After a low-intensity start and a clumsy goal conceded, Arsenal took control of the game with goals from Auba and Welbeck. Wenger made seven changes and left his creative fire-power on the bench, but that offered a fabulous opportunity for my MOTM to shine.
Player Ratings:
Cech: 8 – Calm, secure, leads through his wisdom like a Greek philosopher and the responsiveness of a Bohemian tiger.
Kola: 6 – What has happened to his confidence and his early-season thrust? Couple of decent defensive interventions but he is not replacing Nacho anytime soon.
Mustafi: 5 – At fault for the goal as a result of a lack of anticipation and not taking the initiative. After that a few poor balls out of defence and some kamikaze defending in and around the box. Needs to look more around him.
Chambers: 5 – Not dynamic enough and too easily fooled for the Saints’ second goal.
Bellerin: 5 – He has recently been much better with his deliveries into the box, but today he was mainly disappointing. Hector also played some bad balls out of defence.
Xhaka: 8 – Calm, controlled performance. Speeds game up when there is an opportunity and dominates the midfield area through intelligence and technical ability. Lovely to watch if you like tidiness.
Elneny: 7.5 – Solid and always totally focussed. Looks around him and pre-plans his steps. Lovely to watch if you like tidiness.
Welbeck: 8.5 – Could be MOTM. Excellent running and presence all over the pitch. Two goals and an assist almost says it all, but his energy and willingness to do the dirty work also deserves praise.
Auba: 8.5 – Just quality personified.
Nelson: 6 – Struggled to have an impact on the game.
Iwobi: 9 – Superb allround performance by the Nigerian Ninja. Two assist and one pre-assist. Great movement and ball control and without the presence of the Nr10 beasts of Ozil, Jack, Mkhi and Rambo, he had a chance to shine. And boy how he did!!!
By TotalArsenal
Bergkampesque 
What’s with the red card against Elneny?
Iwobi for me is a 8 due to his nonexistent defensive performance. Welbs a 9 for me. Missed a sitter but scored the winner later on
Festive! A rambunctious affair– decked in yellows and reds. Finishing at 3-2 to the good guys. The crowd at the Emirates was on their feet and cheering wildly at 90+6′. It was at times frustrating– but mostly fun.
Arsenal have done their best these past two Sundays, to send down a pair of clubs who’ve been thorns in our sides for years. Today with a second XI mostly.
I’m a bit upset about the Elneny red card. Really have prospered with his passing and motor. Wondering if it might be rescinded upon review? There was nothing there to warrant it visibly. The NBCSN studio dolt (Kyle Martino) insisted it had to be something Mo said. I disagree. Just a ref with a bad angle– seeing the last of some low-level shoving. Nothing you don’t see on a corner kick.
All-in-all though? A kind of fun-to-watch match.
Agree with Iwobi as MoTM. Without his keen passing? None of the goals materialize.
jw1
Well, I slept through the first half this morning so I’m watching it now… I saw the 2nd as it happened and here are some thoughts… 1) It’s good we won and esp. good that DW added offense to his fantastic d, which denied a Lacazette goal and a JW assist… 😀 JW gets no rating nor does the man (er, kid) he replaced, Reiss Nelson?… Hmmmm… Was the latter just invisible?
Are we aiming to ignore the contributions of the former? JW got two guys sent off…Doesn’t that count for something?… More smileys… Those antics, all part of his exuberant (passionate? stupid?) chasing of the ball (the same stuff that helped So’ton get their 2nd goal), might impress some folks, but to me it looks like the stuff of a lower table (or Championship) team. For his strong work, Elneny will sit our next three league matches. Rough justice, but I bet the Egyptian actually LEARNS from it…
Agreed about Iwobi’s rating…at least from what I saw… He created the chance that DW kept out AND the one he put in… He’s building a game that could be something impressive. At this level (English mid to lower table, top of the Championship) he’s already a dominant force with more to learn from playing with the quality of guys like Ozil (and Mkhi, Laca, PEA, etc.) Early days yet…
Early moments here watching the first half and I set another youngster out there (Nelson–skilled enough to keep the ball as needed thus far) but he didn’t register with everyone, I guess…
Seats in the stadium looked fuller than on Easter… though, my dennis, those prawn sandwiches MUST be good… The pricey level had just about zero folks in it when the 2nd half kicked off…
Wow… There’s the first goal… I would expect Mustafi to learn from that… Cech probably does get an elevated rating just for ripping his CB a new one…
Jack was blameless, but of course not in your eyes.
Nelson now added. Indeed v underwhelming.
When playing these teams who are reverting to a sort of desperate English style of play, set pieces and other hopeful balls flung into the box become ‘UGE… As such, it hurts us that we play all the small defenders who aren’t such strong leapers… Mustafi jumps well (but not as well as Kos…) and Bellerin gets up OK but clearly it’s not his preference. Kolasinac needs somebody to teach him–and quick. He seems to move along the ground then try and go up with very little momentum. Nacho is no great monster in the air, of course, but he’s got the Hulk/Beast beaten on this account. The young guys (Chambers and Holding) are a bit taller and improving with their heads. We all know that Wenger wants to play on the ground but needs must when the opponent goes through the air. At least Cech has size, is willing to get off his line and communicates vigorously with his defenders… As Arsenal go through the current (and massive) transition goals will be leaked…and high balls will be a big source of those goals…
On that note…More praise for Welbeck. He looked positively Giroud-esque clearing with his head…And, again, keeping that ball out (that Laca coulda tapped in late on) was AMAZING… Climbing Jack (or at least pushing him out of the way) for the final goal was well done and the least he deserved…
And there’s our first goal… Welbs gets the assist with some Rambo-eaque improv work… PEA uses the sole of his boot and gets away before he can get clattered (and injured)… Quality indeed…
Yeah, TA, I need to leave JW alone…and stop arguing about him… That said, do you mean blameless for the goal (So’ton’s 2nd) or the sending offs? Surely he played some role in something…
I ACTUALLY spend a lot of effort trying to see his positive attributes, though I know you have dismissed me on that account…or simply don’t believe me any longer… 😦
On that note, he ABSOLUTELY shoulda had the winning assist… Well done to get the pass across the goal mouth that Welbs (or Laca) mighta finished…
Probably I just need to quit this Arsenal business… Being able to sleep through the first half is a good sign that I’m getting there…
Would have to watch that Saints’ second goal again, Seventeenho, to tell you whether he was at fault. I thought we defended poorly in the box to let that one in.
I don’t score subs unless they come on in the first half or at the start of the second half. Too little time to impress us and for us to make a judgement.
I’d like it, TA, if we could have a “fair and balanced” discussion about Wilshere… With us winning the match, I didn’t think I was going too far, but maybe it’s just not possible… Assigning blame to any one player (or the manager, who often gets it…) is almost always an oversimplification…and that’s not what I was attempting to do. On the 2nd So’ton goal, JW’s chasing (pointless, IMO…) helped them into the box and Chambers was slow on Long’s final move. His cross, however, nutmegged Xhaka so maybe there’s a(nother) finger to point… We responded and won, so it’s all good for the learning process, maybe?…
Alright, there’s the (first) DW goal (Arsenal’s 2nd)… Agreed with JK (I think, from the previous post) that it was a legit effort, despite the deflection, so good on him… Like the other English guy, you cannot fault the effort on display…even if sometimes I do… 😀 😉
About the sending off(s)… If there’s a review, surely Elneny’s is rescinded and Jack gets red instead of yellow… All three shoulda stayed on and the ref coulda calmed everybody with yellows only… Red mist, they call it, I guess and Andre Marriner is rather famous for sending off the wrong Arsenal player, isn’t he?…
I doubt they will be reviewed… No Mo(hamed Elneny) in these next 3 PL games probably means even more sleeping in for me, however… 😦
I have absolutely no desire to talk about JW10 with you, Seventeenho. Everything has been said many times already. I reckon you gravitate towards him and over-emphasise his contributions. Today had little to do with Jack. It was Iwobi and Welbeck’s day. Two players who needed, desperately needed, a good game; and they had one alright.
I was very impressed with the effort of this team and some very fine individual performances, as summarised in the post.
Have a good few days fellow Gooners. 🙂
Seems to me that talking about Arsenal is ALL about saying the same thing over and over (and over)…Though maybe we’re getting so much turnover in the team that things will be different when folks finally get the change(s) they’re after…
Unfortunately–for me at least–the more things change, the more they stay the same… At least when it comes to Arsenal.
Agreed about effort of the team and individuals… I’d rather we fine-tune those sentiments by sharing our observations, but that’s just me…
We’ll leave it there then, I guess…
Having left the game before the last goal, I will need to see the rest of it to make further observations than what I’ve already done in the previous thread.
However, Auba with an 8.5 score surprised me, even if I understand your reference to his quality. Don’t get me wrong, though. I like him; but he did have some dodgy moments earlier on and hardly offered much else, than the threat he poses on the run or in the box. Maybe I am wrong and need to watch him more closely. I will give him a 7.5, at best.
New Post 🙂
I will hazard some scores for the Subs as follows:
Lacazette 6: Put himself about; could easily have scored had Welbeck not deflected theJack cross over the goal. Held up play and won a couple of fouls to help us catch our breaths.
Holding 6.5: Did well, for a sub. Quickly acclimatized himself with the dangers, won all his headed duels and was a bit no nonsense in approach. When he chose to pass out from the back, he was flawless.
Jack 5: To be fair, he came on at a time when the visitors had started to go long with only a few balls through the middle. Still, he hardly got a foothold in the game, had a couple of misplaced passes or over-ran the ball as he went forward on breaks. He had a few good moments, though, including his stretch to cross for Danny’s poor miss. Looks a man with a lot on his mind and will do well to sort it out fast; I still look forward to seeing him in Russia.