Arsenal vs. Milan - Player ratings

[Sammer]

Here we go:

Jens 8 - Faultless, calm and using all his experience.One great reflex save in the first half. That throw to Adebayer afterwards was something

Sagna 7 - solid, but for obvious reasons not playing to his full potential

Senderos 9 - faultless, great early tackles and superb positioning. My MOTM

Clichy 7.5 - Solid, some good crosses

Gallas 6.5 - ok, but his positioning seemed a bit erratic at times

Eboue 8 - great game from Eboue. Besides that one dive, very good

Fabregas 8 - vast improvement to the last games. Some superb long-range passes and good vision, as well as defensive work

Flamini 7.5 - the usual steam engine. Vital to our game

Hleb 6.5 - average game from him, decent, but none of the defense-slicing attacking moves or passes which we are used to

Eduardo 4.5 - wasteful. Not his game, couldn't do a thing right in my view and rightly came off.

Adebayor 5 - nothing worked for him. The horrible miss in the 90th minute summed it all up.

Subs:

Walcott - hard to rate, but definately a great cross to Adebayor

Bendtner - 5 - no impact.

 

[banduan]

What are ya talking about? Hleb was immense on both halves.

 

[bojed]

Phil - where were Pato, Kaka and Gilardino? In phil's watch pocket.

Shows that a brain, calmness, aerial prowess, determination, tight marking, good tackling ability and positional awareness will always be enough to compensate your lack of speed as a defender.

MOtM.

 

[Sammer]

What are ya talking about? Hleb was immense on both halves.

Relax.

He was good defensively, but he wasn't as effective and sharp in attack as we are used to.

That's what I'm talking about.

 

[Clrnc]

Jens 9 - What a game for Jens. He set up so many attack for our team its unbelievable. he kept us in the game early on with a superb save against maldini, and then threw the ball to the other goal for adebayor. gosh. what a throw.

Sagna 8 - fantastic last night. searched forward everytime he could and towards the end he just kept running and had plenty of crosses. his brother and all arsenal fans are proud of him.

Toure N.A - i think he had a dead leg. should come back this week.

Clichy 7.5 - Played well. I was watching abidal in the other match and if clichy's crosses were better, he could jolly well be the best leftback in the world.

Gallas 7 - played decent enough, certainly a much needed improvement from the manure game. the way he was shouting at the team before the match was something. he motivated the whole team up. could he be the best ever captain we had?

Eboue 8.5 - great game from eboue. the tricks he showed sometimes was quality. there was a few moment when he just took the ball and burst threw the whole milan midfield

Fabregas 8.5 - when we needed the improvement from him, we got it. he controlled the whole midfield and provided some superb passes to ade.

Flamini 8 - outshined gattuso, and i mean totally.

Hleb 8 - dazzled the milan defence with his skills and surprise through balls

Eduardo 6 - showed some decent controls, but was quite unlucky with some of his shots and passes. he is too one legged imo.

Adebayor 6.5 - he worked extremely hard and led the line alone. however, he was darn unlucky. how did he missed that header?

Subs
Senderos 9.5 - what a ****ing excellent game from big phil. he has always been excellent in CL.

Walcott 7 - came on and immediately had a great impact. in only 6 minutes, he had shown his worth. what a ball to ade.

Bendtner 6 - cant do much

 

[banduan]

What are ya talking about? Hleb was immense on both halves.

Relax.

He was good defensively, but he wasn't as effective and sharp in attack as we are used to.

That's what I'm talking about.

Mate, he and Cesc wrecked their defence in the second half.

 

[Zico]

I have to go with Banduan. Hleb was playing football from another planet. My views:

Lehmann : 8
- commanded his area. throw to Ade was one of only two good long balls we had all night.


Toure : incomplete

Senderos : 8
- had a top night. one pass went awry, but he completely shut out Pato.

Gallas : 7
- largely composed. was a bit too adventurous for my liking, but I guess he realised Milan weren't likely to attack much.

Clichy : 7
- a big step-up from Traore. The kid just blew past Oddo on a few occasions, and stopped Milan attacks on his flank.

Sagna : 7
- was adventurous, able to thread passes from right flank

Flamini : 9
- becoming the soul of this Arsenal team. He took Kaka out of the game, and was still able to contribute offensively. That shoulder fake/turn in the Milan box was exceptional.

Fabregas : 8
- had the other good long ball. great work rate, played with a lot of freedom and put himself in dangerous areas.

Eboue : 8
- played like the man he can be. can't complain about the tumble that earned a yellow card. aggressive.

Hleb : 9
- i always feel like Hleb is a slow player, but his ability to blow past defenders is stunning. this guy is our biggest big game player right now.

Eduardo : 5
- a real lump. that shot that went to the corner flag summed up his woeful night.

Adebayor : 6
- isolated. We wasted time in first half with longballs to him. We should've built with carpet football. Was let down by poor service, a spotty first touch, and the inability to head down a ball on the goal line. Worked hard though.

Wenger : 7
Organised his team well. Was brave enough to attack, and still got defensive commitment. He should've prevented his charges from sending hundreds of longballs to Ade. We were just turning over the ball. Kept Eduardo on for too long although we were short on options. Might've been worth bringing on Walcott earlier to finish off an Oddo who'd been run ragged by Clichy.

 

[Sammer]

What are ya talking about? Hleb was immense on both halves.

Relax.

He was good defensively, but he wasn't as effective and sharp in attack as we are used to.

That's what I'm talking about.

Mate, he and Cesc wrecked their defence in the second half.

Cesc did, his passing was superb - Hleb didn't to full extend and by his standards (which are pretty damn high), he played below par. I am a big fan of Hleb. But last night was not his best game. I'll stick with that.

 

[banduan]

We could have destroyed them.

The papers are all praising the Milan defence, but the fact is we destroyed their defence but we let them off the hook.

Cesc and Hleb both had great games, and with Eboue and Flams also doing well they were prising their defence apart. The only issue is that they're not taking on enough shots- not just Hleb, both of them.

Maldini has tired legs now and Eboue and Walcott both took advantage of that.

But in front of goal, we were blatantly wasteful.

Edu was having an awful game, and was our worst player by far. He did look better on the defence though.

So many times we either shot straight at the keeper, just wide/over or hit shots with no pace.

Ade missed a sitter- hadn't done that a while but he'd worked hard enough and was good enough on the ball.

Flamini's thunderous shots went missing and instead tepid little shots were fired. He did combine well defensively with Cesc though.

Phil had Pato in his pocket, but took risks to do so, breaking our offside trap and putting their wingers on side. Smart play nevertheless as even though it was risky, he got most of the right tackles in. Yet another clean sheet for him- and later on even took on the mighty Kaka and won almost every time!

Gallas moved forward earlier on a little too often, and doesn't seem to work well with Phil. Seemed surprised at seeing Phil in their penalty box during a corner for some strange reason.

Sagna was having a good game because Eboue was finally reading him better. The latter still has the tendency to do outrageous hospital balls. Both helped Phil a lot v Pato and Kaka.

Clichy had a handful handling their wingers and Pato, who was everywhere and is super-freaking fast.

Bendtner made up for Edu's poor link play but introduced defensive problems and was himself wasteful. Keep a calm head and take a touch first Nikky!

Theo was brilliant when he was on. He should have come on for Eboue a lot sooner as we really needed someone who could take a shot better.

Edit: Forgot Flam, he was brutally efficient. Great game from him. Edit2: Except for his shooting lol.

A mixed game. Don't know what else to conclude but that we can beat them if we add finishing to yet another display as this.

 

[Asterix]

Touré N.A - i think he had a dead leg. should come back this week.

According to Wenger he could be out for 3-4 weeks. When do we play Chelsea? Could be reeeeeally thin by then if we get any more defensive injuries.

 

[Sammer]

Touré N.A - i think he had a dead leg. should come back this week.

According to Wenger he could be out for 3-4 weeks. When do we play Chelsea? Could be reeeeeally thin by then if we get any more defensive injuries.

At this point, I am actually more worried about our fullbacks. If Gallas stays fit, and both Clichy and Sagna play, I am not too worried, even thouhg losing Kolo for some weaks is a blow.

The real worry would be Traore and/or Hoyte...

 

[the dawn raids]

see match thread.

 

[Clrnc]

Touré N.A - i think he had a dead leg. should come back this week.

According to Wenger he could be out for 3-4 weeks. When do we play Chelsea? Could be reeeeeally thin by then if we get any more defensive injuries.

At this point, I am actually more worried about our fullbacks. If Gallas stays fit, and both Clichy and Sagna play, I am not too worried, even thouhg losing Kolo for some weaks is a blow.

The real worry would be Traore and/or Hoyte...

so that shot did his groin? weird.

i am confident big phil can do the job well. but if another defender gets injured we are ****ed big time, wingbacks or center

 

[lagos]

Here we go:

Jens 8 - Faultless, calm and using all his experience.One great reflex save in the first half. That throw to Adebayer afterwards was something

Sagna 7 - solid, but for obvious reasons not playing to his full potential

Senderos 9 - faultless, great early tackles and superb positioning. My MOTM

Clichy 7.5 - Solid, some good crosses

Gallas 6.5 - ok, but his positioning seemed a bit erratic at times

Eboue 8 - great game from Eboue. Besides that one dive, very good

Fabregas 8 - vast improvement to the last games. Some superb long-range passes and good vision, as well as defensive work

Flamini 7.5 - the usual steam engine. Vital to our game

Hleb 6.5 - average game from him, decent, but none of the defense-slicing attacking moves or passes which we are used to

Eduardo 4.5 - wasteful. Not his game, couldn't do a thing right in my view and rightly came off.

Adebayor 5 - nothing worked for him. The horrible miss in the 90th minute summed it all up.

Subs:

Walcott - hard to rate, but definately a great cross to Adebayor

Bendtner - 5 - no impact.

I'd go with most of that except

Eduardo who I thought linked up well and deserved better than a 4.5 probably a 6

Walcott Id give him a 7, he wasnt on for long but made his presence felt in that period

I would have loved to give Ade a 6 for his overall play, but that miss right at the end means I stick on 5


Special mention to Lehman, Eboue and Big Phil who were all outstanding

 

[gunnerGH]

Jens - 6
Sagna - 6
Gallas - 6
Senderos - 7
Clichy - 6
Eboue - 6
Hleb - 7
Fabregas - 6
Flamini - 7
Ade - 6
Edu - 6


Bendtner - 6

 

[Rohit]

Jens - 6
Sagna - 6
Gallas - 6
Senderos - 7
Clichy - 6
Eboue - 6
Hleb - 7
Fabregas - 6
Flamini - 7
Ade - 6
Edu - 6


Bendtner - 6

They weren't that bad.

 

[dutchMasta]

Jens 7.5 (Great game, one amazing throw, one great save, and dealt with everything comfortably though some wasteful kicks)
Sagna 7 (Some decent crosses and defending, but didn't seem as comfortable as before, but completely acceptable given what supposedly happened, still our best RB by far)
Senderos 9 (Stopped almost everything, if not everything)
Clichy 7.5 (Average at start but grew into it, being solid defensively and some great storming runs and decent crosses)
Gallas 6.5 (Good, but Senderos ran the show at the back)
Eboue 8 (Stormed past them, and had some great balls into the box and his first touch/dribbling was impressive, though I still feel Rosicky would've done more)
Fabregas 8 (Hopefully this signals the return of what he really can do, great passing and efforts on goal)
Flamini 8 (Kaka WPOY struggled against him, as did everyone else, beast of a game)
Hleb 8 (Hassled Pirlo and delivered offensively, great ball to Ade to split the defense though Ade's pass to Cesc sucked)
Eduardo 5 (Didn't contribute much)
Adebayor 5.5 (A threat, but his end product/touch at times was soooo disappointing)

Walcott N/A (Great cross, instant impact, but should've been brought on a bit earlier, never thought I would've been saying that in this match!)
Bendtner 5 (Didn't do much)

 

[Macho]

I thought Hleb was very good defensively but attacking..meh.
Also, whats up with Clichy? everytime he got the ball he just hoofed it. Never looked. Always early cross. why? Defensively sound though.
Flamini + Senderos were superb in my opinion.
Ade was disapointing for me. He did have his work cut out for him but still.
O yeh, lol @ Bendtner.

 

[clockwork orange]

Jens - 8
Sagna 7
Gallas 7
Senderos 8
Clichy 7
Eboue 7
Flaimini 8
Cesc 7.5
Hleb 8 MOTM
Eduardo 5
Ade 5

 

[Gooner_Stu]

Jens - 7.5
Sagna - 7.5
Gallas - 7
Senderos - 8
Clichy - 7
Eboue - 7.5 (aghh still cant shoot)
Hleb - 8
Fabregas - 8
Flamini - 9
Ade - 6
Edu - 6

Bendtner - 6
Walcott - n/a (8 for the cross though)