Arsenal v Blackburn Match Ratings

[gstew]

Mannone 5 Should not have been beaten for first goal.

Gallas 6
Vermaelen 7 Beautiful shot!!
Clichy 6
Sagna 6

Song 6.5 Did his job.
Fabregas 10 Could have easily had a hat trick to go along with the assists. Even chipped passes like the one to Sagna down the right and RVP in the 5 yard box were hit to absolute perfection. His right boot from today's match should be bronzed. Which makes it ironic that he scored a beautiful goal with his left.
Diaby 5.5 The positive: He did nothing stupid and moved the ball a little faster. The negative: He wasn't invisible, but was boredering on translucent.

Rosicky 8 Did a good job. And almost scored with a beautifully wicked volley.
Arshavin 8
van Persie 9 His passing was extraordinary. Was overshadowed by Cesc, but this was one of his best games ever for Arsenal.

Walcott 8 Very, very happy with his performance.
Bendtner 8 Phenomenal goal! Should have had another when RVP put him through.
Ramsey 7

 

[alboots101]

Yep, I was talking about Theo. His movement is something else.

thats exactly what i said ricky, after the boro game last season...his pace live is incredible and like you said combinded with the movement.

 

[solbreak]

I definitely agree that Walcott's movement yesterday was very good, he made all the right runs, was adept at seeking out space and was very aware positionally.

Strange as it seems, both Walcott and Rosicky seem to have improved during the course of their injury!

 

[TomasCR]

Mannone - 6 - should have been there for the first goal but solid otherwise.

Sagna - 6 - did his job on the right, far from being as effective going forward as Eboue.
Gallas - 7 - did nothing wrong, the goal was a bit unlucky I suppose.
Vermaelen - 8 - absolutely loved the goal, the power he hit it with and all that, amazing!
Clichy - 6 - don't remember him much, hard to rate.

Song - 6.5 - could have been better, still good enough. This guy is gonna have a very important role this season, the defense needs to be protected more and with our style of play...?
Fabregas - 10 - nuff said.
Diaby - 7 wasn't that bad as some of you made him look to be, he just wasn't as productive as the others around, which I think is understandable.

Arshavin - 7.5 - was dangerous every time when on the ball, the goal did the job as well.
Rosicky - 7.5 - see above. The good thing about these two is that they almost never lose the ball and can think up a good pass whenever they have a ball on their foots, which I think is something we missed last season. Could have had another assist and goal.
RvP - 8.5 - I think he was abolutely great and did everything right.

Walcott - 7 - the goal was clever indeed and his runs just behind the defense were great, something the likes of Arshavin, Rosicky or Fabregas, whit their eye for a pass, can make pretty easily make advantage of.
Ramsey - 7 - impressed me as well, he's no kid anymore. Good there is finally someone Wenger can take Cesc off for.
Bendtner - 7 - class goal, tried hard. (the bench good very good overall)

 

[progman07]

i'm not sure what you're talking about progman, i rate arshavin as highly as anyone on the team. just because i didnt give him an 8 in this particular match hardly means i have a thing against him!

stop trying to turn every little comment into a ****storm - it really gets annoying after a while. wtf is a "lets underrate arshavin" campaign?? do you think asa and i discuss how to mobilise a grass roots operation to undermine arsenal players in our spare time? there's no conspiracy, i just call it like i see it.

i cant speak for others, but i dont play favourites, ever. eg, i've been very harsh on ramsey but i thought he was excellent when he came on and called it as such.

I wasn't talking about stuff like that, really. I was taking about certain threads which are opened after every single bad game and are trying to attack players like they hadn't had a good game since ages.

"ignoring Arshavin" thread, "let's criticize Cesc" thread, even the "what's up which Clichy" threads though that's maybe more justified.

Along with the constant underratings and overratings, Bendtner getting higher than Arshavin yesterday is strange.

 

[Captain]

Well you gave a 'special mention' to Theo but only mentioned that Bendtner lost the ball a few times when he was every bit as good, if not better than Theo in his cameo.

Swings and roundabouts, different people see different things.

 

[MAK 14]

Mannone 7

Sagna 6
Gallas 6
Vermaelen 8
Clichy 7

Song 6
Diaby 6
Fabregas 10
Arshavin 8
Rosicky 8
Van Persie 9

Walcott 8
Bendtner 8
Ramsey 8

 

[True Gooner]

Mannone - 7.

Sagna - 6 Looked uncomfortable out there and made some uncharacteristic mistakes. It happens.
Gallas - 7 Solid
Vermaelen - 7 Shouldn't have been beaten for the first goal but made up for it with an incredible strike. His celebration: 'that's what you get for trying to make me look bad!'
Clichy - 7 Thought he was very good tbh. In hindsight he could have been deeper when Blackburn countered but all in all I thought he had a very assured game

Song - 7 Really should have done better with Blackburns second but he played very well and coped with everything they threw at him. Made some great runs as well. Would have been rated higher but for the mistake.
Diaby - 6.5 Definitely not as bad as some of you have lead me to believe. Played well, made some tackles and won the ball back loads of times. Overshadowed by Fabregas, Arshavin and Rosicky but the again, who wouldn't be? Faded badly in the second half.
Fabregas - 10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pXfHLUlZf4

Rosicky - 7.5 Absolutely vital to our pass and move game. Gives away the ball cheaply when he tries to play everything on the first touch but more often than not it results in something positive and drags players out of position. Great work ethic as well.
Arshavin - 8 Class act. More to come.

van Persie - 9 Lead the line beautifully. Dropped deep at the right times, moved wide, played the right pass, got some shots away and basically did everything you could ask of him. Should have had an assist to his name as well as the goal.

 

[ricky1985]

van Persie - 9 Lead the line beautifully. Dropped deep at the right times, moved wide, played the right pass, got some shots away and basically did everything you could ask of him. Should have had an assist to his name as well as the goal.

Are you starting to change your opinion on Van Persie leading the line, TG?

 

[True Gooner]

Now that I realise that we're actually using van Persie as a decoy to push Arshavin and Bendtner/Eduardo/Walcott(?) ahead of him rather than ask van Persie to do what Adebayor did? Yeah, I am!

I still think we'll see some inconsistencies in his game because he's had to adjust the most to the new system but there's definitely a lot of positives to take away from his performances, plus he's an intelligent player with excellent technical ability, you'd back him to make the change sooner or later.

4 goals, 4 assists in 8 games so far - very good return.

 

[progman07]

Well you gave a 'special mention' to Theo but only mentioned that Bendtner lost the ball a few times when he was every bit as good, if not better than Theo in his cameo.

Swings and roundabouts, different people see different things.

Bendtner scored a good goal, but missed a huge chance, and took too much time on the ball. Yeah, it's only my opinion.

Theo deserves a special mention because his return was great, and I think he is going to fill that RW role in the first team, so we'll need him on form. Also, his finish was very calm, if he keeps it up he'll score many.

 

[ricky1985]

Now that I realise that we're actually using van Persie as a decoy to push Arshavin and Bendtner/Eduardo/Walcott(?) ahead of him rather than ask van Persie to do what Adebayor did? Yeah, I am!

I still think we'll see some inconsistencies in his game because he's had to adjust the most to the new system but there's definitely a lot of positives to take away from his performances, plus he's an intelligent player with excellent technical ability, you'd back him to make the change sooner or later.

4 goals, 4 assists in 8 games so far - very good return.

Didn't realise his stats were that good! I think he's really starting to look the real deal up top, he's improving with every single game.

 

[otfgoon]

He's actually been playing the role quite well all season, things just were not coming off for him before and it was only a matter of time before that changed.

 

[ricky1985]

His movement has improved out of all recognition in the last few games. The thing I'm loving most is that now we actually have a proper midfield who can create space for him, is that he now gets to unleash the left foot a little more (and should increase further as we improve).

Been saying it all season, but I really do think he has everything needed to be a top class centre forward. I don't think you could get a more perfect front man to make this sytem work. People will say what about Torres etc. But the vital need for Robin to link with team mates, spot runners and bring others into play rules out almost every single top 'striker' out there. If Robin can really get his movment and finishing up to the next level I think he'll become one of the best in the world.

It's actually quite amazing how quickly he has adapted and got his head around playing such a different (and challenging) role. Wenger knew he was made for it I think.

 

[Captain]

VanPersie is a better player than Torres and was always suited to playing as a point man.

 

[Captain]

Well you gave a 'special mention' to Theo but only mentioned that Bendtner lost the ball a few times when he was every bit as good, if not better than Theo in his cameo.

Swings and roundabouts, different people see different things.

Bendtner scored a good goal, but missed a huge chance, and took too much time on the ball. Yeah, it's only my opinion.

Theo deserves a special mention because his return was great, and I think he is going to fill that RW role in the first team, so we'll need him on form. Also, his finish was very calm, if he keeps it up he'll score many.

Theo missed a huge chance too because he took too much time on the ball. :|

 

[True Gooner]

His movement has improved out of all recognition in the last few games. The thing I'm loving most is that now we actually have a proper midfield who can create space for him, is that he now gets to unleash the left foot a little more (and should increase further as we improve).

That's one thing which we didn't have while we had Adebayor leading the line. I'm not too sure whether it was because we didn't have the likes of Rosicky regularly available for us or whether Adebayor's style of play forced us to go down that route but with van Persie as the....floating forward (I've created a new term!)....we don't break down into a primitive battering ram attacking a box full of players. Blackburn definitely wanted to sit deep but van Persie dragged Givet and Chimbonda out while Arshavin and Rosicky pegged their fullbacks back which left a nice little gap for Fabregas to exploit see goal number three.

Been saying it all season, but I really do think he has everything needed to be a top class centre forward. I don't think you could get a more perfect front man to make this sytem work. People will say what about Torres etc. But the vital need for Robin to link with team mates, spot runners and bring others into play rules out almost every single top 'striker' out there. If Robin can really get his movment and finishing up to the next level I think he'll become one of the best in the world.

Bold claim but not too far off the truth. Torres, Eto'o, Drogba and Villa are a different sort of forward and while their all strikers I think van Persie's role in the team is completely different to any of them. He's a lot more like Rooney imo and he's definitely in the top three at what he does.

Also, looking back at van Persie's goalscoring record (a goal every other game) almost all of his goals have been vital goals that either tie or win games which is incredibly useful. I'm actually surprised that he's still not scored a hattrick for us.

 

[ricky1985]

Your first point is a really interesting one mate. We don't seem to be struggling with the 'parked buses' anymore - ironically our 'Plan B' for those situations was supposed to be Adebayor, but we didn't have the right players to make that way work. Surely it's no coincidence that now we suddenly have a striker up front who has both world class technique and extremely clever movement, that we're finding space in the final third much, much easier to come by?

He's definitely very Rooney, Rooney couldn't play the role in this team though. Robin may not be strong relative to his size, but he's still 6'2" and a physical presence, something Rooney definitely isn't. Like I said I think Robin has the lot. Ibrahimovic would probably be the perfect comparison, and exactly what I see Robin becoming - maybe even better, who knows?

 

[True Gooner]

Ibrahamovic...good shout. I'd agree with that.

I personally rate RvP over Rooney but I think Ibrahamovic is the best of the lot.

Also, I don't think Rooney's playing that role any more, he's starting to play like a number 10 nowadays but RvP's basically doing what Rooney did during 07/08.

 

[ricky1985]

Ibra is definitely a level up from Rooney and Van Persie at the moment - hopefully Robin can change that, he definitely has the required ability.