Bad Buys, Bad Characters, Bad Squad Structure Revealed At St Mary’s – Player Ratings

Arsenal put in a lethargic and below-par performance to draw 1-1 with Southampton at St Mary’s on New Years Day. Here are ‘Lloyd the Gooners’ player ratings from the game.

A draw seemed like a good result at the end and that says it all. We HAVE to get some power, pace and physique into the club in the short term. Long term get rid of the feckless, useless and those that don’t care. Where were we when Berbatov, Michu, Benteke and others were on the market?

SZCZESNY 6. Back to being a line keeper which was not what we needed given the size of the team. Handled well enough though.

SAGNA 4. Shocker! Poor for weeks now. Wenger must see it so why not act? Did he have 50p pieces on his feet? His passes went at some very strange angles.

KOSCIELNY 6. Defending was ok but no spark when coming out from the back. He can play but we didn’t see that much of it.

VERMAELEN 6. Like his partner, was lethargic on the ball. Neither is the real issue, however, in this team.

GIBBS 6. Puncheon is a tricky, unorthodox opponent. He handled him pretty well overall. Not helped much by the Ox either but as for Gervinho…! If he was in front of me I’d ask for a transfer… to right back!

ARTETA 7. Solid in the role that he has no natural physical aptitude for. But as ever a real pro, unsung, diligent, battling, etc. His positional sense is excellent but he can be by-passed easily by opponents with pace and power and that is a problem we need to address.

WILSHERE 7. Second half we saw some class. He was the creative hub of the team then rather than Cazorla. Even Jack’s passing was off key at times though but he is one of the core players we need to build around.

CAZORLA 5. Time for a rest. The temptation is always to play him because of his ability to nick a goal but this was not the player of the summer and autumn.

OXLADE CHAMBERLAIN 5. Couldn’t beat Shaw. Rarely crossed effectively. But always tries hard. He is young and so it is right not to be too critical. At his age we can expect two steps forward and one back.

WALCOTT 6. He was given very poor service particularly in the first half but what he did get he squandered. Not much better when he was shunted out wide either.

PODOLSKI 3. Oh dear back to the Poldi of a few weeks ago. I have sent in my application for some German caps which judging by this guy are given out fairly liberally.

SUBS

GIROUD. His size and aerial ability helped us but his touch was poor most of the time.

RAMSEY. Has been quite effective off the bench recently but didn’t do much yesterday.

GERVINHO. Didn’t want to know in my opinion. Usually flaky but a downright liability yesterday. He can beat a man ( ok only occasionally) but more often than not it comes to absolutely NOTHING!

What were your ratings from the game? Get involved in the comments section below.