is pathetic.
Why did Dermot Gallagher always wear a long sleeve referee’s shirt? Apparently to hide his Manchester United tattoos.
Kenny-I was just about to post an Off Topic comment on the same thing.How on earth can Salah be slowed to get away with the most blatant dive you will ever see?He CHEATED.There is no doubt he CHEATED.He should be banned because he CHEATED.
Emery will likely get a fine or an impulsive and reactionary act that he immediately apologised for.Credit to the Brighton fan for not reacting and making a big issue out of a very small incident.
Salah-A F**KING CHEAT.Can you imagine if that was one of our players?Especially after Dyche called some out after he ordered his hatchet men to kick the living S**T out of us last week.
God help the EPL if this blatant biased actions are continually ignored.
Don’t forget Phil, Salah is a God…. he’s on every bloody Sky & BT advert, everywhere I look online he’s there… bloody hell you’d think no one had ever scored a goal or won the golden boot before… Klopp is the greatest manager ever & Liverpool are the greatest team to ever play in the PL… and don’t even get me started on Man United ?
Salah is good but he looks brilliant only because of Mane and Firminho, and the midfielders in Liverpool.
Ken, you forgot to add the BBC editing and their pundits to your list.
Sorry Roy, you’re absolutely right.
Iwobi carries the extra burden, his big fat a…. That makes him slow down. He tries his stupid Messi like step overs which are a million seconds slower. How will ozil be feeling to be substituted by this idiot.
Guendozi is still a child. His brain process is also like a child’s. Slow processing of the brain to make his next move. By the time his brain processes the information the ball has been already been dispossessed by the opposition. He must have a record in this game for losing possession.
Ramsey has the skills but in this game he showed his two fingers to the boss. How will laca be feeling to be substituted by this care a less player.
With this game Emery has dug up a big hole for himself. Now ozil and laca two of his best players will put up their attitude. Good luck Emery.
The wig wearing Yank sitting in US must not even have watched this game. Pathetic Game!!!
WHO STILL THINKS SIGNING LICHTENSTEIN WAS A GOOD IDEA? THE GUY BRINGS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO THE TABLE. AT 34 HE SHOULDN’T BE MAKING ERRORS LIKE YESTERDAY.
I doubted him from day 1 & I’ve been proved right….
It was a brain fart by Litch, but Leno should’ve been positioned further ahead. If Leno, a sweeper keeper, starts outside his box like he should have – then he is favorite. That was obviously Litch’s intention. But Leno made a small movement expecting to go wide right, and he was still in his area, it was bad positioning by the keeper. He was the one player who we had, that had a birds-eye view of it all. Though, Litch, should be experienced enough, to not play a blind pass-back. I would say that was his Juventus training, in that situation over there, his keeper would’ve ended up with the ball.
I thought it would be a good signing, someone mature to help Bellerin step up and someone with experience who can pass some of his experience onto younger generation…
Only benefit I can see currently is team mentality, we do appear to be more willing to fight for each other and that could have been aided by Lich, he is a strong person in the head from what I have read and some of our players did need a mental tough guy to learn from.
For playing football though… I’d prefer Jenks to be give time and let him be Bellerin backup till youth produces. We have a gem of a RB in the u23, think it is Osei-Tutu.
Good points, Midkemma
Wiggy….Agreed 100% with everything you said.
Lich killed it with stupid decision to head ball into middle of pitch. Brain fart maybe? Shocked when I saw it, simply unbelievable.
Emery playing all those defenders and basically 3 attacking players; Laca, Auba, and Ozil. No one is surprised we lacked edge and creativity, except maybe Emery.
6 defenders against Brighton, really? No excuses, Emery had wrong setup period. CB injuries don’t concern me as much as lack of wingers.
Without proper wingers we can just forget it; title, top 4, even winning Europa. Cheapness by owner is tiring and vexing. Surely Sven, Raul, Emery expressed need for wingers?
Last match was perfect example where he could play Nelson last 15 or 20 minutes.
Wondering if Nelson should be recalled; we need a winger like a fish needs water. Can we recall Nelson and send Iwobi on loan?
Disappointing we scrapped with Brighton. We should be putting these teams away, not going toe to toe.
Miles to go before we sleep….
Can he be recalled?
I thought he couldn’t
Arsenal need an additional top class CAM as well; Rabiot on a free fits the bill, but will Arsenal pay the wages?
The lack of creativity was reduced when Ozil was dragged off at half time, then it was just Laca who looked like he might provide that spark for the team… then he got dragged off, leaving us with what? 🙁
Ramsey is not a creator, he is a finisher, he gets on the end of things in the box to grab important goals.
Iwobi is a headless chicken. Theo runs doesn’t look as headless anymore do they XD
Auba is not a holdup CF who can build an attack, he is the opposite of Giroud in many ways…
So when the attack is made up from those 3 we are seriously lacking in a focal point that we can build off along with creative attackers who can see how to attack and pull the strings.
There wasn’t any creativity from Ozil to begin with so It’s not like we missed him second half.
That is true but we would have been better off playing with 10 men than bring iwobi onto the pitch
HAHAHA brilliant ?
I have said it many times before and am saying it again for the umpteenth time, we need fast paced players all over the pitch from defense to attack to stand a change of competing every season for the league title. Players with adrenaline rush when they play, skillful as well as technical from defenders to attacking players. The slow paced player we have currently will only give us 6th on the league table at best. Almost everyone apart from Torrera, Auba, Laca, Bellarin are slow.
Torreira isn’t that fast, he is what some would call, nippy. Agile and has a good first few steps in his sprint but once they get into full run then you can see Torreira lack of pace show.
AMN has pace, not the best acceleration but he has pace when sprinting.
Same for Xhaka, once he gets into a gallop then he can look almost as fast as Bellerin in a gallop.
Adams wasn’t fast yet he is arguably one of the best CB Arsenal have known.
Per helped us get UCL consistently while he played, he was slow.
Guendouzi isn’t a fast player yet it appears he is a player with huge potential.
Flip this around…
Welbroke has pace to burn yet he is no TH14.
If pace was good for pace reasons then Welbroke would be a much bigger player for us than he is currently, or when he was fit. I’m not saying we can get away with a team of slowpokes, pace is a single attribute though. We need players who are good in multiple attributes. If they can read the game so well that it feels like they are watching the future then they can get away with slightly slower pace.
??
I said fast paced, technical and skillful……not just pace alone.
I prefer players with fast brains; might be expecting a bit much. Dennis Bergkamps are few and far between.
Not bad ratings, I kinda agree, pleasing to see Ozil get a 5 instead of the 3 which Lich had.
I honestly do think that every player had a handicap of a negative 2 on that day due to Emery and his tactics.
On that thought, where is Emery ratting?
Manager must have a 1, our players not only looked a bit tired but they didn’t seem to know what they was doing after half time. Emery should have considered the players fitness and eased up on the coaching a bit over xmas, EPL managers have learnt this and some have had time to adjust the players fitness to counter hard work over xmas, he can’t just jump into it like it is La Liga or something.
Because I blame Emery fully for that match, poor prep ettc… I do not blame the players. I recognise they had a poor game but they was let down to begin with.
Your being too generous to Lichsteiner who,s display was one of the poorest i have ever seen from an Arsenal player.Hopefully he will not represent our Club at Annfield on Saturday for if he does Emery will lose a lot of credibility with the Arsenal fan base.
Hopefully he doesn’t play again. His level of performance is fit for the Chinese league
I read Emery’s thoughts after the game. I listened to him say, that in the first half we done good, we had chances and other than the lapse by Litch and maybe Leno too, we were doing well. Then he mentioned the second half. He should’ve taken responsibility for allot of it, esp as he admits how the first half went well, but a bit unfortunate. Why change so much if that is your belief. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve all applauded his quick decisiveness in changing things when we look to have no ideas or we are being troubled far too much. I reckon maybe, he’s been very aware of everything people were saying, and them saying how refreshing it is after seeing Wenger squirm til the 75 min. It might have all went to his head a little bit. I’m hoping it’s that rather than himself letting his eagerness or his emotions getting the better of him. He was on the sideline, there, a few games back, when we got that late goal at the Emirates. He was telling his players to calm down because they were looking a little too eager, and were forcing things, before a hash being made of them. He knew how important these points were, coming before the Liv game, and I think he wanted us to win them without exerting ourselves too much. It’s not like him to not put a rocket under them, it was a difficult match to explain.
Again, I was reading from some idiots on Twitter. Talking about – Aubameyang. That first half, he had three shots on target that I can remember. One he scores, another the keeper makes an excellent save. The other, he tried a lovely lob over the keeper but the keeper done well to read his intentions. Second half, he wasn’t been fed and no-one was giving a back and forth with him, he was isolated, and did you see the opponents shape in that second half – whenever we got near the final third. Some people have not got a clue about football. I know allot of websites do cherrypick, they’d use certain words, just to try and get some traffic rather than them acting like a fan of the club. Aubameyang, is the best thing that happened to Arsenal in a very long time. His friendship with Lacazette, and the on-field relationship they have is why we are still in the hunt. We have Mkhit, Ozil, Ramsey, Iwobi, disappointing this season or in large parts. We have a makeshift defence and Danny out due to injuries. These are supposed to some of our most important players. Some people have no clue, they should log out of Twitter and never log back in.
For some people Aubameyang’s 23 goals in 32 games is not enough Break-on-through
Aubameyang had 3 chances in the first half and converted just 1. Now is that a good return? Be honest. 1/3 isn’t a pass
The lob was a half chance and brilliantly taken. that was unlucky, the goal was well taken, the shot to the keepers right could been hit harder. Overall, the man’s a goal machine, I’ll repeat myself, 23 goals in 32 games, that’s not 1/3 is it. See some sense ffs.
Thierry Henry’s goal return for Arsenal throughout his career was just under 0.68 goals per game. So far Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal return for Arsenal is just under 0.72. Do you need anymore proof. Wise up will ya.
As well Matt Ryan is an under rated keeper. I would have been pleased if Arsenal had have bought him from Valencia;he was on loan to Ghent in Belgium when he transferred to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Sorry OG. I should have mentioned, two great saves by the Australian keeper.
niles played as a winger or was i watching it differently Admin? felt like he was a right winger maybe i didn’t pay attention to where he was positioning himself
on that note i don’t like him playing on the wings, def mid or full back for now is where he should be getting his game time, hope he earns a spot in the starting eleven as this is a good year for him to show what he can bring to the team on a more permanent basis 🙂