Here are my Arsenal player ratings from today’s 2-1 victory over a resolute Sunderland side (feel free to argue or agree with me):
Wojciech Szczesny – Made some fantastic saves today, seems to be back to his best as of late and is becoming very dependable. Unlucky not to keep a clean sheet. 8/10
Bacary Sagna – Fantastic to see him back in the side. Made some good runs down the right hand flank and is looking sharp since his return from injury. Defensively sound. 7/10
Per Mertesacker – Probably the most unlucky player on the pitch today. The German was having a good game then went down while running back for the ball which led to James McClean giving Sunderland a 1-0 lead with 30 minutes to go. No blame should be placed on him for the goal, just a freak injury – proably caused by a dodgy pitch. Substituted in the 73rd minute for Aaron Ramsey. 6/10
Laurent Koscielny – Not his best performance in an Arsenal shirt. Looked a little shaky at times, but still defended well and got back whenever he had to. 7/10
Thomas Vermaelen – Spent most of the match looking like a striker to be honest. Defended very well and becoming a dependable left-back. A great performance typical of Vermaelen. A rock at the back. 8/10
Mikel Arteta – Great display by Arteta once again. Still remains my favourite signing this season for Arsenal. Would love to see him on the score-sheet though, but his continuous completed pass rate makes up for his lack of goals. 8/10
Alex Song – Fought for everything today and was solid. Linked up well with Rosicky in midfield and together stopped everything from coming through the middle of the pitch in the first half. Man of the Match for me. 9/10
Tomas Rosicky – Another decent game from the Czech international. The only criticism I have of him is that I would love for him to shoot more often when he gets into decent positions. Worked really well with Song in midfield. 8/10
Alex Chamberlain– Alex ran his little heart out again for Arsenal. This youngster has a ton of passion and energy, sadly, it just wasn’t his day. He may come under some criticism because he played so well last week but, on today’s performance, a solid 7/10 shows he did what was required of him. Replaced by Thierry Henry in the 67th minute. 7/10
Robin van Persie – Sunderland didn’t give him any room at all today and because of this was quite quiet. There were no decent balls in from Walcott this week and the Dutchman proved he is in fact human after all. 7/10
Theo Walcott – Poor performance again from Theo – nothing like the game he played against Blackburn and it showed. Delivery from the flank was poor and rarely used his pace to get round the Sunderland defenders. 6/10
Subs
Aaron Ramsey – The Welshman has received a lot of flack recently for his poor performances, but came on for the injured Mertesacker in the 73rd minute and turned the game around within two minutes on the pitch by netting Arsenal’s equaliser. The young midfielder hit a great strike from just outside the box which rebounded off both uprights before going in. This will surely be the boost of confidence Rambo needed. I just hope he builds from this. 7.5/10
Andrey Arshavin – Another player who has been receiving his share of complaints by the Arsenal fans, including myself. Came on for the last four minutes of the match and gave a glimpse of what he can do when he is playing well. He provided the cross that Arsenal had lacked all match under Walcott which fell to Thierry Henry to slot home. A great cameo appearance, but will it be enough to turn round some of the Arsenal fans opinion of him?. 8/10
Thierry Henry – I make no apologises for giving this man a 10! Thierry Henry made his last Premier League appearance for his beloved Arsenal after coming on for AOC in the 67th minute and eventually ended up being labelled, once again, as a hero. The Frenchman latched onto a cross from Arshavin and volleyed the ball home in stoppage time to once again give Arsenal a much needed three points. There is nothing that I can say about this man that hasn’t already been said about him in the past. Thank you Thierry! 10/10
Like what you read? Then follow me on Twitter – http://twitter.com/UKVampire
Visit and Join our Facebook page, click HERE to do so.
Gunnersphere is currently looking for new writers to join the squad. Contact via twitter or at Gunnersphere@snack-media.com for further details.
What can I say about this great legend. Thierry, thank you again and again.
Thanks to Henry and ramsey. Dön know why sunderland were tough for us!
poor pitch which affects the effectiveness of our passing, small pitch so not a lot of space to exploit, good defensive shape always – thats why ?
It’s Because their manager got every ounce from every player on the pitch, the played and worked as a team. For whatever reason, we don’t have that attribute (or maybe manager) that can do that. That is why …… this is not one of those Wenger out post at all …. but it is the truth unfortunately and the only reason we are in forth place is that the other “alsoran” contenders have fallen away.
Spot on with your ratings.
Song MOTM…. you know the game!
If Henry has a message for Wenger it`s simply, “buy a world class striker like me”.
what a game, can someone tell me what happened to TR7? he looks absolutely owsome
can somebody tell walcot to stop marking the opposing players and keep free of them. Whenever we are in possession he keeps marking them closely
Ramsey turned the game and made our midfield lively
can anybody tel me why the referees hate Arsenal ? come on there were fouls against arteta in the midfield in front of the damn stupid referee and didnt think ti whistle for it .this is getting annoying.
I salute Arshavin for this lovely pass i ask every Gunners Supporter to cheer the team . we need every single player on the bench and on the pitch look arshavin gave us an assist to get 3 points . Henry i will miss u and i love u you are a KING. i will wait for him to come back again to arsenal as Coaching staff . Ramsey u r amazing with ur goal .thank u for ur super goal. LOVE U GOONERS . we need to excel from now on .
Hi Fella …. did you watch the whole game ? There were many dodgy decisions from the ref and I would say that we were on the best end of them in the first half, the Sunderland fans were right on his back because of it, so think that he had to even things up a bit.
Arshavin playing like that week in week out is what we need from a world class player of his standing. Not for him to just turn up when he can be arsed, if I did that in my job I’d be gone …
Henry True True legend …. bye TH12
Pretty ridiculous to score the Ox higher than Theo. He is a great player and prospect, but he didn’t do anything at all, ran it off the pitch a number of times too. Just shows how Arsenal fans have got it in for Theo, who was also poor, but more dangerous than the Ox
Actually I really like theo, I just think he has had much better games. Chamberlain did well, yes he ran it off however the balls he played were often good unlike Walcott.
I noticed above a post questioning Wenger as the manager for Arsenal. In my opinion he is simply one of the best a club can have and I have to say he is the real reason that makes Arsenal such a terrific side. Give him time and you will see a truly great team emerge. I reckon in a couple of seasons there will be only 2 teams competing for trophies consistantly. These teams will be Arsenal and Man United, why, simply because of the structure of how these two managers build football squads for the long term, bringing in youth and working with them and developing a cnveyor belt of successors. Look at the money chelsea paid to build their team and look at them now. No future but to spend another couple of hundred million and their owner is not going to do that. Man City have built a good one off squad but were is the foundation, it will not last. Give it time and you will see prudence in spending money and building from the ground up pay off and especially in these recession times. Terrific to see Henry and hope to see him back and one last thing, Oxy Chamberlain is the biggest prospect I have seen in a long time.