Arsenal Player Ratings vs Liverpool: Wilshere & Walcott Lead Fightback

Arsenal came from 2-down to draw 2-2 with Liverpool on Wednesday night with Luis Suarez and Jordan Henderson putting the visitors in control before Oliver Giroud and Theo Walcott pulled the Gunners level. Here are player ratings from Arsenal fan ‘loyd the Gooner’.

Szczesny 5. 6’4” and won’t come and catch the ball. Hasn’t ‘trained on’ as we hoped. He is young for a keeper and has time on his side. Overall this season he has gone backwards. Thinks he is better than he is, humility son! Go and speak to Bob Wilson, David Seaman, Jens Lehman…all confident, none arrogant (well maybe Jens)!

Sagna 5. His distribution was generally poor. Fell over for the first Liverpool goal and for the rest of the 1st half was very bad. In the second he tried but still couldn’t pass properly. No lack of effort though.

Mertesacker 3. His lack of pace was a liability throughout. The manager talks about waiting for the right quality of player to sign…! Did I miss something? Yes he has had a few half decent games but we could have had any number better than him. What was he doing turning his back on Suarez for the first goal? Hung a leg out for the second Liverpool goal. You can’t fool the fans, Arsene.

Vermaelen 7. When you play most of the game with Santos and Mertesacker around you effectively you have three jobs to do. Did them all reasonably well. At fault for the first though.

Gibbs 6. Ok when on the pitch.

Ramsey 6. At times you thought this role might suit him then you see an opportunity to play a telling pass from deep and he fluffs it…not sure. At 28 he may own that role but we need a holding man now!

Wilshere 9. Non stop effort. Drove us forward. Classy. At times in the second half you could have been watching Iniesta. Well played Jack!

Cazorla 7. Poor first half, very good in the second. This is becoming a trend now. Is it the half time tea?

Walcott 8. Ok should have scored early on but what a finish. Stretched them with his pace. Theo is developing well now and I for one was wrong about this boy. Very pleased he is staying.

Giroud 7. Decent showing. Gives us the big man option, nice goal but immobile at times. His attitude was great and signs overall are good. We will need to put the right players around him though.

Podolski 7. His quality around the box is becoming more obvious now. Doesn’t like the ugly side of the game and that causes problems at times for teammates. Yet another that needs the balance to be right.

Subs

Santos. Can you give a minus mark? The serious side of it is the insult to the fans, the ones that go. That this man is allowed to wear the shirt is an affront to us. Why if Arsene Wenger is so good at the sports science/diet side of the game is Santos so fat and unfit? Why hasn’t he put the effort in himself to at least look like a Premier League player? Even when you are injured you can eat properly!

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