The Soccer Blog: West Brom 2 - Arsenal 2: Highlights and Player Ratings

Monday, 21 March 2011

West Brom 2 - Arsenal 2: Highlights and Player Ratings

West Brom 2 – Arsenal 2: Highlights and Player Ratings - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« West Brom 2 – Arsenal 2: Comeback Not Enough to Overcome Comical Defending | Home | West Brom 2 – Arsenal 2: Highlights and Player RatingsBy: Martin | March 21st, 2011
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Highlights of yesterday’s draw with West Brom, as well as player ratings for that match, after the jump.

West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal by jordanip

Now onto the ratings:

Almunia 4 I’ll try to keep this rating short, because I don’t really feel like looking up “awful” in the thesaurus. He was terrible. West Brom only had 2 shots on goal the whole match. They scored 2 goals. That just about sums it up. Should have come out and punched away the corner on the first goal, and came out for no discernable reason on the second. I know we win as a team, lose as a team, etc., all those platitudes, but the fact is that if we had had a healthy Flaps or Wojo yesterday, we wouldn’t have conceded twice, and therefore it’s not really unfair to say that Almunia cost us 2 points yesterday. He ought to be watching his back, because after that performance, Lehmann can probably get a chance at a start with a good couple of weeks in training over the international break.

Sagna 5.5 Well below his normal standard of consistently high level of performance. Didn’t provide much support at all for the attack, and troubled to deal with Jerome Thomas all match long.

Clichy 7 Good performance from Gael — sent in some very good crosses to van Persie and Chamakh, didn’t get caught out of position too much, and was providing a lot of support for the attack down the left.

Squillaci 4 Shocker. Obviously didn’t learn from Koscielny and Wojo’s mix-up in the Carling Cup final. Should not have let that ball bounce, and even after it bounced, should have put his foot through it and knocked it clear. Very much at fault for that goal, and struggled all day. If this is anything to go on, we may be in for a long final 9 matches watching Squillaci play.

Koscielny 6 Didn’t exactly set the world on fire, but I thought he was generally pretty solid for the match.

Denilson 4 Very ineffective for the first match until he was mercifully taken off at the break. It really threw into contrast how bad the last couple of years have been for him — a couple of seasons ago, he started 36 out of Arsenal’s 38 league matches and was a very solid two-way midfielder, and looked to have a very bright future. Two years later, he really seems to have regressed into a very limited player — he’s a holding midfielder who can’t tackle or win the ball back, he offers very little going forward, but he’s decent at helping to retain possession. But yesterday he couldn’t even do that — he gave the ball away time and again. It’s troubling, and unless he can turn it around, you really do have to question his future at the club.

Wilshere 6.5 Not quite up to his general recent standards, but that may have been due to the poor play of those around him as much as anything. And his attitude was good as ever.

Ramsey 5 Rough performance from Rambo in his first start back. Was at fault for the first goal when for some reason he decided not to challenge Reid’s header even though he was tracking Reid on the near side. And then he squandered a golden opportunity to equalize when van Persie’s header off the bar fell right to him on the edge of the six-yard box.

Nasri 5.5 Well below his normal standards. On a day when we were really looking to him to step up and carry the team, he didn’t answer the bell. Worked pretty hard, but didn’t really threaten the West Brom defense all day.

Arshavin 8 Man of the Match. At the heart of just about everything good Arsenal did all day. Brilliant bit of skill to take a touch and then unleash a rocket for the first goal, and was the architect of the second goal with his looping header over the top across the box for the equalizer.

van Persie 7 Had a pretty quiet day, but that may have been down to lack of service as much as anything. Nearly scored with his header over Carson’s head from the edge of the box, and then got the equalizer with a real poacher’s effort to poke it over the line. Took some pretty awful free kicks, though.

Chamakh 7 Came on at half-time and made an immediate impact by giving us an extra presence up front and in the box. Had a great assist on Arshavin’s goal and generally troubled West Brom’s defense.

Bendtner 6 Didn’t make a massive impact, but worked hard and got an assist on the equalizer.

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Category: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Match Review, Premiership, W.B.A.

Tags: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Match Review, Premiership, W.B.A.
Tweet « West Brom 2 – Arsenal 2: Comeback Not Enough to Overcome Comical Defending | Home | Darren_VSorry, but that 2nd goal is 100% on Almunia.
Regardless of if Squillaci shouldn't have let it bounced or not, that isn't a dangerous place, and in all likelyhood was probably going to head it back to Almunia and realized he was running around like a chicken with his head cut off.beizhuaWelcome to --------------- - http://www newgoing com are specialized in offering all kinds of top brand shoes, jeans, t-
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$35 coach handbag,gucci handbag,prada handbag,chanel handbag.Perry S.Awesome, I have $10,000 USD to spend on your goods.Perry S.Arshavin haters, eat crow...thanks for the big ups to him, Martin.MartinSorry these are up a bit late -- I had things to do most of the day on Saturday, and then I had actually written them up and hit "post" yesterday morning, but our server ate the entire post, as it is wont to do on occasion, and I stupidly had forgotten to copy the post to the clipboard. And I was too mad and short on time to rewrite the post immediately.russianfani asked this one in the previous thread but still - wasn't it the post that assisted rvp on the second goal? i ran the replay a couple times, and i can't see the ball touching bendtner.
if it indeed hit the post, how cool would it have been for arshavin if his ball went into the goalsdonIf there was any doubt in your manager as well as you fans that money cannot buy quality.

You just have to look at David Luiz, he is looking like the best central defender in the PL, maybe europe. Surely its worth going for someone like him for 21m in January than trailing through bargain basements and charity shops or a couple of 10m rated defenders.

How arsenal could have done with him, definitely would have done better than what their doing now.MartinWho has ever said that money cannot buy quality? No one. All that Wenger has ever said is that spending large money on transfer fees is not the only way to find quality.blog comments powered by Disqus