Arsenal

[PLAYER RATINGS] Arsenal 0-1 Man City: Plenty Of Positives For Gunners

Arsenal played very well with several youngsters putting in excellent performances, here are player ratings from the Emirates.

by
Gooner Mac
November 30, 2011

Forget the scoreline, Arsenal were excellent and didn’t deserve to lose the game. The defence was solid, we bosses the centre of the park and had the most exciting player on the pitch in the form of Chamberlain. The only missing ingredient was a cutting edge up front. Unfortunately that was City’s strongest area and £70m worth of talent was the difference as Dzeko, Johnson and Aguero put one move together and booked their place in the Semi Finals.

Chamakh and Park, although both tried hard, were simply not up to the task and Arsenal lacked any threat up front. It was a real shame as the rest of the team was excellent and no matter what the muppets on Sky (Mark Hughes mainly) tell you, Arsenal were the better side overall and didn’t deserve to go out. City won it with their first shot on target in the 83 minute….what does that tell you?

Old Flappy in goal had very little to do, the defence were very solid and even Squillaci had a decent game! Koscielny was a rock and should have been close to the MOTM award in my opinion. Frimpong and Coquelin were tremendous in midfield and bossed the older more experienced duo of De Jong and Hargreaves all game. Frimpong especially looks like a real talent.

However, the pick of the bunch was young Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He was outstanding and already looks a better all round player than Theo. His crossing was spot on, had a couple of rasping efforts at goal and was a threat all night. It was really encouraging stuff from the Gunners and Wenger should take plenty of positives from the game. Although hopefully the main thing he learn’t was that a new striker is a MUST in the January transfer window. We simply don’t have the required back up or support for Van Persie. He can’t survive a long hard season playing in every game, and Chamakh is certainly not an adequate replacement. Here are my ratings.

Player Ratings:

Fabianski – 6 – Very little to do and could do nothing about the goal. Missed one cross in the first half bringing back painful memories.

Djourou – 7 – Very solid game. Didn’t venture forward a lot but kept things tight at the back.

Squillaci – 7 – Surprisingly good. Dealt with the City strike force fairly well and looked far more assured than previous outings.

Koscielny – 8 – Great game from Kos. Was everywhere and intercepted everything City had to offer. Was up for the corner that lead to the winner, so could do little to stop it.

Miquel – 7 – Very good from the young Spaniard. Looked comfortable at full back having previously played in the middle of defence.

Frimpong – 8.5 – Superb. Absolutely everywhere in midfield, winning tackles, surging forward, hunting down the ball. Brilliant talent. Also heard a rumour (from Arseblog) that Frimpong and Nasri had a row in the tunnel, so he certainly knows how to endear himself with the Gunners faithful!

Coquelin – 8 – Like Frimpong, he was excellent all game. Great cross early on to set up Park and bosses the midfield alongside his partner in crime.

Benayoun – 6 – Fairly quiet game from Yossi. Didn’t get a lot of joy on the left and kept coming inside too much.

Oxlade-Chamberlain – 9 – Superb. Should have been awarded MOTM. Went close with a 25-yarder in the first half, put in several dangerous crosses and always willing to take on his marker. Will be pushing Theo close for a starting place next year.

Park – 5 – Another difficult game for Park. He works hard enough but things just don’t seem to happen for him. Nearly scored early on but maybe should have found the net, and struggled to get in to the game. Was subbed in the second half.

Chamakh – 5 – Lacking confidence and just isn’t ‘Arsenal class’ if you ask me. Looks awkward on the ball and things just don’t look natural with him. Slows down play and no longer a goal threat. Wenger needs to buy an adequate replacement and if he can find a buyer, I’d sell Chamakh for anything over £5m in January.