Well that is what you get when you bring in top players. The team-adrenaline levels were sky-high and it was 4-0 in no time. There was so much movement and crisp passing to which the Toffees had no answer.
After that the game was over. Wenger is not the sort of manager to send out his players with the clear instruction to score another four. He does not like to embarrass a fellow manager like that, even though it will have been tempting for him to treat Fat Sam to a massive defeat, given their confrontations during Fat Sam’s Bolton days.
Having said that, Arsenal started the second half poorly and allowed Everton to get their confidence back, and then spoil Cech’s attempt to finally get his 200th clean sheet. Some poor team defending by Arsenal during the latter half.
Player Ratings:
Cech: 7.5 – worked hard to put his bad midweek performance behind him and was desperate to get his much desired 200th clean sheet. His distributions was not great, though (nothing new there);
Nacho: 7 – relatively quiet game after a strong start. Unlucky not to score once again/shame he had to come off during the break;
Koz: 7.5 – scored a great goal. Would like him to lead more on the pitch and use his experience. It is all a bit too kamikaze for me;
Mustafi: 7 – produced a great assist for Koz’s goal and made some fabulous blocks – especially the one that kept Theo out;
Bellerin: 7 – less involved in our attacking play which is not a bad thing;
Xhaka: 7 – kept up the pressure on Everton’s midfield in the first half and fitted in well. Defensively still a work in progress;
Rambo: 9 – a fabulous hat-trick as a reward for timing his runs into the box to perfection. How much have we missed getting such goals from midfield? MOTM!!!;
Iwobi: 7.5 – fitted in really well in attack and could easily deal with the incredible tempo of our passing and running. Still too many iffy balls when trying to help out in defence;
Ozil: 8 – another fab performance from our mega-earner. Fans thanked him wonderfully with singing his song 60000 strong. He loved the movement of his fellow attackers and made it look easy at times;
Mkhitaryan: 8 – fabulous performance with three assists. Great movement off the ball and such footballing intelligence to find Ramsey in space;
Aubemayang: 7.5 – great finish for the goal. Tons of movement and scared the hell out of the Toffees’ defence. Much more to come once other attackers learn how to play with him;
Kolasinac: 6 – added very little especially in defence;
Jack/Ospina: not long enough on the pitch to give a rating.
By TotalArsenal.
Bergkampesque 
Hmmm. I guess the ratings are just about spot on, TA. Pity we couldn’t get to see Lacazette coming from the bench, for a change.
Ospina playing in the NLD then..?
Preparation for the League Cup… has
Hi all.. Hi TA..
A copy of my comment before this quick post..
The real Arsenal is back.. This kind of football that we should play game by game..
Glad for Ramsey hattrick.. He will be MotM.. Just hope everybody will be ok.. Hehehe..
You know what people always said after Ramsey’s goal.. And tonight 3 goals.. Will it be trio..?? Hehehe..
Mhiki also make three assist.. Wow.. Fantastic.. I think he will be our new king of assist..
What a great addition to the team..
The barter with Sanchez seem a good deal..
Happy to see Ozil playing in his best position.. Although no assist from our most expensive guy.. But he makes thing happened.. And I’m with you TA.. If not for Ramsey hattrick.. He will be my MotM..
Aubameyang look very promising with his speed.. I think he almost hattrick also.. Once for Koscielny goal if Kos didn’t make it.. Hehehe..
It’s seem we will be ready for NLD.. So be careful Spurs.. We will win the NLD..
London is still red and white.. Not white or blue.. Hehehe..
And Happy continuation day 17ht.. Wish you a healthy and happy life..
Hi Eris, Kev, heheheHenry 🙂
Great result and fabulous first half. The attack are ready for Spuds but let’s not fool each other too much. We still need to find that balance in the team and some of our team defending in the second half was unworthy of the Arsenal. We need to get this right before we go to our Wembley.
Happy Birthday, Seventeenho. A new Arsenal era may just have started on it! 🙂
Good day sunshine,
Good day sunshine,
Good day sunshine.
I need to laugh, and when the sun is out
I’ve got something I can laugh about,
I feel good, in a special way.
I’m in love and it’s a sunny day.
jw1
What a great game. If we can only take our home form on the road. If Arsenal Kan just sort out there defence and get a propper centre midfielders. We Wil have a team of note. With Ozil and Miki the 2 assist Kings and Aubemayang up front. Good luck to teams
Agreed Werner, it is actually quite weird that among all that attacking force, it was Rambo who scored his first hat-trick. That is what is all about: everybody works for everybody and anybody can score!
The passing in the first 20 minutes was dynamic. Everton had no idea who would be filling what space. Alex Iwobi played to his potential in the rush for goals. Quick thinking, decisive. He didn’t show up as a scorer or assist-er– but he was integral to the end product on three of them.
jw1
I think he had the assist for Rambo’s second, JW. I liked the way Iwobi was at home with the tempo of the game in the first. For a 21 year old that was very impressive.
On vacation so waiting for the player, but my only concern… big rises are this year followed by lapses it seems, or we respond with a big rise and then.
Very good to read about good link play and flow… long may it last.
Cheers — jgc
Yep– That’s correct TA. Mea culpa.
After taking a second look? Iwobi was the catalyst on the break with Ozil down the left flank. Ozil delivered that ball back to Iwobi in a very ‘shootable’ position (corner of the box, left). Easily could have teed that and shot. His peripheral sense pass to the middle for a streaking Ramsey (from beyond the 18 as I’d first thought)– was top-shelf stuff.
jw1
Morning all..
Just watching Amor, Amor, Amor.. Jennifer Lopez (JLo) song..
Suddenly this name cross my mind..
AMOR: Aubameyang – Mhkitaryan – Ozil – Ramsey.. Hehehe..
I love these guys.. AMOR..
The movement and understanding of Ozil, Mkhi and Auba lifted the whole team. Something that we could not see since the pairing of Henry, Pires and Bergkamp. Maybe we will see a repeat of that?
Pity that we lifted the accelerator in the second half. We need to be more ruthless than that.
“Overall, the two players integrated well into our game and they looked as if they had played for us forever,” said Wenger.
Qualifies as gushing from Le Prof. Good for him.
jw1
What a great game ! Complete passes and soft fooball ! Aub goal was fantastic it is on debut and on rare situation to come one on one with keeper and score
Of course we can’t complain too much with this great result. I feel like Everton had a really bad day with mistakes, but Our guys were great.
When I saw the line up, I was annoyed. I was concerned how Lacazette would view it, and how it may affect him. Hopefully not badly, maybe push him to be even better. I think he could work with PEA, though honestly I can’t be sure about the balance. IN THEORY, I feel like the attention Auba would command from defenders should open some opportunities. But sometimes these things don’t work out as planned.
Total is probably right about Jack having to play further back, now that Ozil is committed 😊.. I hope he’s physically up to the challenge.
I still don’t like Iwobi in the team. Please nobody say assist today. Still far too many sideways, back, passes. If you don’t agree, keep an eye on it, because I don’t know how to put up those passing charts, maps.
Jnyc.. Wenger said to put them (Lacazette – Aubameyang) together..
Still a week before NLD.. And if they worked it.. I believe Lacazette can replace Iwobi..
So My AMOR.. Will be LAMOR (L’Amour).. Hehehe..
Before the first Arsenal goal, Mustafi did a short back pass to Cech and almost got caught out. As did Xhaka when he dawdled with the ball.
We did well upfield, but the player that bridged defense and attack is Mkhi. Love to see more of him.
Jnyc, Ko Henry, yes. We need to get Iwobi out of the team. Someone spike his drink or his meals?
Scoring first and early is perfect for us because the opposing team opens up to chase the game. Our team is built for open games.
Ramsey was masterful, and in the context of how we play as a team I’d take Miki over Sanchez. Miki is part and parcel of the Arsenal flow. Sanchez truncated the flow.
No doubt about it, Auba is a goal scorer. He seems to have it all … pace, positioning, technique and not the least ice cold nerves in front of goal. I wonder about Lacaz playing chances. I believe they can work together. I’d say that Lacaz gets more involved with the general play. Auba, even though equally capable of general play, seems mentally more focused on goal scoring. The big question when both are fielded, is who drops out from our rich midfield.
Jnyc, ….. possibly Iwobi’s biggest contribution to the team is that he is dissimilar to the other midfielders. The same as saying that the other midfielders are too similar. He brings the buzz into our play and that can unsettle the opposition. He is a quick passer, difficult to dispossesed, a good dribbler who is able to run with the ball. In the last few games he has even started dispossesing people of the ball. View him again under this light and you might catch it that he’s got something to offer.
PE, agreed about what Auba brings to the team. He is quicker and has a greater intent than Laca, but i think Laca is still the man on top where his finishing can be better with Auba and Mkhi around.
Let’s unleash the full attacking lineup and drop Xhaka and bring in Elneny to stabilise the defense. Or play AMN in DM and get Kola to play if Nacho is not ready.
Anyone with me?
njk … this great debate can be summed up by saying we got a great bench!!!
Well written TA. after the rubbish we have been serving up recently it was a big improvement. If I had one complaint we should have finished them off in the second half. Pretty much the same as the Palace game. OK maybe we were getting tired, but what a message we could have sent down the Lane if we had scored 6 or 7
retsub–
Four in a half is a message. Seeing the game out with a clean sheet would have been the bigger statement.
Guys, I’ve been critical of 21-year-old Alex Iwobi, and not so long ago. But there is little to complain about yesterday’s performance. He played well amidst several, who performed at a world-class level. Credit due for: most dribbles (3), 55 passes with a passing accuracy of 87.3 percent, and two accurate through balls; assisting on Ramsey’s second (from WhoScored).
Interesting to see how Spurs handle Pool’s attackers today– in discussion of changes for the NLD.
jw1
That other guy who used to play on the left?
“Alexis Sanchez has lost possession of the ball more times against Huddersfield (32) than any other Man United player has in a single Premier League game this season.” (Twitter)
jw1
The average pundit is blind to this, JW1. They just see the one key pass, assist or goal.
New Post 🙂
That’s a damning stat right there, jw1. But this is what we have had to cope with for the last season and a half of this one. We agree here that we are not well structured when out of possession so, you can work out how much stress Alexis’ ball turnover can cause a team set up as ours is (was ?).
Don’t get me started on how the team seemed to play for him, directing traffic his way and ultimately, the ball to him. Young players and full/wing backs seemed under obligation to give him the ball on sight, then he will ‘hug’ it, cut inside with it then lose it, with our full/wing backs out of position, thus placing a demand to engage wingers on CBs who should rather be waiting to cut out crosses. He was hard working, created chances, scored great goals and generally lifted everyone, but there was that downside we hardly notice, initially. One thing you can count on is Iwobi won’t lose possession so frequently and will play with the team.