Arsenal v. Huddersfield - ratings and discussion

[SA Gunner]

Btw, how good is Song? Its actually a bit of a concern how much better defensively he is than any othe midfielder in our team.

Ill say this, if we lose Song we are finished.

Horrendous performance, a special mention of Denilson, Diaby and Chamakh, who added no value whatsoever.

Standout performances on the day include Cesc, Arshavin, Koscielny.

Ratings.

Almunia - 5 Good shot stopper, but thats all there is to him.

Eboue - 5
Squillaci - 3 No comment
Koscielny - 6
Gibbs - 5

Denilson - 3
Diaby - 4
Nasri - 5

Arshavin - 6
Chamakh - 4
Bendtner - 5

Subs:

Fabregas - 7
Rosicky - 5
Song - 7

 

[jerome2158]

just now watching the match (it was on too early for me)

And it seems everyone is just simply playing terribly. Our team seems to be completely different team in the cups as opposed to the premier league.

Arsh and Bendtnder need to start hitting their chances. Both played relatively decently, but couldn't finish.

Defense isn't bad overall. Could be better though, as usual.

And I assume I'm not the only one who's heart sank when i saw almunia?

 

[Arai]

Almunia - 4.5 - Bad positioning + lack of communication in the area but kept us in the game.

Eboue - 5 - Dribble, dribble and dribble but no end product
Kos - 6 - Decent. Had to cover both CB role during Jogging boy as partner
Squid- 2 - Back from injury but can't be so bad against the side like HT..
Gibbs - 3 - Need to work out with his defensive duties...

2 D's - 3 - Do they deserve in the team anymore? - Only as a back up
Rosicky - 5 - Trying his best but....

Bendtner - 6- He scored a goal but miss a number of opportunities..
Chamakh - 5- Buck up man ! Struggle to coup as a lone striker?
Shava - 6 - Might be the best performance for very long time...

Cesc - 7.0 - He make the difference!...
Song - 6.0
Nasri - n/a - Played for only 35 minutes...

 

[fabo]

Eboue literally is braindead in the final third, doesn't have a clue. He routinely takes 2 or 3 players out of the game with his pace but never does the right thing afterwards.

And we need to keep Diaby away from the team vs Barcelona.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

just now watching the match (it was on too early for me)

And it seems everyone is just simply playing terribly. Our team seems to be completely different team in the cups as opposed to the premier league.

Arsh and Bendtnder need to start hitting their chances. Both played relatively decently, but couldn't finish.

Defense isn't bad overall. Could be better though, as usual.

And I assume I'm not the only one who's heart sank when i saw almunia?

I'd say this happened when Nasri got injured.

 

[sammy89]

Just watched 'City of God.' Unbelievable that Denilson could come from a place like that and be such a softie on the ball!

 

[mrsvanpersie]

Great film but not all Brazilians live like that and not all of Brazil is like that.

Just watched some highlights of the game - Denilson was poor but Clattenburg was shocking.

 

[Shue]

Great film but not all Brazilians live like that and not all of Brazil is like that.

Denilson is from there.

 

[ricky1985]

Had a couple of last minute free tickets thrown my way, quite a strange atmosphere over there today. I felt we started the first half really well. Moved the ball really quickly and looked like we could open them up with ease. Then the sending off came, which looked a ridiculous decision from where I was sitting, and we went to pieces for a while, well, until Mr. Cesc Fabregas entered the fray. He was incredible, what a player and what a man!

I thought Almunia, Koscielny, and Arshavin were pretty decent. Squillaci, Eboue(!), Gibbs, Denilson, Diaby, and Chamakh were truly awful. Although Gibbs did have a very good last 20 minutes or so. Song, Rosicky, and Bendtner were okay-ish.

Anyway, we got the win, so that's what counts, but boy do we have some real clumpers in this squad that need selling in the summer.

Nasri's injury has been coming for a while. I've felt for a few weeks that he's lost that sharpness and explosiveness he had earlier in the season, and really needed a good rest. Well I suppose he'll get it now, but not how we all wanted. We'll miss him badly against Barca.

 

[There is light]

Brazil or no brazil, i can definitely pump some bullets in denilson, good for nothing.

 

[Y va marquer]

Open to correction but according to UNICEF statistics, about 42% of Brazilian children live in poverty, with between 6 to 8 million children living on the streets.
Sure not all Brazilian's live in these circumstances but a substantial minority do, and as far as I know Denilson did.

Though it may be over simplifying things to expect him to be rough and tough just because of his background.

 

[irishgunnerz]

Think rating Al as 4 or 5 is very harsh tbh. Thought he did well considering how long its been since he played a first team game. One great stop in the second half. Wouldve given him 6.5 or 7 tbh

Diaby didn't look at all fit. Far too easily got brushed off for the goal. For a big guy he's pretty meek at times.

Andrei actually put in a decent shift work wise today. Nothing really came off but he put in a hell of alot of effort so he gets kudos for that improvement at least.

Thought Kos looked quite solid. The partnership with Squillachi just doesnt work though, not through any fault of Kos imo.

Gibbs was surprisingly average while Eboue had a few nice touches and got forward quite a bit (sadly with the sum total of zero output. Went on one pretty amazing run before panicing and doing SFA)

Team as a whole was quite average today. Started game strongly but faded pretty quickly. Best that can be said is that we're through and on paper have an easy next round

 

[mrsvanpersie]

Great film but not all Brazilians live like that and not all of Brazil is like that.

Denilson is from there.

Yeeeah I kind of got that...

 

[There is light]

To be fair though, Denilson is more like the narrator of city of God, the honest guy. Maybe too naive, somewhat lesser talented and a lot less intelligent than him.

 

[Y va marquer]

Regardless of where Denilson came from I think at this stage even Wenger must see that he's going nowhere here?

He was dreadful today.

 

[mrsvanpersie]

For a long time now, Denilson hasn't looked the part. It's a shame Ramsey is out on loan, as he could have done well in a game like today's, as opposed to this inept Brazilian.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

We all know Arsène's famous comments re "passport of players" (which were not only related to buying players I assume), therefore I don't think he gives a damn about Denilson's origin when it comes to judging his performances.

In the end he's an Arsenal player earning good money, so you would expect better from him, to put it kindly.

 

[Danni]

I was impressed with Arshavin today. I know that his end product is still below-par and he does lose the ball in positions he shouldn't, but he was one of the liveliest players on the pitch today - so I'll give him credit for that. He ran at the FB, and actually went past his marker in a sprint race for the first time in months. He's going play a lot more football in the next few weeks with Nasri out, so hopefully we'll see him hit form.

Apart from the embarrassing Squillaci, arguably the worst player today was Denilson. He gave the ball away recklessly far too often, and his use of the ball was rather pathetic - a load of 5 yard side-ways passes. Not good enough, but I do wish him a speedy recovery. Now is not the time for injures (there never is to be honest).

 

[AnthonyG]

Not a great performance, but we did well to hang in there despite playing most of the game with between 8 1/2-10 men. Clattenburg was junk.

Almunia - not too bad all things considered
Eboue - generally rubbish; typically wasteful and clueless when it counts
Squid - sending-off was on the harsh side (and inconsistent if one considers McCombe's booking)
Koscielny - pretty good I thought
Gibbs - up and down day

Diaby - r-r-rusty
Denilson - truly awful, crap in fact; the weakest player ever to have played football. Ever.
Nasri - looked OK 'till he got injured doing something Denilson refuses to do: run

Bendtner - good, a couple of misses aside
Chamakh - never got going
Arshavin - better, but his shooting woes are getting boring now. Less twittering and blogging.

Rosicky - very good in my opinion. Strong.
Song - OK, but not a CB (aerially at least)
Cesc - good impact as you'd expect, including the stutter-pen