So, despite sacking Unai Emery and playing yet another team in the relegation zone, Arsenal still can’t win a game. We have now gone 8 winless games in a row, In fact we were lucky not to lose it in the end and it was only Bernd Leno’s heroics that saved us. So here are Dan’s Player Ratings for our draw with Norwich….
Leno – 9
Best performance of the season. One of his saves was so good it was the equivalent of a goal. He must be wondering what’s going on in front of him….
Chambers – 5
Good on the ball and defending one-on-one. He nNeeds to find the balance between when to go forward and not, as he was caught out of position a couple of times, including for their second goal.
Mustafi- 4
This was his chance to prove his point and he failed. The Arsenal defence do not seem to close down which I’m not sure is the players choice or tactical. At times he was isolated and very much last ditch.
Luiz- 4
Did not find himself as isolated as Mustafi but guilty as anyone in terms of not closing down. There is enough experience in the Brazilian to be communicating more to his peers.
Kolasinac- 6
He got stuck in physically but was not targeted as much as the other flank. His final ball still not good enough.
Xhaka – 6
Tactically he was let down by being asked to be the main DM. At on time he gave the ball away which nearly led to a goal, but given what’s gone on it was a solid return to Premiership action.
Guendouzi- 5
He has been a huge favourite of mine, my player of our season. Yet it might be time to take him out of the team with the pressure effecting our youngsters. You can never fault his energy but he was giving the ball away a lot and slowing down our attacks.
Willock -5
The game passed him by. I would like to see him in a two-man combo as I don’t think he’s ready to be our main attacking midfielder.
Ozil- 6
His set pieces were lethal, on another day these could have led to more than just the one goal. His experience was vital when the team were tiring as he had the ability to hold the ball up and win free kicks.
Auba- 7
I often struggle to rate him. He does his job as in that he scores two goals but did he do much more? Showed great mentality to successfully retake the penalty.
Laca- 5
Would never fault his work rate but ball didn’t drop for him.
Torreria – 6
Lots of energy. Don’t underestimate the couple of interceptions he made to stop Norwich from winning the game.
Saka- 5
Got in promising positions but his final ball was poor. Didn’t justify coming on ahead of Pepe.
Martinelli -5
Not enough time to make an impact really. Should have come on at least 10 minutes earlier.
Dan Smith
What do you think of Dan’s Player Ratings?
I’d have given Chambers & Willock 4.. other than that, spot on, Dan 👍
Chambers played quite well as CB in the first game of the season. Might wanna try him there. And where is Mavropanos?
Very sensible ratings. Reflect the performances well.
I was somehow, unrealistically maybe, hopeful of Mustafi to actually show some improvement having being dropped and being scapegoated for so long but I think Mustafi is Mustafi and he reminded yesterday why he hasn’t played this season.
But I think Mustafi is especially worse when defending zonally. He liked to tackle and be aggressive, and maybe if he is drilled to man mark and be aggressive, it could work.
Mustafi not more than 3, Luiz doesn’t really deserve more either. Guendouzi is disappointing more and more. Runs too much with the ball and too little without, and then gives it away. Willock was innocuous, Özil disappeared after a reasonable start, so no midfield at all.
Lenno saved the day for us. Had it not been for his saves, we would have lost. I would prefer Chambers as CB and a pairing of Chambers and Socrates would be good. Laca looked out of sorts but that happens sometimes. Where was Pepe?
How Willock gets the same rating as Guendouzi is mind boggling! He was easily our worst midfielder.
Willock and Chambers should get a 4, otherwise ratings are okay.
I really don’t know if am the only auba impressed yesterday, the guy was always attacking with the ball, unlike Laca who keeps trying to hold onto the ball, auba in my opinion deserves at least 8 ratings, for a CF who was played on the wings he had a good game.The commentator said that Laca hasn’t scored an away goal since February and yet some fans want us to sell auba and keep Laca.
I was also impressed by auba. He was lively yesterday and never static, switching between rw, lw and cf effortlessly. he was dribbling, beating his man, whipping in crosses and ofcourse scoring like he always does.
Leno was very good, everyone else apart from deadly auba were very average,it was a mistake bringing Xhaka back,we had the same lacklustre performance as usual from him but i cannot single him out he had plenty of company in that department I’m afraid that most of these players are not good enough for the prem,and whoever gets the job permanently has a giant task on his hands.We will finish mid table or worse.
Dan,stop being hypocritical,how on earth’d ozil get 6 and last minute sub(torreira) get 6 also…WTF!
I intentionally the Ozil ratings, it’s funny he gave Auba 7 and Ozil 6, auba was a constant threat on the wings and all Ozil keeps doing was taking corners and free kicks,we were told by some that we missed Ozil creativity, yesterday made it the 6th straight matches that he will be starting and am still waiting to see the “creativity ” we were promised.
Leno saved us. Especially that fingertip save
Leno and Aubameyang were by far the best.
Shout out to Torreira too
About time our own goalkeeper saves us, normally it’s the opposition ‘keeper that saves them! 😁
SAGooner, I reckon your “normally” is way of of date. THOSE DAYS ARE LONG GONE! These days no opposition keeper has that much to do at all. Reputations clearly take longer to lose than the present reality shows.
Leno MOTM, (9)…Chambers stillplayed out of position (7) Luiz, Mustafi both (4) Guendooz (6) Willock (6) Torrera (6) Auba (8) Ozil (6) Xhaka (6) Kolasinac (5) Saka (4) Martinelli(4)
All in all we have no central defence and dont you think its time to drop the failures of the past 30 games? Play Mavropanos and Chambers CB. Luiz DMF with Willock and Guen. Must have Thierny and Bellerin and Pepe in until January plus use our kids as subs …Saka, Nelson, Jules, Smith Rowe. If a problem arrives Luiz can fill in defence etc.I think Freddy has to hire a world class defensive coach from either Sheff United or pay Alegri to come over to coach only.
What about some ratings for Arsenal Women !……………………11-1……….obviously someone will not get 10/10 for comical defending of letting Bristolhave the audacity to score ! ………….Miedema surely gets a Ballon D`or and a saint hood .
I am always surprised how biased certain Gooner such as Dan in this list are when it comes to our own players. Not one player deseved a seven, apart from LENO WHO WAS A NINE IF NOT A TEN. Auba would get a seven purely for both goals, though his all round game was a five , for me. No defender deserved more than two and that is being generous. Our defenders should be prosecuted under the Trades Description Act for falsely calling themselves “defenders” at all. I would give Guendouzi a six and all others not mentioned just a four, at best. It was a cowardly display once Norwich scored their first goal.