Ratings by Peter Doherty
Arsenal delivered an emphatically controlled performance against a recently dangerous Leicester team. This was a sharp contrast to the relative anarchy of the Villa game, as Arsenal were completely dominant and more reflective of their early season form.
It is worth highlighting that Leicester overwhelmed Man United on their own patch for the first thirty minutes last week and were unfortunate not to be two nil up in that game, so this game was a potential banana skin. It was a welcome relief to see the team purring again, and every member doing the basics to the high level we have come to expect. This creates the platform for the difference makers to shine.
Here are my ratings
Ramsdale (6)
How do you rate a player that had virtually nothing to do? Does a six sound fair? I have no idea, but I’m assuming that if he did have something to do he would have done it well!?!
White (7)
Did an excellent job in marshalling a very dangerous Harvey Barnes. Was on point every time Leicester tried to release their winger and limited him to one single cross.
Saliba (7)
Looked composed and concentrated,, although it’s fair to say that we wasn’t overly troubled. Sniffed out a few potential attacks before they developed.
Gabriel (8)
Was the primary reason why Leicester didn’t have a shot on target. Seemed to be in the right place every time the opposition got up a head of steam. His distribution was excellent, highlighted by a beautiful ball to Trossard that resulted in the goal.
Zinchenko (7)
Very nice touch to give him the captaincy in light of what is going on in his homeland. Was very effective in his roving role and cut out the misplaced passes that has plagued his recent appearances. Was instrumental in the fluency of Arsenal’s play.
Jorginho (7)
May be that rare beast of an ex-Chelsea player who suits Arsenal’s style of play. As Chelsea are not renowned for flowing football the transition has frequently been problematic but Jorginho looks to be enjoying himself. The best compliment I can pay him is that Partey’s absence hasn’t been a disaster.
Xhaka (7)
Xhaka does the simple things in football better than most midfielders. When Arsenal purr he is at the centre of it, but not noticeably. He’s like the spark plug in the engine of your car, you won’t notice it until it malfunctions.
Odegaard (6)
Not at his most influential. His radar seemed slightly off in a couple of situations where he is normally ruthlessly efficient. That being said his pressing is always first class.
Saka (6)
Another who wasn’t quite delivering his usually lofty standards. Bizarrely was probably awarded more fouls in a game where he was fouled less, so the message must be getting through to protect him. May have been given a soft penalty, but it would have been soft. His opponent Kristiansenn was superb.
Trossard (7)
The other winter signing that has fitted in seamlessly. Has a very intelligent football brain and his understanding with his team mates is already at a high level, particularly with Martinelli. Was hugely unfortunate to have his wonderful strike disallowed and his assist for the goal was a sublime nutmeg.
Martinelli (8)
Castagne will be relieved he doesn’t have to face our Brazilian on this form every week. Was a constant danger throughout and tireless in his running. Took his goal calmly and precisely and also delivered a lot of dangerous crosses. What is exciting is that there is still a rawness there, so has room for improvement.
Overall this was a promising performance. The assurance of the passing and the solid structure of the team is hopefully an indication that the confidence is back and we have put our recent travails behind us.
How do you Gooners rate it?
Peter Doherty
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Martinellii wasn’t all that great, but he was out there trying and bagged us the three points with his goal. I think the jury is still out on whether he is a special one, or simply decent speedy player who we have perhaps overrated. Whatever, he is the best we have and I’m sure he’ll improve and hopefully be someone similar to Rashford with his end product. Interestingly tonight I am thinking the game between Spurs and Chelsea means nothing to us Arsenal fans. From hear on in, besides picking up maximum points in our own games the only thing that matters is hoping the two Manchester clubs drop points wherever and whenever.
Zinchenko MOTM for me ,closely followed by the 2 CBS .
Odegaard and Xhaka were pretty awful IMO
As was Martinelli in the first half .
@DK
Completely agree with you. OZ MOTM.
Would not give GM any more then a 6 despite his goal. Only difference is I would have BW and Gabriel ahead of WS.
Great gesture to give Zinny the captain’s armband, and he did not disappoint. Jorginho has fitted seamlessly. Trossard is a real ‘baller’, inspired signing. When Saka is off the boil be sure that Martinelli will take over the mantle….and he did.
VAR should be investigated. Refs and VAR officials should have a weekly published league table and get relegated out of the Premier League if they make negligent or unfair decisions and finish in the bottom places. Make them accountable. Yesterday VAR was a farce. Stonewall penalty, maybe it was TOO obvious for them.
Sean, Despite personally craving that VAR did not exist at all and wishing a magic wand could erase the whole farce that it has been from its start, right out of our memories and our existence, I DO agree with your idea of it being made accountable to all.
It is the secrecy of how it operates that is yet another reason why I HATE IT.
I realise that , sadly, it is here to stay, as most disagree with my fundamental view.
But given that it is here to stay, WHY SHOULD IT NOT BE MADE SUBJECT TO JUSTICE AND BE HELD TO ACCOUNT,as all else in life is(at least in theory!!), at least in the free world.
On the wider subject of how we poor, unfairly treated fans always have to put up with injustice, through constant bad refs decisions and bad VAR decisions too and wait ages for decisions so very often, it is long past time we stood up and demanded that we fans , the games lifeblood, got JUSTICE!!!
Jon
Yep
The major problem is the fact that we received an apology over the disastrous VAR Lee Masongate controversy. It is so significant that if Man City beat us to the EPL title by one point, then although City would have the official EPL trophy, it would have no moral value. It would make a mockery of a whole EPL season and we would be the moral trophy holder. Do the referees realise the implication of their ‘seen’ poor refereeing. They must start to have a referees league table and everybody knows we are actually two moral/ethical league table points ahead of Man City.
Sean Whilst I, of course, share your pain at this injustice, I can envisage a situation, should this two points prove the decider between us and City, where WE Gooners will forever claim WE won the title, but all others and the history books will prove differently.
Unless injustice is overturned on the statute book, which will most definitely NOT happen in this case , however much we may wish it,the humans thus disadvantaged remain embittered for ever and a day. SIGH!
Jon, see Harry Kane’s goal today against Chelsea. If Ben White’s was a foul than how was Dier’s not? VAR didn’t even bother to check.
VAR is potentially corrupted. Not only they took their sweet time to show the Ben White foul to the whole world, they also ignored the Saka foul and the Saka goal. Martinelli seems to be on line with defender. But they check themselves and never show to the public. Did they forgotten to draw the line again?
I’ll just go ahead and rate Nketiah too – 7
I thought he did well when he came on. He offered something different from Trossard – Physicality and the ability to play with his back towards goal. I agree with most of your ratings
I also think Martinelli deserved to be the MOTM, despite his bad deliveries in the first half of the game. Hopefully he is okay
Martinelli is my favourite Arsenal player but in the first half he was poor. His decision making was baffling to say the least. One time he got in the box dribbled back and forth about 3-4 times , squandered 3 opportunities of putting the ball in a dangerous space and then gave the ball away. One time he just belted it wide when he could have crossed. On ocassions when he could have won throw-ins he dribbled the ball out of touch. Fortunately in the second half he managed to score a lovely goal and he stabilized a bit. Not a motm performance in my opinion.
Before the match, in the absence of Maddison, I thought Barnes would be the main threat for Leicester.The fact that he was kept quiet is due to a fine performance by White who to me is often the victim of unjustified criticism from certain contributors to JA.
Grandad, I could not agree more! White had a couple of less OK games recently but overall he is a reliable and very effective RB. I thought he was top class yesterday.
A good value for money buy too IMO, even at £50 mill, given the ludicrous transfer market fees today!
Cucurella was bought for £55 mill and is FAR less good.
Well, by and large I agree with the ratings. Saka and Odegaard were surprisingly subdued but I guess it happens, they could have an off day, after all they are not machines. That said, what a performance by Martinelli, White, Gabriel and Trossard, the team cohesion is wonderful and free flowing football is great to watch. Jorginho has also fitted seemlessly into the team.