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Monday, 9 May 2011

Stoke City 3 - Arsenal 1 : Player Ratings

Stoke City 3 – Arsenal 1 : Player Ratings - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« Stoke City 3 – Arsenal 1 : Poor Gunners Deservedly Beaten | Home | Stoke City 3 – Arsenal 1 : Player RatingsBy: Martin | May 9th, 2011
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As promised, here are the ratings from yesterday’s match against Stoke.

Wojo 5 Not one of his better games. He didn’t make any howlers, exactly, but you could argue that he could/should have stopped any of the three goals — probably should have come out strong and claimed the ball on the first goal, got a hand to the second goal and maybe could have palmed it high or wide, and maybe could have come out more and made himself bigger on the final goal. Made some decent saves, and, like I said, I don’t think you could definitively blame him for any of the three, because he was hung out to dry by his defenders on all of them. But a great goalkeeper bails his defense out in those situations. He’s done that before, but he didn’t do that yesterday.

Sagna 6 Worked pretty hard, and I don’t think you can question his dedication or commitment, but just looked a little off yesterday, especially in the attacking half. Seemed to want to cross when no one was in the box, but pass around when people were in the box. And his crosses were a little off.

Gibbs 5 I’m still a believer in Gibbs, but he hasn’t set the world on fire this season, and was particularly poor yesterday. Actually ducked under the free kick on the first goal and generally let Jermaine Pennant run roughshod over him. On the one hand, you can’t blame him too much, since he hasn’t gotten regular first-team football and was bound to be a little rusty. On the other, though, with Clichy’s contract up at the end of next season and a lot of speculation about him leaving the club over the summer, Gibbs had a real chance to show that he was capable of holding down a first-team place, and he failed to do it.

Djourou 4 A real shocker from him yesterday. Was at least partially at fault for all three goals — didn’t follow Jones’s run on the first goal, allowing Jones to bundle it in without even jumping. The first thing a defender is taught about defending set pieces is to follow your man’s run and to stay between him and the ball, and Djourou did neither. Completely failed to close down Pennant until it was far too late, and even then Pennant would not have scored were it not for Djourou’s deflection on the second. And then his bizarre attempt at a clearance was a perfect assist for Stoke’s third. That being said, he’s been very good for us all season, and has earned our support for one poor performance — can’t believe how many people on Twitter were calling for his head yesterday.

Koscielny 6 Probably could have done a better job at time dealing with Stoke’s physical presence and getting rid of balls in our area, but by and large, Kos was pretty solid yesterday.

Song 5.5 Song will probably always struggle to really make an impact on games like this, simply because teams like Stoke don’t really play the ball through the midfield, and Song doesn’t have many opportunities to break up play and start Arsenal going the other way. Song was probably lucky to stay on the pitch after a couple of incidents with Huth in which he easily could have been carded.

Wilshere 6 We saw a little of Jack’s temper and nasty side yesterday — was really trying to stir things up with Stoke all match long. I thought yellow was the correct call for his lunging tackle, but most people I read seemed to think it should have been a red. He has to be careful about that, and he’s got to keep his temper under control. But give him some credit for working tirelessly to try to get something going, even if he wasn’t able to.

Ramsey 5 He seemed to deal with his return to Stoke and the classless booing fans fine psychologically, which was good. And he did have one brilliant pass to put van Persie through on goal, where he probably should have scored. But other than that he had a pretty miserable afternoon, giving the ball away a lot and failing to find a way through Stoke’s defense. Subbed off half-time for tactical reasons, this performance provided a powerful counterpoint to all the short-sighted nincompoops who were saying that last week’s win proves that we don’t need Cesc on the team.

Theo 4.5 Pretty miserable afternoon for Theo. I guess teams like Stoke are still tough for him, since they defend so deep that he cannot get behind them, which is where he does most of his damage. But even so, he was bad yesterday — giving the ball away, wasting chances, failing to create anything.

Arshavin 4.5 Also poor. It was his stupid shove on Pennant which gave them the free-kick for the first goal. Absolutely stupid thing to do in that situation, and completely unnecessary. Added basically nothing to the attack, and didn’t help Gibbs with Pennant much at all defensively. Subbed off at half-time.

van Persie 7 Man of the Match. The best of a poor bunch. Although his finishing generally wasn’t great, he did fight until the end, took his goal very well with his right foot, and deserves some credit for making some good runs behind the Stoke defense. Scored a goal in his 8th consecutive Premiership away match, which is a new record.

Bendtner 6.5 Looked lively and did make an impact on the match when brought on at the half. Made some runs with the ball at Stoke’s defense, and took some decent shots, including the deflected shot which led to van Persie’s goal. Deservedly got a yellow for a nasty tackle.

Chamakh 4.5 Completely useless yesterday, as he has been pretty much all spring. Gave us no real aerial threat, added nothing with his hold-up play, and wasted several chances.

Rosicky 5 Pretty anonymous from him yesterday. He’s found himself increasingly on the margins of the squad as the season has gone on, and you have to wonder if his Arsenal career is coming to an end.

That’s it. Now we can put that behind us, and look forward to hopefully a home win against Aston Villa next weekend. Enjoy your Monday.

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Some Related Stories:Stoke City 3 – Arsenal 1 : Poor Gunners Deservedly BeatenStoke City – Arsenal Match ThreadStoke City – Arsenal PreviewArsenal 1 – Manchester United 0: Player RatingsWest Brom 2 – Arsenal 2: Highlights and Player Ratings

Category: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Match Review, Premiership, Stoke City

Tags: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Match Review, Premiership, Stoke City
Tweet « Stoke City 3 – Arsenal 1 : Poor Gunners Deservedly Beaten | Home | Darren_VI thought Sagna was at fault for Pennant's goal as well. Don't understand why he just left him to run on his own like that. And I was absolutely shocked and mortified by Sagna's dive when he got 'touched' to the face by the defender in the 2nd half. I couldn't beleive it. You can tell Gibbs is a midfield-turned-defender. Gives his man too much space to cross from the wing, gets caught too high up the pitch at times. Shows flashes or promise, but hopefully Clichy sticks around another year.
Wilshere is gonna be getting more red cards in his career, unless he gets the Scholes' treatment from the ref. Which would be unfair to the rest of the EPL, but would help Arsenal.Does anyone on that team care, besides RVP and Wilshere? You wonder sometimes....Gigi_manInternet at home does not work so the last weekends you all have been save from my yelling and whinning.

So come the week I am more calm, which leads me only to say ..well, less yelling and whinning.

I truly think now that we need a balance, again if we are going to conceed that much we need a goal factory, but with a solid defence we only need what we have. On the other hand in thos 0-0 games, I again vote for more attacking (true box fox) players to be added to the 1st team (bought or promoted). But again, psycho effects. I was reading an n interview with Sandro Mazzola praising Helenio Herrera , saying that the 1st thing he did to make the Grande Inter was to coach them psycholigically to be good and win.

I did watch some of the game, and once again I say we need to improvise at times, there were times where the ball was left in a middle, and since it was "no one" position, nobody came for it, on the other hand, when other teams see an empty space, wehre the ball can be either passed or fall, someone quickly gets there in position to get it. And then the shooting, well you said it, forget about the perfecto goal and just shoot (maybe they dont do that because there is no one "out of position" to get it if it bounds back!).

AW and the board need to understand that if we are to be in the top, its fine, but if we want to make a difference and win, theres something to be done. I dont want to sound arrogant but I run my own firm, along with my partners, we all came from big firms. We knew what it took to be in the top elite list, we didnt want to knock anybody opout of their 1st place, as long as we were making money, proportionally, we were fine. We dont want to knock a 50 (thats huge for our country) lawyers firm, since we are only 3 partners and 3 associates. Hélas, in football you have 11 in all teams...and you wish to knock someone out of the 1st spot to win!

So, imo, we need to take a step forward in that area, not to be a big spender, but if not: we will always be the ones who develop and never get the product done. Dont tell me about years ago, because years ago Di Stefano didnt make what Cristiano does today...and he did a lot more in Real!GuesI don't see how anything is going to change with this dozy idiot still in charge. I hope cesc is sold- it seems like a curse that anyone who is made capn they bloody end up wanting to leave the clubSairaxYou said nincompoop
GuesWenger had said judge me in may and the verdict is in: The first anniversary of the first four goal lead surrendered in the history of the Premier League; perhaps we could share a glass or two of Newcastle Brown Ale?
• The anniversary of twice surrendering two goal leads against the Spuds: perhaps some chips for that celebration?
• The one I am really looking forward to – the first anniversary after the last games in Arsenal shirts of Messrs Almunia, Eboue, Denilson and Diaby. Try to keep them out of the team for the last two games, as we don’t want to delay this celebration next year!
• Assuming I do accept your invitation to renew my season ticket, that I am no longer contributing to the wage packets of those serial underperformers, Messrs Squillaci, Rosicky and Bendtner.
• The arrival of the replacements for Fabregas and Nasri, as well as some serious competition for Alex Song and some support for RvP (unless of course he flies the nest too).
• The arrival of some proper defenders – you know the type Arsene; they can hold a line, they can head the ball away, they throw themselves in front of shots, they protect hard won leads in the 10th minute of injury time and don’t concede soft goals from free kicks. Of course you know the kind of player I mean, Arsene, so why don’t you buy them? And why don’t you employ a full time defensive coach?
After all that celebration, let me turn to judgement time, as it’s May. Oh but I forgot, we can celebrate something now, and we don’t have to wait until next season. I know it’s not quite the end of the season, but we can of course celebrate the sort of prize I know you value highly. Qualification for the Champions League. I am so looking forward to three riveting home games against some obscure teams from the fringes of Europe. I know I am digressing but even if you sell all the deadwood and let Fabregas go (you know he wants to, we all know he wants to, so let him go and get some money for him before his hamstrings go, as they will), we should be able to beat the might of next season’s visitors from Sweden, Serbia and Greece if we are (un)lucky; and then as always happens, we will draw a big team and go out again, but not before we hear you say how much better we are this year and now is the time to show our mental strength and all that jazz.
So yes, you are right, Arsene: there will be so much to celebrate next year; indeed I am almost tempted to open the bubbly right now. Excuse me while I reach for the wine rack. Don’t worry Arsene, it’s good French stuff, and I’ll make sure it’s nicely chilled before opening it.
But back to judgement time… to be honest Arsene, I think this season has been pretty dire. Project Youth hasn’t really worked has it? True Chesney and Jack have done well and it’s nice to see Rambo back; JD has put in a shift on occasion, but what else have we got to show for Project Youth? A captain whose heart isn’t in the club any more; Theo, who flatters to deceive most of the time, Gibbs who has contracted Clichy-itis alarmingly early in his career, and the self-publicising Great Dane, who showed us in a flash in Barcelona what he has to offer. Not much.
Defensively we were a shambles. One point each against Newcastle, WBA and Spurs, all of whom won at our place. Attacking-wise we were toothless on too many occasions when it mattered: Birmingham at Wembley, Sunderland and Blackburn at home. Creatively, on occasions we were so bereft of ideas it was embarrassing – Orient away, ManU away in the Cup, Leeds and Huddersfield at home in the Cup.
You know that ManU were not an especially good side this year, but they had organisation, a manager who kicked ass and a simple will and desire to win. With some judicious additions to the squad and defensive concentration, we could and should have won the Carling Cup and the League. But we didn’t and the reason we didn’t is because you didn’t manage well enough.
You screwed up royally on the goalkeeping front at the start of the season; then you failed to buy cover when Vermaelen remained injured in January; you played your tallest striker intermittently, and only on the wing; and you continue to play Eboue and Diaby when they are nothing more than liabilities. Tell me this – when did Eboue or Diaby, or for that matter Denilson or Rosicky, make game changing contributions this season? Or for that matter last year? Do tell me.
I have seen your comments after the Stoke game; maybe you will do something about the defence for next year. I will be delighted if what you do makes a difference. Something tells me however that not much will change.
I don’t think you will get rid of the deadwood. I don’t think you will buy proven defenders and I don’t think you will employ a defensive coach. No, I think you will sign a few more Francophones, possibly a couple of South Americans we haven’t heard of (if you can get work permits for them) and maybe a few more wonderkids.
And if Cesc and Nasri go, I reckon you won’t spend even half the money we get for them on new players. You’ll tell Ivan that Coquelin or Sunu are the future and they deserve six year deals.
But before all that Arsene, I suggest you concentrate on getting the points to secure third place; or is the now traditional end of season collapse a cunning plan to finish fourth and get one of the cup games included in the season tickets used up early? Don’t worry, the champagne’s on ice; and that’s where it will stay.
What’s that I hear you say? You meant May 2012? Or sorry, Arsene I misunderstood. Ah well, I’ll leave my judgement pending till next year.
Illinois_GoonerThat's a lot of words. Is there an abridged version?Marcelpagehow we have fallen!!! I hope this cunt gets sackedBrentonwalters"
can’t believe how many people on Twitter were calling for his head yesterday."

Surely you can't be surprised by the lack of judgment and rational thought demonstrated on twitter. It's what it was designed for.MartinFair point.blog comments powered by Disqus

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Saturday, 7 May 2011

Liverpool to Offer Player Plus Cash to Land £15m Tottenham Winger

Liverpool are reportedly interested in signing Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon after reports suggested that the England winger had fallen out with White Hart Lane boss Harry Redknapp. The speedy wide man may now be made available by the North London side who may need to sell players to help balance the books as they look likely to miss out Champions League football next term.

Kenny Dalglish is looking to add more natural width and has been linked with a number of prospective winger purchases and was previously linked with interest in Aston Villa stars Ashley Young and Stewart Downing, among others.

The Anfield boss may also be willing to offer Joe Cole as a make-weight in any offer for

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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Some Related Stories:Manchester United 1 Arsenal 0: So Much To Say, Yet What’s Left To Be Said?Manchester United 2 – Arsenal 0: Same Old Story as United Send Gunners PackingArsenal 1 – Manchester United 0: A Measure of Redemption?West Brom 2 – Arsenal 2: Highlights and Player RatingsArsenal – Manchester United Preview

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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Monday, 9 May 2011

Stoke City 3 - Arsenal 1 : Player Ratings

Saturday, 7 May 2011

Liverpool to Offer Player Plus Cash to Land £15m Tottenham Winger

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Arsenal 1 - Manchester United 0: Player Ratings