Cardiff v Arsenal Player Ratings – Laca steals the show while Ozil flounders

A very nerve-wracking away win, but an away win nonetheless. Arsenal are keeping up their average of conceding two goals a game, and Cardiff matched that despite not having scored at all in their previous three games. Luckily we scored more!

it is our usual story of great attack and rubbish defence, so with that in mind, here are my ratings:

Cech 5
It looks like he is not the man to play out from the back, or he is too old to learn new tricks. At least Cardiff only had three attempts on target but two of them ended as goals!

Bellerin 6
Again proved he is good going forward but his defending is rubbish.

Mustafi 6
Ditto. A great goal from his head and an even better header that somehow got saved. But defensively???

Sokratis 6
He is growing on me. No nonsense defender and often left on his own

Monreal 6
Another defender that nearly scored as well, but also not as solid as his usual self yesterday.

Guendouzi 6
Passed the ball quickly and accurately, but we were definitely better when he was replaced by Torreira

Xhaka 5
Getting forward a lot more nowadays but his shooting is woeful!

Ramsey 7
He is definitely getting better and was commanding in midfield yesterday. Trying his best to make the Number Ten his main role

Ozil 6
It doesn’t look like he likes being on the wing, but improved a bit in the second half as he moved more central, but perhaps we actually need a proper winger. His replacement by Welbeck maybe proves that?

Aubameyang 7
Mostly anonymous in first half but a brilliant opportunistic goal made up for it in the second.

Lacazette 8
Man of The Match – Great winning goal and was our liveliest player throughout. Should start with Auba every week.

Subs:

Torreira 7
Excellent again from the bench. What is Emery’s problem? I’m sure he’s fit enough to play 90 minutes every week!

21 Comments

  1. lol you call auba goal opportunistic?no that was a great striker goal,ozil should not get more than 5,I think you are right about sokratis,I believe with a better pairing he will be unstoppable,probably mavropanos,laca is definitely 9,an average Monreal is better than a fully fit kolasinac and the guy works hard for the team,cech doesn’t really have much to do but was commanding apart from the error in the first half

  2. Lost to City and Chelsea.
    Beat WHam and Cardiff.
    Highly predictable.
    No surprises here.
    We will lose to City away and beat Cardiff at home.
    Chelsea at home and Westham away are the
    type of games which define our season.
    My prediction is home win v Chelsea and away loss at the Ham
    Still think 5th is our most likely finishing position.
    So would 5th and a 3rd Europa league season be acceptable?
    Is it worth doing a Liverpool/Man U by
    spending 300 mill over two summers to get top 4?
    Stan won’t sell till Arsenal are back in the Champion’s league.
    So if he is not going to sell for a while then maybe 5th/6th is just fine?

      1. True. If Wolves, can, why should’nt we really Barry? Alas we aren’t the worst team in the league. Games like that is ours for the taking. coyg

  3. We are a team in progress. Wenger fcked up so much. No one is scared of us anymore. I was listening to different sports shows analysing the so called Top 6 teams. Pundits and other clubs fans would say that City and Chelsea did not have to even get out of 2nd gear to win against us.

    Even some are saying after the international break Newcastle should be a bit confident playing against Arsenal as we are the weakest of all the so called Top 6.

    I think we need to work extra hard and get our pride back. We need that fear-factor back as it is worth atleast 1 point a game on its own. No one takes us seriously anymore.

    Come On You Gunners.

  4. I really don’t know y d manager has been starting Toreira from bench, I guess it’s his speech issue, I hope he learn the language quick and be integrated proper. Why Xhaka keep on making error is beyond me. If a 19year old is that composed, a world cup experienced player who has EPL, bundesliga experience has to do better, with or without coaching staff, but Xhaka case is reversed, even players of mid table teams are not as error prone.
    blaming Emery for his tactics of playing from the back is like telling us to go back to football past age. it’s evident football has evolved and the new tactics trending is playing from the back. I mean that’s what almost the big clubs does. L’pool cooceeded through that mechanism over the weekend, Chelsea and man city almost gave us a goal too at the back, it’s not only cech who makes mistakes playing from the back. let’s grow past this sentiments. if Leno has been given a chance and he makes mistakes, media and fans would have been on his case, and his moral might have gone by now. I trust the manager to make right decision, our defense is not in good shape yet for Leno. a lot of work needs to be done

    1. The reason torreira has been on the bench is because he’s a 22 yr old kid who played almost every game in Serie A and had an intense world cup which meant he started training in a new country 2 weeks before the season started, so that mean s he’s been doing pre season basically and that’s about six weeks all up. Great management by unai otherwise some people who’d be calling for his head if he got injured without proper pre season

  5. We need some top midfielders as miki, ozil and xhaka are simply not good enough.
    Czech is also well past it so time to bring in Leno.
    The fact that we are scraping through some wins will work wonders on the teams mentality.
    More losses for the scum and wins for the Arsenal will keep me happy.

  6. Torreira looked rely sharp when he come on, its time for him to start games the only concern is that his rely short and cannot defend from corners, we have to face facts with the team we have and play to score as many as possible and except goals in our net as long as we score more and forget about clean sheets its never going to happen with Cech or with our defense, don’t know why we don’t give Stephan Lichtsteiner a game ahead of Bellend

  7. What happened to Ozil? He was overly anonymous yesterday. I think we should start with Micki on the right next game. Ozil needs to drop to the bench because he is not good on the wing and Ramsey is slowly cementing his place as our no. 10.

    1. Oz-stealth was there the cameras showed him as he was leaving the pitch at half time and the other occasion was when he was sub’ed

  8. Emery is still riding his luck once again. His tactics and team selection are beginning to worry me.

    I have continuously said our midfield will continuously be dominated by any team. Aside from Torreira none of Xhaka, Ramsey, Guendouzi, Elneny are sharp at passing and technically gifted enough to be starting games of ARSENAL.

    We should utilize more defenders in a 3-5-2 formation to offset the weak midfield that we have!!!

    Leno
    Mustafi….Mavropanos…Sokratis
    Lichtsteiner…Torreira…Mkitaryan….Monreal
    Iwobi…..Lacazette…..Aubameyang

  9. Cardiff manager Neil Warnock’s post match interview is a breath of fresh air you got to love him for his down to earth outlook on football and what he wants for the Cardiff fans

    1. Lacazette and Aubameyang are center forwards and Arsenal should try 4-4-2 model

      ———Aubmeyang—–Lacasette—————

      Welbeck/Iwobi—-Guendouzi/Torreira —Ramsey/Ozil——Iwobi/Mkitaryan
      Monreal —-Mustafi —-Sokratis —–Bellerin

      Cech/Leno

      1. I prefer 3-5-2 that way we know who is responsible for defending Monreal and Belerin always too far up the pitch to defend counter attacks

        1. Yes – Welbeck and Iwobi are hard working players (of course bad finishers) and they can cover advanced Monreal and Bellerin .

  10. First thing I want to see Ozil do is that when his sub’ed I don’t care if we are playing for time Ozil just walk a bit faster it’s so annoying to see you walk like a snail realy anoying and I’m on your side

  11. you moan moan moan about ozil, ozil this, ozil that, he is too slow, he is anonymous.
    you have got no shit idea what dude is going through.
    with wenger, we sang his praise, he was our champion, a new coach comes with very different approach and expectation to what he has played through out his career days and gbammmm
    yall expecting him to change. how many of you have changed your boring jobs for the last 4 years.
    you think changing to and adapting to new approach is easy?
    we have ozil, he has won us trophies, just like Mourinho said RESPECT, RESPECT, RESPECT.
    ozil is not your average player. if ozil is bad its cause arsenal is just poor.

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