The Soccer Blog: Arsenal 1 - Manchester United 0: Player Ratings

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Arsenal 1 - Manchester United 0: Player Ratings

Arsenal 1 – Manchester United 0: Player Ratings - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« Arsenal 1 – Manchester United 0: A Measure of Redemption? | Home | Arsenal 1 – Manchester United 0: Player RatingsBy: Martin | May 3rd, 2011
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Apologies for the lateness of this post…

As you’ve probably gleaned from my comments and Sairax’s comments, I’ve just been buried at work lately, working 14-16 hour days pretty regularly, and it’s been hard to squeeze time in for just about anything other than work, sleep, and the occasional trip to the bathroom.

Anyway, there hasn’t been too much else going on in the Arsenal world other than letting the win over Manchester United sink in, so those of you who rely on this site for your Arsenal news honestly have not been missing out on a great deal. Wojo came out and said that Wenger was still the best manager in the world, and that playing for Arsenal was “the best thing in the world.” He said he wouldn’t understand anyone leaving. Which is exactly what you want to hear from a young player — he clearly has a lot of respect for the manager and the club. As much as some fans (me included, on occasion) complain about trying to build a team with unknown kids, one thing we probably don’t mention enough is that when you do that, and Wenger takes a chance on some unknown 16 or 17 year-old, those kids look up to him in a way that established stars wouldn’t, and they develop an affinity for the club that established stars don’t. Arsenal is more than just a club or a job to them, it’s the thing that gave them a chance, and fostering that kind of loyalty is a very valuable thing indeed.

But on the flip side, you wouldn’t really expect Wojo to understand why anyone would want to leave. He’s 21 and just broke into the first-team, he doesn’t have much major international experience, and doesn’t have the same experience with coming up short time and again that some of the more experienced players do. He also hasn’t had the constant temptation to leave for another club that some of the other players have. So it stands to reason that he couldn’t understand why Cesc might want to leave for Barcelona, etc.

Elsewhere, Aaron Ramsey has talked about how much the goal against Manchester United meant to him, and how he hopes to push on from that and firmly establish himself in the club’s first-team plans next season. It has been great to see him back in action after what has been a very, very difficult year for him, I’m sure, but his good performance on Sunday certainly gives us hope that his development can pick up where it left off. Regular readers know how worried I was about him, given the problems we have seen Diaby, Eduardo, and Rosicky experience in the form of recurring injuries after they came back from their major injuries, but Ramsey seems to have avoided that so far, so, knock on wood, let’s hope this is just a speed bump in the arc of his career.

Anyway, there’s not much else going on in the way of news, so on to the ratings:

Wojo 8 Co-Man of the Match. I know he didn’t have that many saves to make, but he made the ones he did have to make, including one excellent save on Nani late on to keep us in the lead. But more than that, it’s just the way he carries himself. He lives for the big moments, and whatever it is in people’s brains that makes them nervous about stuff, he just doesn’t seem to have that. I like Flaps, I defended Flaps, I said that were it not for his injury Flaps should definitely have kept the # 1 shirt . . . but at this point, I don’t think there’s any doubt that Wojo is our # 1 keeper for the foreseeable future.

Sagna 6 Subpar game from him. I’ve defended his crossing as much-improved this season, but it was pretty bad on Sunday. Aside from one long-range shot which nearly troubled van der Sar (and I do like that element that he seems to have added to his game this season), he never really looked like troubling United’s defense. Dealt with his area relatively well, though.

Clichy 7 Nani has been one of the best, if not the best, attacking players in the Premiership this season. And Nani has given Arsenal, and Clichy, a lot of trouble in the past. But he was completely invisible for long stretches of the match on Sunday, and Clichy deserves a lot of credit for that.

Koscielny 8 Co-Man of the Match. Superb. Has really been quite good indeed the second half of this season. Dealt well with United’s attackers, throwing himself into interceptions and getting off some good clearances. Even made some nice forward forays, which he has started to do more and more as the season has progressed. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but he really seems pretty confident and makes good decisions on the ball. He’s had some poor moments this season, but now that he’s started to settle in and get accustomed to the English game, I think we’ve found ourselves a real quality defender.

Djourou 7 Very, very solid, as per usual, before limping off in the second half. Hope he’s okay — haven’t heard any injury news yet.

Song 7 Worked hard and did his part to help Arsenal completely dominate the midfield battle on Sunday. Didn’t seem to get caught out of position. If you had to choose between Song and Michael Carrick, how long would you have to think about it before you shouted out “Song!” .5 seconds? Less?

Wilshere 7.5 Vintage Wilshere performance. Seemed to be everywhere, worked so hard, put in some tackles to win the ball back, got some good runs forward, and generally did his part to overwhelm Manchester United’s midfield. He’s going to be such a special player.

Rambo 7.5 Had a very solid, although not spectacular, match in general. Especially considering that the forward playmaking midfield role isn’t necessarily the position that best suits his game. But worked hard, deputized for Cesc well, and got the winning goal by running into the box at exactly the right time and coolly finishing past van der Saar. Great moment for the young man.

Theo 7 Exhibited what seems to be becoming a familiar pattern for him — dominant and dangerous the first 15-20 minutes of the match, and relatively anonymous after that. I’m not sure whether it’s physical fatigue or he forces teams to adjust to him (he did seem to take Evra more or less out of Manchester United’s attack), but it would be nice to see him sustain that level of danger over an entire match.

Nasri 6.5 Worked pretty hard and did what he could to create chances in the first-half before being subbed off with a hamstring injury. Still don’t know how serious it is, but we may have seen the last of him this season, in which he has really made the breakthrough from potentially good player to elite player.

van Persie 7.5 Very nearly scored when Vidic swatted the ball away with his hands, and had a lovely assist on the winning goal. One of the stories we don’t talk about as much as we probably should is how fantastic he has been for us when he has played this season.

Arshavin 7 Perhaps only fans of DC comics will get this, but I’m pretty sure that was Bizarro Arshavin. He didn’t offer much of anything to the attack, but he was tracking back with a previously unseen fervor, breaking up passes and throwing himself into tackles with joyful abandon. 6 months ago, the fans started to turn on Arshavin, and some of us, including me, really wondered how he would react. All he has done is put his head down, work his butt off, and become a very useful squad player. It’s not clear if he can recapture the skill and creativity that made him such a joy to watch in his first 6 months in North London, but if he plays like he did on Sunday, he’ll have a place in the squad for years to come.

Squillaci 6 Admit it. When Djourou came off and Squillaci came on, you thought to yourself, “Well, there goes the clean sheet.” I know I did. But he wasn’t bad. Interesting to see what his future is at the club — with Vermaelen coming back, I think Squillaci is firmly 4th choice behind Vermaelen, Djourou, and Koscielny. And I wouldn’t be totally surprised if Wenger brought someone in or promoted Bartley or maybe even Miquel over Squillaci.

Eboue came on, too, but wasn’t on for long enough to really rate, although he didn’t do anything colossally stupid, so that’s progress.

And that’s about it, really. We’ve got Stoke away on Sunday morning, so maybe we’ll get those Stoke trolls come back for the preview and what not. Hopefully they won’t break our legs. We just need a single, solitary point to secure at least a 4th place finish and St. Totteringham’s Day, so that’s something to play for. Plus United play Chelsea, so we’ll be able to make up points on one or both of them, although I think the title race is done. But if we beat Stoke and United beat Chelsea, then we’ll be even on points with Chelsea for 2nd place. Honestly, I’m just grabbing at straws here, but I would really like to finish at least ahead of Manchester City so we don’t have to play those qualifiers for the Champions League. But we’ll have more on that later in the week.

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Category: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Manchester United, Match Review, Premiership

Tags: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Manchester United, Match Review, Premiership
Tweet « Arsenal 1 – Manchester United 0: A Measure of Redemption? | Home | sofreshnsocleangreat write-up. Just wanted to point out that on Zonal Marking, it seems to show that Rambo was lying deeper than Cesc does, and out formation mimicked more of a 4-1-4-1, with RvP dropping back deeper to collect the ball (with his fantastic hold-up play, one of his underrated qualities IMO), and playing it out to the wings to make plays. Could this be a sign of what is to come at Arsenal once Cesc departs?SairaxI don't know much about comics, but I do know the "Bizarro" reference from Seinfeld! :DvHFI thought the mark for doing one's job and no more is 6.0/6.5. Not for Wojo, it seems (and not for Wilshere either).

But enough of that. Good of you to highlight Koscielny's performance. With Vermaelen very much an unknown quantity now, I'd have to say Koscielny's the best defender Arsenal's got. Would pick him ahead of Djourou even.

Bad of you to belittle Carrick, though. On his day, he's priceless (as is Song, of course). Few people manage to appreciate him, probably because his style of play is distinctly non-Premiership-like, but I would think Arsenal fans would have no trouble here.

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