Player Ratings: Arsenal v Wolves

Arsenal 1 (Bendtner 90+4)
Wolves 0

Manuel Almunia – Didn’t have the chance to excel today as he was pretty much a bystander for the entire encounter. Made the odd simple save but that was about it. Can’t really get a high rating today because he did very little, but that’s not really his fault. 6.5

Bacary Sagna – Superb performance at right back, and probably the best player on the pitch. He let absolutely nothing past him, and provided solid support for Walcott throughout the entire encounter. He made some marauding touchline runs and some great crosses, none more important than his assist for Bendtner’s late winner. 8.5

Sol Campbell – Went about his business today in typical Campbell fashion – no nonsense. It was pretty much defending by the numbers today, as he cruised through the match doing only what was required of him but making sure he did it well. Dependable in the centre of defence and a danger from set pieces. 7.5

Thomas Vermaelen – Pretty unspectacular performance overall but he was far from disappointing. Missed the odd interception but was on hand most of the time to get a foot in or win a header. Wasn’t his usual monstrous performance but still one he can be pleased with. 7

Mikael Silvestre – Played on the left of the defence rather than his preferred central spot, however it was still an amicable performance. He was quiet on the offensive front due to nearly every Arsenal attack going via Sagna and the right flank, however defensively he was decent and I can’t recall too much getting past him at left back. 6.5

Denilson – Somewhat subdued but still decent in the middle of the park. Plenty went through him however he sometimes lacked originality, and most of what he came up with was unimaginative and predictable. Still, his passing was accurate and he was solid defensively, and I guess he would have covered plenty of ground. 7

Alex Song – Pushed up further than he usually would as Arsene strayed from his usual 4-3-3 system, and Song’s performance suffered as a result. He was uninspiring on the creative front (much like Denilson) and his advanced positioning meant he couldn’t be as defensively effective. 6.5

Emmanuel Eboue – Started brightly but burnt out very fast. He wasn’t his usual direct and penetrative self, and looked fatigued from the get-go. He started misplacing easy passes and making the wrong runs off the ball, and then started going down like a sack of potatoes anytime a Wolves player came near him. 4

Tomas Rosicky – Industrious performance from the midfielder, and he provided the craft and guile that we were missing in the absence of Cesc and Arshavin. He was involved in almost everything positive we could come up with, and probably deserved to get his name on the scoresheet. 8

Theo Walcott – Amazing in the opening half and pedestrian in the next. That first half performance was so good, though, that it makes up for his anonymity in the later stages. His pace caused all sorts of problems from the Wolves defence, and he whipped in some nice crosses that nobody could get on the end of unfortunately. 7.5

Eduardo – I really don’t know what to make of Eduardo to be honest. We’re all well aware of his goalmouth capabilities however these seem to have faded post-injury, and indeed in recent months. He fluffed a couple of good chances today and lacked any real presence up front. 5

SUBSTITUTES
Bendtner – 8
Nasri – 7
Vela – N/A.

Thoughts?

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Comments

  1. I think we r defensively fantastic.I think we lack a little bit of creativity.

  2. The goal was vital ,if we lost 2 points i think the title chase will be over .We showed great character and we r back in the title race it was fantastic Bendtner we proud of u.But we have to work very hard .I Think we can .
    COME ON GUNNERS

  3. I think Rosiky dsavs the of match. It’s a very gud calculae. Wenger shld endeavour 2 start him at nou camp.

  4. Oh, Arsenal, you crazy kids!! 94th minute??? You make us watch a game for 2 hours before scoring??? Grrrrrrr!!

    @Aidan – I think your ratings for Almunia and Silly are coloured somewhat by how you (and most of us) feel about them generally. In fact Almunia did nothing wrong that I can remember throughout the entire game so has to be given better than 6.5. Silly was actually very good and deserves 7.5. Credit must be given when due – we’re on their backs hard enough when they f*ck up.

  5. Thinking about this season’s Premiership and the eventual winners I have to say that I think that whoever it may be will be amongst the worst winners I’ve seen in the past two decades.

    I’ve listened to some complete horse shit spoken about the fact that it’s got more to do with the improvement of the clubs outside of the top 4 – what utter nonsense. Really, a Premiership with Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers in the top half. A Spurs team without a fit centre half competing for the Champions League. An Everton side so bad that for the first half of the season were looking like relegation fodder all of a sudden in the Europa League shake up. Bobby Zamora amongst the leading scorers…….improvement……do me a fucking favour

    It’s no coincidence that for the first time in years the CL semis could be without an English team. Can you honestly say that this Man United side with its complete over-reliance on Shrek, a one-paced midfield, a keeper 10 years past his best and Gary Neville is a great team. All of their previous title winning sides would piss all over this current crop

    And the Chavs…..an ageing midfield who were virtually anonymous against Inter, Captain Chav struggling to keep up with anything other than teammates ex-girlfriends, Petr the Clown and 32 year old Dogbreath. Mourinho’s teams of 2005 and 2006 would destroy them.

    And as for our class of 2010 – all of Wenger’s teams from 1997 to 2006 would have destroyed them too.

    There is no doubt in my mind that whoever wins it this year will be up there with the Blackburn side of 1995 (Wilcox, Batty and Sherwood…need I say more) and Leeds of 1992 (how many away games did they win the following season ?) as the worst winners of the past 20 years.

    What do you guys think ?

  6. Thank God we won this game. It would’ve been a sad story drawing at home to wolves at this critical period.

    We lost two vital points to Birmingham cos of resting Sheva and Nasri, playing Song in defence and playing the 1st half injured Fabregas throughout the remainder of that game. We couldnt win that and couldnt also win the Barca game as a result….my take is that the EPL games should be more important this season than any other competition.

    I felt we would’ve won the Barca game and i feel a bit disappointed cos we lost some key players in the process.
    We can still beat those cheats at their home with some fearless display, speed at the flanks and some good crosses to B52

    Almunia
    Sagna Campbell Vermaelen Clichy

    Song
    Diaby
    Nasri
    Walcott Rosicky
    B52

    Here’s to a sweet 1-0 win at the Camp Nou or atleast a 3-3 draw…

  7. my only question is what happened to carlos vela?…
    another has been it seems…

  8. I don’t really know about the player rankings. I know it is different to come from an Arsenal point of view and suggest that we can have no bias in evaluating the players. But i guess you could argue the opposite as well. We see our team play more than any other, and know how well they do, and their peak. In expecting more of players it is difficult to evaluate their play, and completely assess their involvement and the gravity of the game. I think the super sub was Nasri. Who constantly attacked. There is no doubt that Walcott had a stella game, just looking for that final ball. I really look forward to the possibility of signing Chamakh. Yet I am concerned about THeo’s ability to deliver crosses. Yet i am not concerned with his ability on the counter attack. We Chamakh, one of the better headers in the game, where aerial dominance is his forte, he would require a high quality cross, very much like Valencia serves to Rooney. Would this effect the way in which Arsenal play?

  9. Arsenal have to hire 18 Orthopaedic-Surgeons for every game.Watching Arsenal matches may cause heart attacks to its fans.

  10. As far as Eduardo he looks good when playing in the left wing.Until he finds his touch of goal scoring he should be given the opportunity to play there .He was not able to do so as Arshavin has occupied it in recent times .Also he cannot threat aerially .So give him a string of runs in left wing where he perfomed well after he came back from the injury to get back his confidence.The same goes for VanPersie too if he doesn’t finds his goal scoring touch.
    Also Hleb providing the supply when Eduardo was playing centrally along with Adebayor in support.But now he cannot perform alone centrally. Bendtner ,Eduardo combination works well and they should be given chance to work together.

    Truly i am worried that Rosicky is not finding his net.Almost two season before Eduardo opens the attack with goals and then Rosicky comes to finish the game with his goal.Now i don’t find that happening.Somehow it is important that rosicky starts scoring .

    Eboue is doing his best.So stop cursing him for playing off the position.He gives us the flexibility of covering any place in the field so far.So don’t blame him.

    I think Song did well as an offensive one .he lacked the killer pass splitting the defence or a timely floater towards the striker .But apart from it he looked good to my eyes.

    Also i want walcott to take on the chance to get past the final defender and run towards the goal rather than crossing at all times.
    Also he should shoot when only one defender is between him and goal keeper.He should learn to keep his strength to run at defenders till the last minute like Henry does.

    The only problem i have seen is lack of urgency and creativity from the team when it is much needed.

    Take the positiveness of the game and lets praise the boys for their never say die attitude.

    It is time that Rosicky,Nasri ,Denilson,Song and Diaby provide the much needed creativeness when needed till we get our hands on the title

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