Here are my Arsenal player ratings from this evenings thrilling 7-3 victory over Newcastle at The Emirates (feel free to argue or agree with me).
Wojciech Szczesny – Despite conceding three goals, which he couldn’t really prevent, the Pole didn’t have much to do in 90 minutes. Made a few good saves in the first-half and looked assured when called upon. 6/10
Bacary Sagna – Another poor performance from the French right-back. Got skinned on a number of occasions by Gabriel Obertan and didn’t look comfortable throughout. Perhaps needs more match fitness? Who knows. 4/10
Laurent Koscielny – Produced a great performance in the absence of Per Mertesacker. Never stopped running and kept position well. 7/10
Thomas Vermaelen – The Belgian centre-back pulled another good performance out of the bag. Commanded the back-line well and kept things nice and tidy at the back. 7/10
Kieran Gibbs – Was good going forward and linked well with Podolski on the left wing, but his defending was well off today. Two of Newcastle’s three goals came from his bad judgement and inability to mark tight. Set up Walcott’s second. 6/10
Mikel Arteta – Distributed the ball well and was tenacious throughout. Another good performance from the Spaniard. 6.5/10
Jack Wilshere – Despite ducking in the wall, which led to Newcastle’s equaliser at 1-1, Wilshere produced yet another spirited performance for The Gunners. Was tenacious and got stuck in, also bagged an assist along the way. 7.5/10
Santi Cazorla – Was fairly quiet in the first-half but picked it up in the second. Distributed the ball well and always looked to create. Got an assist. 6.5/10
Lukas Podolski – Bagged a goal and assist in what was a resolute display from the German international. A definite in the side now. 8/10
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – Bombed forward well and was not afraid to run at the Newcastle back-line. Scored a superb goal from around 18-yards or so, driving the ball low and hard into Tim Krul’s bottom right hand corner. 6.5/10
Theo Walcott – Scored a hat-trick and claimed two assists – Man of the Match performance. Still needs to tweak some areas of his game if he wants to secure the centre-forward position, but he’s doing well at the mo. 9/10
SUBS:
Olivier Giroud – Replaced Chamberlain in the 73rd minute and netted two superb goals – one with a bullet diving header and the other with a powerful right-footed strike from inside the Newcastle penalty area. Proving why he possibly deserves to lead the Arsenal front-line. 8.5/10
Aaron Ramsey – Another cameo performance from the Welshman. Came on for Podolski in the 82nd minute, Had a few touches of the ball and looks to be gaining a little confidence. 5/10
Francis Coquelin – Was brought on in the 85th minute for Cazorla to tighten up the midfield, which the Frenchman did. Kept position well. 5/10
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Theoooooooooo…..Theo, your last goal was a true va-va-voom goal. Hmmmmmmmm! our right n left back defence so poor.
Thanks for a fair unbiased review of the game.
Tell you what, next year we (NUFC) will have Boxing Day off, while YOU play Man Utd away.
Oh, and you’ll need to drop 9 first teamers as well, as we had 9 missing today.
Try not to get too carried away – we matched you all the way until fatigue kicked in. Dale Winton would’ve giot a hat-trick at that stage.
Thanks for reading.
Well it should have been more than 7. Should have been 8 xD.
Idiot. Arsenal have lost more players to injury than any premiership club this season and everybody gets a break with fixtures every now and again. And some of us have Champions League games to play. Stop bloody whining you sound just like your manager.
And well done matching us all the way until fatigue kicked in. Next time bring a decent fitness coach with you and perhaps you wont get tired.
And by the way, you could improve your team significantly if you signed Dale Winton you sap
I heard Newcastle have made a bid for Dale Winton actually, as a replacement for Ba
10/10 for Walcott. Cant remember seeing him do anything wrong really he did everything you could ask of him today. I know 10/10 would mean perfection but it damn well feels that way after what he did. Even the 3rd goal he showed pace, trickery, determination and guile in 1 play. Bravo and please give the man what he wants!!
giround did well than theo since he played only about 16 mins and scored 2 much needed goals
Wenger has said Arsenal can kick out BM.The German team and NU are miles apart. For starters they have players who are more dangerous than Ba and company.Remember NU scored two goals with players totally unmarked. In the cl,Arsenal will be ripped to pieces by BM.
I saw the highlights but I think I am correct in saying the gunners are going direct instead of passing all over the pitch. The speed of the attack is another positive sign.
Sterner tests await the gunners. If Arsenal can navigate them successfully,the cl spot maybe within reach. It all boils down to the defence.
Why all this talk of the champions league spot,we should(or at least the players should) be aiming a little higher than that.We have an eminently winnable fixture on Tuesday,and we still have all those sides above us to play.It wound up being a good win Anyway its nice to have something positive to digest for once but dont forget to buy MVila for us Arsene and then our defence will have a bit more breathing space.yesterday and as regards Newcastle fading, they did the same on Wednesday at old Trafford so thats probably a deeper problem for them.
It might be a bit harsh to critizise Walcotts performance, but the way he ruined the counter-attack in the first half when he played the ball behind Cazorla was really poor. 9/10 is a good judgement of his performance.
Good report mainly but is it me or can no one else see that Sagna is not only a poor defender but also he gives the impression he couldnt care less too? I have watched him more closely since he tried to engineer a move to CITY and he has been crap. In yoiur report you blamed Gibbs for two of the goals..sorry mate..,. you watch it again and you will see that all 3 goals came from Sagna’s bad marking…or no marking…or bad positioning.
He obviously is the weak link and is living off previous seasons performances. Jenks has never let us down and is better alround anyway.
I had my supicions about Sagna after the Manure game…he looked like he was trying hard to give them a goal.
As for Simba and his 442…well mate add Jenks to that and I agree…but we need a fast, tall, good tackling DMF….what about Vermy or Kossy in that role?
Sagna has had his chips for me, his heart isn’t in it plus his leg has been broken twice in a year. Time to ease him out and let jenkinson have a go. At least he looks interested and his delivery is better
Brilliant performance by Arsenal. I think that Arsene needs to sign a goalkeeper to keep szczesny on his toes, a solid CB to partner vermaelen, a solid DM, a decent striker and we need to sell fringe players like chamakh, arshavin and gervinho who shouldn’t even be at arsenal