Serial Diver
Went down only when he’d lost his balance
Ratings
Ospina – Lazarus got in the way when it mattered ….8
Chambers – WWE slam on Azpilicueta my personal highlight ….8
Mustafi – No unnecessary lunging tonight, except to block shots ….9
Holding – Looked more comfortable against Morata than Brereton ….8
Bellerin – 100% focused – all thoughts of what to wear after the game on the back burner ….6
Xhaka – The Hills are Alive with the sound of crunching tackles while on a yellow ….7
Wilshere – Buzzing – luckily the bang is on his “good” ankle ….8
Maitland-Niles – The young Tory oozed class and a complete disdain for Marxian economics ….8
Iwobi – Magnificent Maradona-esque dribbles followed by powder puff shooting ….8
Welbeck – Magnificent tackle on the snake for which Alan Smith tried to award a penalty ….7
Lacazette – not the day to be an Arsenal striker – best chance half-volleyed into the stands ….7
Elneny – Booked for a foul on Morata ….6
Sanchez – Lively in his pursuit of a transfer ….6
Big Weng – gave the members of the press box something to watch ….8
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Lovely stuff and agree the ratings, particularly M-N.
If Hazard’s was a penalty last week then so was the foul on M-N. He was clearly clipped whilst running for the ball even if he was in mid-air.
Good performance against a very strong Chelsea team. Ramsey due back for the weekend, if not we may regret selling Le Coq (if we have).
Mustafi 9? Which match were you watching?
Very entertaining read, thanks.
That shot really sums up where Iwobi is right now.
The shame of it is that we seem to have swapped the pet project of Walcott for the pet project of Iwobi.
Loan deal?
Grandad
Very perceptive of you – I didn’t actually watch the game. 🙂
Would you have given him 7.5 like Arseblog?
In a game where our defence won us a draw , Mustafi was our best defender and deserved the MotM award (JW only played 70 mns).
I thought Iwobi had his best game for some time, shame he effed it up with that lame shot.
I agree with Raddy, in the absence of Jack lasting 90mins, Mustafi was MotM. Excellent performance and worthy of Chas’s rating.
Ppl say Chambers but I think it is between JW, Mustafi and Iwobi
Ooooo
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jan/11/manchester-united-alexis-sanchez-arsenal
Nice report. I think Hazard would have definitely made the M-N contact a penalty and sending off. It’s a good job the shot from Iwobi wasn’t relayed in slow motion or we’d still be watching it. Great result though. a big well done to the team,
Yea lacazette lacking confidence, early in the season he would have buried that
Lol
Thanks Chas, it was a good solid performance yesterday, we rode our luck a little, but the defence was much improved from the forest game. Iwobi is the latest marmite player. He needs to just get his head down and work on his game, he’s good, but there’s plenty of room for improvement and if he works hard he will reap the rewards. And I don’t think it’s such a revelation that we seem to perform well against Chelsea, their style of play is not dissimilar to ours, and they do allow us to play.
Welbeck on the snake? Do you mean Cesc?
thanks for the entertaining ratings, hugely inflated if you ask me, but hey, we stopped rampant chavs at home, can’t be bad
I was bored during the game and mind was wondering who is the most shagable manager out there – Conte, Klopp, Pep or Mourinho. Couldn’t decide, but probably Pep
a horrendous tackle?
2-0??????
Eddie. Not Allardyce. I thought you liked Big Men?
ha ha ha ha I love that Andy Ha Dan thing
Nice work Chas, and very hard not to agree with your noticing the Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Con) complete disdain for Marxian economics
He really doesn’t give a shit for the working classes does he?
🙂
Rasp
Agree. We are far easier on the eye, the better the footballing opposition we face.
The tie is set up for a really stonker of a game at The Emirates. Suddenly, I’m a massive fan of The Leyland Van Trophy 🙂
Yea micky also a huge
Class chas
I thought we played very well, who cares if we were boring? Many years ago I knew this Satanist, “Beelzebub Ray” He wasn’t my cup of tea but we both members of the same Poker Club. No one ever beat him. He would threaten his opponents that unless he won he had the ability to turn there wifes to clay and they would go home to find there Dog possessed by there late mother who would bait them that whilst alive she had a sordid affair with there “real father”, Steve Archibald.
As you can imagine, everyone apart from Beelzebub was skint.
After a while I couldn’t take it any longer, so using a trick I had learned from my Paul Daniels book, cheated my way to victory. He went mad, threatening that tonight my late mother would possess the dog and recant how Archibald enjoyed shooting from long range?, turn my wife to clay, and that from now on I would endure a life of abject boredom.
I laughed in his face, “That don’t scare me, I’ve watched Don Howes Arsenal”
I few years later I was going through a divorce and gave him a call enquiring “About that turning the wife to clay thing?”, but he hanged up.
Last night was a throwback to some brilliant defensive crap spewed out by the likes of Neil, Howe, and Graham, and I really enjoyed it.
One thing that really impressed me yesterday was our rotational fouling. Well, until Xhaka decided to take it upon himself to commit all the fouls, whilst on a booking! There were a couple of very well taken yellow cards to stop counter attacks aswell. I know it’s anti-football, but when you commit men forward like we do then it’s actually a very effective technique to stop the opposition breaking on us.
Draxler anyone? Mkhitaryan? Mahrez? Lemar? If we are going to lose Sanchez then I’d like a couple of these. If we lose Özil and Walcott aswell then we are going to need a whole new forward line!
This is how I see our squad shaping up for next season. I still think Özil will sign, aswell as Wilshere, but I can’t see us keeping hold of Sanchez. Based on this list, I believe we need some RB/RWB cover for Bellerin, a top class CB (maybe even 2 if Koscielny continues to miss games), a LW and a RW (assuming we lose Walcott and Sanchez). I know people will want a HM now Coquelin has gone but I think AMN should be given an opportunity in there as an alternative to Xhaka. If anything, in midfield I would happily get rid of Elneny and bring in someone of better quality.
( ) shows players who can cover if needed.
GK
Cech
Ospina
Martinez
RWB/RB
Bellerin
(Chambers)
(AMN)
LWB/LB
Kolasinac
Monreal
(AMN)
CB
Mustafi
Koscielny
Chambers
Holding
Mavropanos
(Monreal)
HM
Xhaka
AMN
Elneny
CM
Wilshere
Ramsey
Willock
(Elneny)
(Xhaka)
AM
Özil
Iwobi
(Ramsey)
(Wilshere)
LW/LF
(Welbeck)
(Iwobi)
(Özil)
(Nelson)
(Lacazette)
RW/RF
Nelson
(Iwobi)
(Özil)
(Welbeck)
(Lacazette)
ST
Lacazette
Giroud
Welbeck
Akpom
Leaving/Question Marks
Debuchy
Mertersacker
Jenkinson
Cazorla
JRA
Campbell
Walcott
Sanchez
Perez
Anyone think it will turn out different?
Excellent array of clips and stills this morning.
I can’t get enough sliding
Love ’em
Cheers Chas
motning all.
Thank you, Chad for some very fair feelings, and nice comments everyone. 🙂
so, Mavro retained as second choice fiddler because we could not sign No 1 Pied Piper in January? hmmm.
hmmm. If Carlo is indeed the chosen one, I would be a bit sad. No matter what he does at Arsenal, he will be talked of and remembered as a Milan/Real coach, not a Gooner, At best a stop gap arrangement.
Pray, why did we not sign Joe Bloggs? and John Smith? or Drunk Shitpisser for that matter! 🙂
POST sent
It’s Jan 12, so someone had to get transfer gossipy!
Morning All,
Fine slider.
Why aren’t all busses decked out like that?
FGG. Fine work on the squad. Do you think Arsenal could or would spend enough to improve it?
New Post
Well we made a right dog’s breakfast of that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
🙂
Do you think anyone noticed 😀
Doubt it. 🙂
Haha, thanks for leaving in my wonderfully shite photoshop.
So …. There is a New Post!