Ratings and post-match discussion vs the Renties

[yuvken]

Kain, Cudareli - liked your posts.
Gonner 88 - Fabsky 7, VP 7.5, all others at least 8? nice. I like the stuff you're on.
Squalli - if VP played a 9 tonight (and some others - no one got less than 8?) you'll have to use your 12's and 13's many times in the future. I know, the emotions. It's ok. But save your breath, you have many arsenal years ahaead.

Outlaw - how dare you give reasonable marks? but I would give Clichy a bit more.

Fabo - I'm not fazed by your lower scale. I know one person's 9 is another's 7. But I think (apart from Clichy - same with outlaw) you missed Theo. Have a look at him in the last 10 minutes of first half, and in the second and 3rd goals. Granted, Fabs was involved in all goals, but Theo's contribution is amazing: his awareness, quick reaction and thinking (football brains!) his speed, touches and movement, and brilliant finish. Also making Cashley his ***** gets at least 0.5 a point, even in stingy Fabo scale? seriously, arsenalist a bit for the 2nd and 3rd goals see what I'm saying.

After a good night sleep, woke up a bit dazed, and after a second it came to me: "it really happened" . Watched some replays, and still think Song was MOTM.
Also caught a kos moment (but really doesn't blight the entire performance), and thought (incredible as it may sound) Wilshere is actually underrated... this boy has real contribution in him in every part of the pitch. He's a great mix of amazing natural talent, fearless attitude and hunger.

I just want no anti-climax effect tomorrow. It's so close, it's like overtime.

Edit: It's great DJ can perform like this, but I think there's much exaggeration here, in that style:

Djourou 9 - Didn't do anything wrong.

well, that's not really true. He was immense, and perhaps merited even a 9, but he was not flawless. Just an example, in the scramble next to our goal he took a long time to clear, fluffed it not even outside the box, straight at Drogba, who immediately shot fiercely to goal - lucky for us it was blocked. (Arsenalist MoTD, 12:10).
Btw, just saw now that this last attempt by Rosicky (post, offside) was really notoffside. I was sure the call was right at first, but if you look at the frame song released the ball, it's one line.
This, the VP miss first half, Diaby, Nas (great save), and second Nas (great save) really could have been goals. How would we fare with 5 more? (that's for Squalkid ).

 

[fabo]

fabo, give it up - you passed 'boring' a long time ago. Save your paint pellets for our next loss.

People giving high ratings are blinded by a great result. There were very few stand-out performers - maybe I'd bump Djourou and Song to an 8/10 on reflection, but I stand by the rest. Song had his first good game in about a year.

Theo was poor up until that spell where we killed Chelsea. That can't go unnoticed. He was getting nothing out of Cole and looked clumsy.

Clichy was average as usual. He gives 110% all the time but makes so many basic errors which undermine his good work e.g completely misreading one high ball.

Jack continues to do just OK, expect alot more from him.

Nasri was excellent on the ball, the chip was world class but he also disappeared for spells.

RVP was average - missed a couple of chances, some good hold-up play.

Diaby and Rosicky were terrible when they came on.

As I said, the effort was excellent. There was intensity to our game which we sometimes lack in big matches. Chelsea actually remind me of us in 2005 post-United i.e shot.

Also Wenger deserves credit for setting up our side with Chelsea in mind, with Nasri on the left to help Clichy and Theo there to pin Cole back if nothing else, put doubts in his mind.

 

[Y va marquer]

Great call by Wenger starting Dj instead of Squillaci.
He'obviously taken notice of what the AM has being saying.
Do we finally have a CB who can contain Drogba?
Looked that way last night!
MOTM for me.
We dominated possession with accurate passing at pace - we looked confident and in control throughout, that's just an example of the potential in this team.
If we can keep this up and improve we'll be challenging on many fronts.
Consistency is what we need.
Confidence should be high after this game but the effort must be the same for every game starting at Wigan.
How good is it feeling this pleased after a game against Chelsea?!

 

[yuvken]

Theo was poor up until that spell where we killed Chelsea. That can't go unnoticed. He was getting nothing out of Cole and looked clumsy.

Your other (rather sensible) claims aside, you do realize people who read you based on your reputation may think twice after such cheap talk? It is really a good thing not to be carried away and swayed by the mob's euphoria. It's great to keep it authentic and call it as you see it.
But that's not what you are doing now, you're just calling it cheap. Have another look at the replays, for Bergkamp's sake.

Edit: btw, Rosicky played about 10 seconds, and planted the ball in the post after a great run (that was wrongly called off side - perhaps he even heard it before shooting). Apart from that he was running and defending like a mad man - which is all we wanted, really. Diaby, admittedly, was out of sorts (but I still liked having his tall figure against chelsea's only route to goal).

 

[sabret00the]

Fabianski - 7 - Solid performance
Sagna - 6 - Solid defensively, however poor going forward
Djourou - 8 - Was a monster, should've never been dropped
Koscielny - 6 - Has work to do on his game, but was solid
Clichy - 7 - Surprised me with how solid he was
Song - 7 - Done his job well, nothing to complain about
Wilshere - 8 - Drove us forward well, was integral in the run-in
Fabregas - 9 - Probably the best I've seen him in a while. It was a solid performance that ticked all the boxes of a B2BCM
Nasri - 6 - Largely anonymous
van Persie - 7 - Despite not being at his strongest over the top, put in a shift for us.
Walcott - 9 - My MOTM. We looked horrible as soon as he went and it only got worse as we took Robin and Fabregas off. This is where the issues of our team really showed and what surprises me when I see people giving Song MOTM, but all in all, MOTM for me. It was a match made for him.

 

[Lord Dula]

If we continue to press the ball like that we will do well

 

[yuvken]

Agree, that's the key.

But still, wouldn't want us to go back to "we do what we do" - a game plan for each game.
Including how we apply the pressure.

 

[fabo]

Yuvken, I'll trust your judgement and rewatch Theo's display. But as you say, people have different standards/criteria when rating players - a 9/10 for me would be deserved if Theo played well throughout the 90 minutes AND had that productive spell second half, or simply scored 2/3 goals.

If we erased that 5 minute spell in the second half I probably would have given Theo a 5 or a 6. His overall game still leaves alot to be desired, I really expected to see his general play at a higher level at this point in his career. Though I agree with Sabre that he could have been even more useful later on, once Chelsea looked stretched - I would have left him on.

 

[fabo]

One thing I will say about Theo, his finishing has gone up another level this season. Last night's goal, the one at Blackburn and also Shakhtar were top drawer.

 

[Gooner_Stu]

Nasri didnt play as well as his performances in recent months (not that he was bad) but he was playing down the left last night rather then the right side which im fairly sure all his good performances have come. But it made sense to play him there, unlike Arshavin, Samir will help out at the back for Clichy and against Chelsea its whats required. It wouldnt suprise me to see this team playing against Barca in February.

Tactically, we did what Sunderland did, and not allow them time on the ball, very impressed that we kept up the pace of closing them down through the match. More of it would be nice (against Barca especially). Not happy we gave away so many cheap freekicks but its water under the bridge.

Top class performance by the team. Sure, Chelsea had some moments and a chunk of possesion, but a team of that calibre always will. Song was my MotM but DJ could easily have taken it.

 

[celestis]

The pressure we put them under through our pressing in the first 50 mins or so resulted in those two goals in the 2nd half . Was great to watch and hope we build on that .

Those goals reminded me of the 2001-2005 arsenal where Vieira would cause turnovers slip it through to the race horses to score .

 

[russkiegooner]

Fabianski - 6. Not much to do really with one shot on target.

Sagna - 8. Good both when defending and going forward.
Djourou - 9. Brilliant throughout. I was sceptical about him in the past but yesterday he was faultless. Impeccable in the air, good on the ground and amazing game reading, particularly for his age.
Kos - 6. Not bad, but lost Ivanovic for the goal and his imprecise passing at times might have been costly with a Chelsea in better shape.
Clichy - 6. Better than usual but still made a couple of errors, some of which might have been punished.

Song - 9. MOTM. Hard call between him and Djourou but I'd select Alex as my MOTM because I reckon that this game was won in the middle of the park first of all. He was everywhere: defended, attacked, scored...
Wilshere - 6. His passing was off at times but nice effort overall and didn't look bullied by the Chelski midfield.
Cesc - 8. Can't argue with a goal and two assists but his passing was far from its habitual quality. Too many balls lost for a player of his level.

Nasri - 6. Apart from the awesome shot in the first half deflected by Cech, not much from him last night, I thought. Also bottled the chance offered on a plate by Kukuta. Looks a bit jaded and needs a rest, in my view.
Theo - 8. Horrible first 30 minutes but came to life afterwards and was extremely effective.
RVP - 5. Disappointing. Not there yet and needs more game time.

Subs

Diaby - 7. Looked lively but should have acted quicker to shoot on target when having his chance.
Chamakh - 6. All right-ish. Did what was expected from him without too much fuss.
Rosicky - N/A.

Very happy with the result, of course. Props to Wenger for good coaching and to the team for great spirit. Chelsea were quite poor though, it must be admitted.

 

[sabret00the]

Regarding Nasri, hilariously even Paddy Power slash his odds against big teams as he's notoriously anonymous against em. It's actually OK though, he'll more than make up for it against Wigan. Hat-trick?

 

[flobaba]

About Theo: It's obvious his natural game is less running at defenders with the ball, than it is making dangerous runs off the shoulder of the last defender. He's totally brilliant at those and I'd like to see us utilize his pace and movement more and more in that manner, rather than as a 'traditional' (get to the byline and cross) winger.

 

[Iloveyouarsenewenger]

I think, Nasri's anonymity had more to do with the fact that he was playing in the left side with Clichy instead of the right side with Sagna.

Shifting Theo to left would be a good idea but it looks like Theo has finally got a great hang of the angles he manages to get from the right side and is unbelievable in finishing from somewhat similar positions. It will be interesting to see how he finishes from the left side.

 

[ricky1985]

Nasri wasn't anonymous, he nearly scored 3 goals. He was a big part in our performance and victory, even if you disregard some of his excellent link-play and passing, the mere fact that Chelsea were so worried about him that they gave one of the their midfielders the job of doubling up with the fullback on him, meant it opened up space for the likes of Fabregas to exploit more centrally. They were terrified of him, and when you see what he did to Ferreira whenever he got him one-on-one you can see exactly why - the stupendous pace Nasri showed to kill Ferreira and get to the byline in the first half springs to mind straight away.

 

[Iloveyouarsenewenger]

Actually, Nasri was very good when he got the ball and got involved in the play. But, he did not get involved in the play as often as we would have liked him to, given that he beat Ferreira for fun every time he touched the ball.

 

[flobaba]

Song's best performance by miles in an Arsenal shirt. Apart from the goal, he was totally immense! Almost always kept the ball perfectly, and chose the simple passes to the more technical/creative players, allowing them to do their thing and helped us to keep possession much better than we usually do, so Chelsea's chances to intercept the ball and break away were very few.

He's a slippery mofo too with his ability to twist and turn away when facing his own post and being put under pressure (If I were ricky, I'd say he's only second to Xavi, and just ahead of Iniesta with that skill )

Re Nasri: He might not have been outstanding (aka didn't score that one chance), but he was totally instrumental in our ability to keep the ball and used it intelligently each and every time he got it, which was essential to yesterday's victory. That cannot and should not be understated.

 

[Gonner_88]

Gonner 88 - Fabsky 7, VP 7.5, all others at least 8? nice. I like the stuff you're on.

What can I say I am easily pleased

 

[outlaw_member]

fabo, give it up - you passed 'boring' a long time ago. Save your paint pellets for our next loss.

People giving high ratings are blinded by a great result. There were very few stand-out performers - maybe I'd bump Djourou and Song to an 8/10 on reflection, but I stand by the rest. Song had his first good game in about a year.

Theo was poor up until that spell where we killed Chelsea. That can't go unnoticed. He was getting nothing out of Cole and looked clumsy.

Clichy was average as usual. He gives 110% all the time but makes so many basic errors which undermine his good work e.g completely misreading one high ball.

Jack continues to do just OK, expect alot more from him.

Nasri was excellent on the ball, the chip was world class but he also disappeared for spells.

RVP was average - missed a couple of chances, some good hold-up play.

Diaby and Rosicky were terrible when they came on.

As I said, the effort was excellent. There was intensity to our game which we sometimes lack in big matches. Chelsea actually remind me of us in 2005 post-United i.e shot.

Also Wenger deserves credit for setting up our side with Chelsea in mind, with Nasri on the left to help Clichy and Theo there to pin Cole back if nothing else, put doubts in his mind.

I don't really disagree with your descriptions, even though your ratings are lower than mine. Only Song and Djourou were really great. Everyone else, including Cesc and Walcott were very good, good, or decent. A great team performance does not mean that every player was top class. All too often I see it on here, where the team performed brilliantly as a whole, but the general ratings suggest that so was every individual. I mean, Fabianski for instance got a 7 from many, even though the guy did very little in the game.