Everton 1 - 1 Arsenal: Still missing that spark

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:Well atleast WBA lost, and Chelsea tied. I really did not get these late substitution. I think someone had a;lready mentioned this but, Arshavin, OX, heck... even Benayoun could have made the difference... Not sure why we did not buy him

True, but then again this was a chance to gain ground on them and we lost it, which is almost just as bad. I agree on the substitutions.

Anybody else want to see Cazorla out wide and Rosicky in Cazorla's current central spot when Rozza is back to full fitness? Dat creativity!

Probably the worst I've seen us play all season. At least with Villa, we kept the ball and tried to play up field. We got absolutely pwned by Everton today. Couldn't keep the ball, players kept fcking up easy passes, finishing was lacklustre. The on screen stats had us with 55% possession to which i say the statistician should be sacked for gross negligence because there is NO WAY we had more possession today

Back line was fairly solid today (if a little erratic) Sir Szczesny had little to do bar a spectacular reaction save to a point blank header. Mertesacker kept Fellaini relatively quiet while Verm and Gibbs did nothing wrong. Sagna, of all people, was a disappointment, summed up by his mistake costing us a goal

Wilshere was solid, Cazorla was tired, Ramsey was Ramsey (a mixture of and ) and Walcott looked to create chances but one man can't do it all. Giroud worked hard and tried to get on the end of everything and came within 5cm of scoring a header towards the end of the game

Overall, a draw seems fair for both parties but Everton could maybe be annoyed that they didn't come away with a win

Watched the retelecast..
Another poor performance.. Same as the Villa game.. Except that we were lucky to get a goal..
Our midfield and frontline was poor.. now becoming too usual..?
They marked Cazorla out of the game and pressed high in midfield.. But didnt do the same.. We were again happy to sit back and defend..
And our substitutions ? Wenger never uses them well.. Again nothing seemed happening.. But Wenger waited till 75th minute.. Not to forget that the best players with any chance of scoring were already in the pitch..

Sczeny - 7 solid game except for 1 or 2 moments late in the game.. Better distribution today..
Sagna - 6 good game.. Bossed his side.. Unlucky that his clearance resulted in a goal..
Metskr - 6.5 game.. Did well against the aerial threat..
Vermelen - 6 good game.. Will do his confidence good..
Gibbs - 6.5 decent game.. But needs to stop making blind crosses..
Arteta - 6 had a busy game.. Kept breaking their attacks..
Wilshere - 6 we never maintained possession in their half for him to show his offensive skills..
Cazorla - 5 was marked out of the game.. He didnt get enough space.. I feel he must involve more in a passing game and distribution than playing directly showing his skills..
Walcott - 6 lucky to score so early.. But didnt pose much of a threat later..
Ramsey - 5 handed another start again.. Same old performance and nothing new to mention.. A good assist..
Giroud - 5.5 didnt get any service.. But wasted the oppertunity by going for a wide cross rather than just putting it along the ground..
Gervinho - 5 an attacking sub at 73rd min ? We never looked a threat with or without him..

Lex wrote:Probably the worst I've seen us play all season. At least with Villa, we kept the ball and tried to play up field. We got absolutely pwned by Everton today. Couldn't keep the ball, players kept fcking up easy passes, finishing was lacklustre. The on screen stats had us with 55% possession to which i say the statistician should be sacked for gross negligence because there is NO WAY we had more possession today

Back line was fairly solid today (if a little erratic) Sir Szczesny had little to do bar a spectacular reaction save to a point blank header. Mertesacker kept Fellaini relatively quiet while Verm and Gibbs did nothing wrong. Sagna, of all people, was a disappointment, summed up by his mistake costing us a goal

Wilshere was solid, Cazorla was tired, Ramsey was Ramsey (a mixture of and ) and Walcott looked to create chances but one man can't do it all. Giroud worked hard and tried to get on the end of everything and came within 5cm of scoring a header towards the end of the game

Overall, a draw seems fair for both parties but Everton could maybe be annoyed that they didn't come away with a win

our possession this season is only attributed to the boring backpassing back into our half.. I am sure Metskr will be the biggest contributor to our possession.. We couldnt hold possession in the opposition half, which corresponds to the lack of creating chances, in all of the games this season (except against a 10man Spuds)
as said this is more of a tactical problem than the players problem.. We have to commit either to a possession style or direct style.. We are caught in no mans land..

I see some well merited criticism and frustration.

But in retrospect, this was a much better performance than at Villa.

Some bullets from me:

* Theo is the best finisher we have, but he still fades in and out. Maybe the ankle knock is an explanation. But that begs the question, why wasn't Alex brought on? Theo's passes and involvement stats show he was barely in the game after the goal.

* Ramsey worked his socks off, as always. He has come a long way since his injury and with over 120 appearances (including off the bench), at an age of 22, he doesn't deserve the criticism he gets. Ramsey is no Cesc, not many players at that age are in that level. For his age and experience, he is among the best out there. Imagine when he is at his peak a couple of years down the line! And who better than Rosicky, Arteta and Santi to help him get there! The excessive flicks and cute moves have to be ironed out though.

* Rosicky can't return soon enough to action. He is the only player we can rotate Cazorla with. And it will take time for him to understand Podolski and Giroud. No short term solution here.

* Chamakh, Santos, Arshavin - Good bye. Needless to say, replacements in January.

* Santi and Arteta both need a break. As usual, I expect a youthful side to go to Greece and get destroyed there. But with qualification secured, its a bullet for the greater good.

Villa and Everton away have been an eye-sore for me. Absolutely boring and lacking Any real sharpness. It's bizarre because at the start of the season, I actually thought this would be our year. I still felt we needed one more striker and an M'vila/De Jong player. But literally after the West Ham game, we haven't been the same

I dont really know how we have become a joke of team. I would say we are a mid-table team but if you watch any other mid-table team they will create chances and will fight but we just are clueless.

Everton have been shit latly and they still outplayed us, remember the days we would consider a tie vs Everton a loss? well now Everton are the ones who think that.

We were lucky to score a goal, we were dominated, if we were winning and got a point at Everton it would have been a real point but this to me was a loss.

We play boring football, our manager is lost, I cant blame any player I will point at Wenger for not doing *bleep* all about our situational. Wenger knew Diaby is made of glass and still went and sold Song.

If Song was here we would not have been playing this bad. The worst part is we will get worse, on Saturday we will play a good team and if they play with 11vs 11 the whole game we will lose.

I dont look forward Arsenal games anymore, its depressing to watch.
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Wenger - We have shown something special

“I am satisfied with the total commitment we have shown and the fact we at least came out with a point, which is a fair result,” he told Arsenal Player.

“I have some regrets because we were leading, and also because we had some opportunities in the second half to score.

“We missed a little bit of accuracy in our final ball, but overall to come away from here with a point you need something special spirit-wise and we have shown that.”

The Gunners have now gone six games without defeat, and Wenger is confident they will soon start to rise up the table.

“We have played 14 games, eight away from home and in some difficult places, so it is now down to us to win our home games and we will come back,” he said.

I have to agree with Wenger it was special.

Commitment was 100% though man. Huge credit to everton for their game plan.

people dont like this and call it poor excuse
but
couple of times Ramsey arrived in the box in which i thought pre-injury Ramsey would have scored or created goal(bar his assist)


Far from as bad as some willing to make

RealGunner wrote:Commitment was 100% though man. Huge credit to everton for their game plan.

The commitment is there but the team is not good enouph, we need help.

RG almost every team we have played has had a great game plan but we somehow never have one.

The only good games we have played this season was vs Liverpool and City.

Sina wrote:people dont like this and call it poor excuse
but
couple of times Ramsey arrived in the box in which i thought pre-injury Ramsey would have scored or created goal(bar his assist)


Far from as bad as some willing to make

I really dont remember Ramsey pre-injure being that good, look at Jack missed 18th months and came back the same. Ramsey is simply not good enouph for Arsenal to start.

Then clearly you never watched Aaron Ramsey a lot before he was injured.

he was sharper then
main thing missing is quick-thinking
he dwells on the ball
not sure why wenger doesnt alert him from that point

Sina wrote:he was sharper then
main thing missing is quick-thinking
he dwells on the ball
not sure why wenger doesnt alert him from that point

He needs to be loaned out, he is carrying a lot of pressure and Wenger is not helping by moving him different position every other game. He is trying too hard and is the reason he is slowing down and losing possession.

Stick him to one position and let him fight for it.

Can we get Song back on a loan?

stoke 2 points behind us
season review will be fun to watch in the end

Spoiler:

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nah let find new song from ligue un

Sina wrote:stoke 2 points behind us
season review will be fun to watch in the end

Spoiler:

--------------
nah let find new song from ligue un

I hope to god we never go to french league again. We becoming the next Liverpool so fast.
Finishing ahead of stoke,or Fulham sounds like a trophy to me.
Ribery and Benzema are the only ones Welcomed at Arsenal.

Carzola has to be dropped for the next game, he has just been poor and needs some time off.

We have overworked him and we cant take any chances, Wenger keeps sending him out there to save Arsenal and Wenger but we keep getting let down.

Wilson37 wrote:Watched the retelecast..
Another poor performance.. Same as the Villa game.. Except that we were lucky to get a goal..
Our midfield and frontline was poor.. now becoming too usual..?
They marked Cazorla out of the game and pressed high in midfield.. But didnt do the same.. We were again happy to sit back and defend..
And our substitutions ? Wenger never uses them well.. Again nothing seemed happening.. But Wenger waited till 75th minute.. Not to forget that the best players with any chance of scoring were already in the pitch..

Sczeny - 7 solid game except for 1 or 2 moments late in the game.. Better distribution today..
Sagna - 6 good game.. Bossed his side.. Unlucky that his clearance resulted in a goal..
Metskr - 6.5 game.. Did well against the aerial threat..
Vermelen - 6 good game.. Will do his confidence good..
Gibbs - 6.5 decent game.. But needs to stop making blind crosses..
Arteta - 6 had a busy game.. Kept breaking their attacks..
Wilshere - 6 we never maintained possession in their half for him to show his offensive skills..
Cazorla - 5 was marked out of the game.. He didnt get enough space.. I feel he must involve more in a passing game and distribution than playing directly showing his skills..
Walcott - 6 lucky to score so early.. But didnt pose much of a threat later..
Ramsey - 5 handed another start again.. Same old performance and nothing new to mention.. A good assist..
Giroud - 5.5 didnt get any service.. But wasted the oppertunity by going for a wide cross rather than just putting it along the ground..
Gervinho - 5 an attacking sub at 73rd min ? We never looked a threat with or without him..

Didn't watch this game, however, if the Arsenal played that bad and didn't really play well at all, shouldn't players have under 5 ratings? I mean, surely playing bad means not having a good enough game, no?

i thought raptor is exaggerating until i saw this

Arsenal have won just three of their last nine Premier League home games (W3 D4 L2) and two of those have been when the opposition have been reduced to 10 men.


so who Do you want to get sent off on sat
Michu or williams

Decent result. A good battling performance. We looked sharp all over the pitch, but we do have a problem. Favouritism.

Ratings:

Szczesney: Did well but flapped about a bit late on. Caused panic in the last few minutes:6
Gibbs: Decent game: 6
Sagna: Looked a bit leggy but worked hard. Made a few uncharactaristic errors but worked hard: 5
Kos: N/A
TV: Better. Looking like he's getting back to his old self: 6.5
Merty: Solid, but he does worry me with his stepping out: 6.5
Arteta: Good first half and a poor second one. This seems to be the story of his season: 6
Wilshere: Hardly noticed him: 5
Cazorla: Nice touches but went missing at times: 6
Walcott: He looks our best player. I'm not sure if I should be worried or delighted: 7
Giroud: His hold up play was poor. Surprising as it's been good so far. He did come close to scoring when he had no right to from a Theo cross: 5
Ramsey: Wtf?: 4 This favouritism could cost us. He's a good player but woefully out of form. What must Arshavin be thinking?


Happy with the result. The first true test for a while. The European game, the opponents were out. Spurs? We played 10 men for most of the game and Villa we rested key players.

Good result, good performance but Ramsey needs a rest. He's a liabilty at the moment.

free_cat wrote:

Wilson37 wrote:Watched the retelecast..
Another poor performance.. Same as the Villa game.. Except that we were lucky to get a goal..
Our midfield and frontline was poor.. now becoming too usual..?
They marked Cazorla out of the game and pressed high in midfield.. But didnt do the same.. We were again happy to sit back and defend..
And our substitutions ? Wenger never uses them well.. Again nothing seemed happening.. But Wenger waited till 75th minute.. Not to forget that the best players with any chance of scoring were already in the pitch..

Sczeny - 7 solid game except for 1 or 2 moments late in the game.. Better distribution today..
Sagna - 6 good game.. Bossed his side.. Unlucky that his clearance resulted in a goal..
Metskr - 6.5 game.. Did well against the aerial threat..
Vermelen - 6 good game.. Will do his confidence good..
Gibbs - 6.5 decent game.. But needs to stop making blind crosses..
Arteta - 6 had a busy game.. Kept breaking their attacks..
Wilshere - 6 we never maintained possession in their half for him to show his offensive skills..
Cazorla - 5 was marked out of the game.. He didnt get enough space.. I feel he must involve more in a passing game and distribution than playing directly showing his skills..
Walcott - 6 lucky to score so early.. But didnt pose much of a threat later..
Ramsey - 5 handed another start again.. Same old performance and nothing new to mention.. A good assist..
Giroud - 5.5 didnt get any service.. But wasted the oppertunity by going for a wide cross rather than just putting it along the ground..
Gervinho - 5 an attacking sub at 73rd min ? We never looked a threat with or without him..

Didn't watch this game, however, if the Arsenal played that bad and didn't really play well at all, shouldn't players have under 5 ratings? I mean, surely playing bad means not having a good enough game, no?

game was poor in the offensive sense.. And the reaction was because this is getting far too usual.. Not being able to create chances.. Our gk and defense did a good job.. It was our frontline and our attack who were poor and ineffective.. I guess 5 is a below average rating.. But there were no horrible mistakes or misses to give someone 3 or 4.. And afterall we played against good team in an away match..

furiouswindbottom wrote:Decent result. A good battling performance. We looked sharp all over the pitch, but we do have a problem. Favouritism.

Ratings:

Szczesney: Did well but flapped about a bit late on. Caused panic in the last few minutes:6
Gibbs: Decent game: 6
Sagna: Looked a bit leggy but worked hard. Made a few uncharactaristic errors but worked hard: 5
Kos: N/A
TV: Better. Looking like he's getting back to his old self: 6.5
Merty: Solid, but he does worry me with his stepping out: 6.5
Arteta: Good first half and a poor second one. This seems to be the story of his season: 6
Wilshere: Hardly noticed him: 5
Cazorla: Nice touches but went missing at times: 6
Walcott: He looks our best player. I'm not sure if I should be worried or delighted: 7
Giroud: His hold up play was poor. Surprising as it's been good so far. He did come close to scoring when he had no right to from a Theo cross: 5
Ramsey: Wtf?: 4 This favouritism could cost us. He's a good player but woefully out of form. What must Arshavin be thinking?


Happy with the result. The first true test for a while. The European game, the opponents were out. Spurs? We played 10 men for most of the game and Villa we rested key players.

Good result, good performance but Ramsey needs a rest. He's a liabilty at the moment.

Are you serious that you thought that the performance was decent enough ?
We were lucky to score with a deflection.. And how many saves did we force or even how many shots we had on the goal after that ? Couldnt remember a chance other than Girouds header and Girouds late cross to Gervinho..
and i saw nothing from Walcott after the 1st minute..
*
And after reading postmatch news..
Wenger was happy/content
Vermelen was happy
Walcott said he was 'deadly'.. damn right.. he was in the first minute..
f***.. I thought we were worse than a midtable team.. No chances or shots on target as usual..

Our manager and our captain expected us to lose and were happy they got a point. Tells you all about Arsenal this season, really.

Are you serious that you thought that the performance was decent enough ?

Goodison is not an easy place to go, especially this season. Maybe 'decent' was a bit of an exaggeration, but a point there isn't bad in the big scheme of things. How did Utd get on there? Remember?

I thought Arsenal controlled most of the first half and Everton dominated the second. A few of Everton's major attacks came from Ramsey dwelling on the ball too long again. Didn't the goal come from Ramsey giving the ball away again?

Don't want to make him the scapegoat but his confidence is shot and he should not be playing at the moment. I do feel sorry for him as he's a decent bloke and had a nasty injury. He has come back but let's be honest...he isn't the same.

He is young and could come back but when a player's confidence is on the floor, a good manager will give him a break and use him as a sub for a while when things are going well (3-0 up with 15 minutes left etc).

Basically, the midfield was not good but did a good job closing down. We didn't play too well but the battling element in our play got us the draw...so that's what I meant by decent.

I've not seen any team pass the ball around Everton with ease and I don't think you will all season.