Player Ratings - PL: West Ham United vs Arsenal | 29/09/07

[Jameel46]

Almunia - 6.5
Sagna - 7.5
Toure - 7
Senderos - 7
Clichy - 7
Hleb - 7
Fabregas - 7
Flamini - 8
Diaby - 7
van Persie - 7
Adebayor - 7

Eboue - 6
Gilberto - 6
Bendtner - n/a

 

[-Shaun-]

Starting 11:

Almunia 7 (Solid game)
Sagna 7 (Composed at the back)
Toure 7.5 (Leader of defence)
Senderos 6 (Shaky, again)
Clichy 7.5 (Good game)
Hleb 7.5 (Creative)
Fabregas 6.5 (Not up to his own standards)
Flamini 8.5 (Superb)
Diaby 8 (Played well)
Van Persie 8.5 (Nice goal)
Adebayor

Substitutions:

Eboue 6 (Failed to make an impact)
Gilberto 6 (Helped the defence late-on)
Bendtner N/A (Only had a couple of minutes on the pitch)

 

[ricky1985]

My Rating's;

Almunia - 7. Didn't do anything wrong but we really miss Lehmans bravery when crosses are whipped in. Almunia is a great shot-stopper, but doesn't command the box.

Sagna - 8. Made a couple of brilliant tackles, and a couple of life-saving headers. If you take him out and put any of our other right backs in his place we would have conceded at least two goals yesterday. Says it all really.

Clichy - 7. Was solid but let a couple of crosses come in that Sagna simply wouldn't have allowed. Put in two or three very decent crosses, Ade needs to start attacking them more.

Toure - 8. Very good game, made some great tackles. Had to cover Senderos which didn't help.

Senderos - 5. Very poor game. I thought Ashton completed dominated him. He is billed as being great in the air, but he lost every header. Weak as **** in the tackle as well.

Hleb - 8. Brilliant cross for the goal. We missed him badly when he was cruelly incapacitated by that dirty w*anker Noble.

Diaby - 7. Very incisive with his running and on another day could have had another goal to add to his tally. Linked well with Clichy.

Fabregas - 6. Anonimity from the little magician. He really had a average game. Didnt impose himself on the midfield, and badly missed Hleb when he went off.

Flamini - 7. I thought he played well. Everyone seems to be hailing his performance which is fair enough, but I feel this game really showed why we miss the presence of Patrick Vieira. He passed well, and pressurised everyone but I felt his lack of power meant he didnt actually win the ball back that often, which put us under pressure.

Man Of The Match: Van Persie - 9. I think this season has finally started for Robin. I thought he was absolutely outstanding his link-up play was out of this world and some of his incisive passing was truly exceptional. Not to mention a brilliant header for the goal and forced a great save from Green to prevent another Arsenal contender for Goal of the season.

Adebayor - 6. Not great from Ade, he didnt put the defence under the pressure he has been of late. Like Fabregas just didnt impose himself on the game. Due it I suppose.


Thoughts on the game
I thought our midfield just didnt work. Fabregas badly missed Hleb, and Flamini for me just didnt have the physical presence to control midfield. Dont get me wrong I think he played really well, about as good as he can. He covered every blade of grass, and was in everones face (including Sagna's) but he isnt a great tackler and just plain isn't powerful enough. To me this game highlighted why the invincibles were so good.
Vieira would dominate allcomers in the midfield, with Gilberto sweeping up behind him. They would get the ball give it one of our danger men and we worked from that foundation.

I believe in our new team, if Fabregas is to impact these types of games that have a frenetic pace, aggressive opponents, and densely packed midfields then he needs a power-house along side him who can cover the ground Flamini does and win the ball back consistently, thus over-powering his immediate opponent. I hope Diarra can be that man.

On a side-note Senderos was truly shocking, he was Ashton's ***** for 90 mins. He lost every header and was bamboozled by Ashtons quick feet and even quicker brain on numerous occasions.
And Van Persie was supreme. I really cant understand the majority of people on here giving him 7, what do you guys want from him.
He scored a great goal, forced a world class save. Played at least 3 great through balls, and his link-up and hold-up play was exceptional. He even worked hard to boot. He was as close as I ever seen to replicating Dennis Bergkamp yesterday. Awesome.

Sorry for the long post, just had some opinions I had to get out there. Would love to hear what people think about my take on Flamini, our midfield in general, and RvP because my view seems to differ to popular opinion.

 

[MDGoonah41]

Click here for the larger image

 

[Feanor]

Damn it, I missed my chance. Oh well, I'll have to be quicker next game.

 

[gstew]

Almunia 7
Sagna 7
Touré 7
Senderos 5.5 Sloppy
Clichy 7
Hleb 7
Fabregas 6
Flamini 8 MOTM
Diaby 6
van Persie 7
Adebayor 6

Eboue 6
Gilberto 6
Bendtner n/a

I was too late to give my ratings, but am very surprised by your rating of Diaby. I would have given him at least an 8 and I thought he was our MOTM. This was the best I have seen him play this season.