Arsenal - Barcelona. Player ratings thread.

[est]

I think you're being too harsh on Denilson there asa. He was at least as good as Busquets or Keita.

 

[asajoseph]

He was absolutely nowhere near Busquets.

Denilson tightened things up a bit defensively for us, which was good to see, but Busquets played a far, far more rounded game for them, and Barca overall did a much better job of closing us down than we ever did to them overall.

 

[Gurgen]

That's cause no-one thought it would be a good idea to stand within 10 yards of him.

I miss Hleb sometimes. For all his faults he would always do a hatchet job on the deep lying playmaker.

 

[est]

What do you mean by 'rounded'? His positioning was good, pressed well at times and forced Cesc/Diaby into mistakes, but he didn't do much else. Mostly short passes to Xavi who absoulutely bossed the midfield or to the full backs. Denilson's cause was not helped by having Diaby and Cesc by his side, who were both ****.

 

[asajoseph]

I mean that Busquets played a much more influential role for Barca than Denilson did for us, both attacking and defensively.

Relative to Diaby & Cesc at times, Denilson was good. But I'm not ranking our players, I'm saying how well they performed on the night. Denilson was decent, nothing more.

 

[ricky1985]

Walcott - 8. Great goal, took it fantastically. So few players would have been able to take one touch on the ball and then finish, when running at absolute top speed like that. Top class. He changed the game on it's head, gave us some belief back. Maybe Wenger will start him now? Ludicrous that he hasn't been starting every game since the Burnley performance

There's only one Ricky!

When you're running that fast, to take a perfect first touch, and then finish with your next touch - it takes a good player to be able to do that, a very good player.

 

[asajoseph]

Must have cemented his world-cup place now, if only as a super-sub.

With England's other options in that position so dodgy, they'll need someone to come off the bench fairly regularly, even if Theo isn't starting.

 

[Clrnc]

That's cause no-one thought it would be a good idea to stand within 10 yards of him.

I miss Hleb sometimes. For all his faults he would always do a hatchet job on the deep lying playmaker.

I swear I was thinking of him during the time in the 2nd half when Barca scored 2 goals and was dominating.

 

[Captain]

Walcott - 8. Great goal, took it fantastically. So few players would have been able to take one touch on the ball and then finish, when running at absolute top speed like that. Top class. He changed the game on it's head, gave us some belief back. Maybe Wenger will start him now? Ludicrous that he hasn't been starting every game since the Burnley performance

There's only one Ricky!

Ricky always embellishes but taking the shot early is what made the difference. You always have a chance if you do that.

And Lagos, there's another one for the 'Theo always does it in the big games' column. :wink:

 

[lagos]

Walcott - 8. Great goal, took it fantastically. So few players would have been able to take one touch on the ball and then finish, when running at absolute top speed like that. Top class. He changed the game on it's head, gave us some belief back. Maybe Wenger will start him now? Ludicrous that he hasn't been starting every game since the Burnley performance

There's only one Ricky!

When you're running that fast, to take a perfect first touch, and then finish with your next touch - it takes a good player to be able to do that, a very good player.

he was great last night Ricky, it wasn't his performance I was loling about

And Lagos, there's another one for the 'Theo always does it in the big games' column. :wink:

I was thinking that actually

 

[flobaba]

Theo is a very good player- when he's not being unlucky.

 

[Macho]

almunia - 7 kept us in the game

sagna - 4
vermaelen - 4
gallas - 4
clichy - 5

song - 7- this guy is growing on me
diaby - 2- so ineffective,
cesc - 5- didn't do much but the little he did counted for a lot

nasri - 4 - bleh
bendtner - 4- not his fault really
arshavin - 3 this guy is starting to piss me off.

denilson - 6- Suprised me
eboue - 5 - Ignoring the falling over and looking for free kicks, I would start over Sagna.
walcott - 7 not a fan, initially was cussin when he came on but he was what we needed I guess.

When it came down to it, it seemed a lot of the guys didn't really want it from Barcelona from what I was seeing. "Oh ****, we are getting moved to, lemme start limping and looking at the bench."

 

[TOPG]

Theo Walcott was the MOTM but Denilson was absolutely fantastic aswell. Both deserves 9s..

 

[Captain]

And Lagos, there's another one for the 'Theo always does it in the big games' column. :wink:

I was thinking that actually

He's like the kid in school who ****s about all year, gets Ds across the board but then come exam time pulls straight As out of thin air.

 

[lagos]

And Lagos, there's another one for the 'Theo always does it in the big games' column. :wink:

I was thinking that actually

He's like the kid in school who f***s about all year, gets Ds across the board but then come exam time pulls straight As out of thin air.

No No No I wouldn't go that far!

 

[Gurgen]

I've been a big critic of Theo but you have to admire his bottle. Even if he fks up he doesn't hide.

 

[goonerwarsh]

Theo played last night how you want him to always play. All of a sudden he didn't look like the little boy lost.

All you want him to do is run at the full backs, whenever i'm watching him I just want to scream "run Forest run". He's got all that raw pace, if just used it more and ran at his man his confidence would increase and the rest of his game would start improving too

 

[Biggus]

Whats insane is the low scores for Almunia, or perhaps pure blind hate for the player. Also, now you can see the reactor saves I spoke about with Almunia was clear to see today, undoubtedly our MOTM.
Barca are a better side than we are though, it was clear tonight.

Almunia - 7 MOTM

Clichy - 5
Vermaelen - 5
Gallas - N/A
Sagna - 4

Cesc - 4
Diaby - 3
Song - 5.5

Nasri - 6
Bendtner - 4
Arshavin - N/A

Subs:

Denilson - 5.5
Walcott - 5
Eboue - 3

This. Al does well when he doesn't need to think & just reacts to the shot - fortunately most of the shots at goal fell into this category.

Al is/was always a good shot stopper and Barca's game suited him, but people need to understand that shot stopping is a minor (especially in the English game) part of the job and might only happen once or twice a game.
Much more important is the decision making the sweeping up the commanding of the area and in these skills Al has always looked dodgy.

How many times a season will we play a side like Barca with negligible aerial threat?
Thats why we need a new goalie.

 

[TOPG]

Theo played last night how you want him to always play. All of a sudden he didn't look like the little boy lost.

All you want him to do is run at the full backs, whenever i'm watching him I just want to scream "run Forest run". He's got all that raw pace, if just used it more and ran at his man his confidence would increase and the rest of his game would start improving too

Exactly. As long as Theo does that he cant go wrong in my opinion. Fullbacks are scared of him he shouldn't be scared of fullbacks. Maxwell was sh*tting his pants everytime Walcott was running at him.

 

[sabret00the]

I see this thread took a turn for the hilarious since last night. Walcott had a great moment last night, where he scored with a school boy finish and rode his luck to our advantage, and a couple of good moment where by Maxwell just couldn't get used to his pace. It was hardly anything to write home about. Worst thing is, I can't even blame Walcott for his lack of effective contribution after the goal as most of that was down to our clueless team trying to give him impossible balls and play it over the top.

As for Asa and Denilson Asa will never like Denilson nor give him the props he deserves as Asa simply feels that Denilson is a hindrance to the vision he has for the club. Denilson came on and all of a sudden they couldn't go right through the middle and were forced to play a much more elaborate passing game in order to bring it from front to back. He pressed and pick-pocketed to perfection. He showed for the ball at every opportunity, in the tightest of situations and dug out passes to retain possession. His inclusion in the game, gave us the foothold to build confidence and Walcott's goal built a home on that foothold.