Everton Vs Arsenal - Match Ratings

[Timleaf]

Look, you can choose to be positive or you can choose to be negative. We're unbeaten in 9 premier league games, during which we've played 4 out of 5 from the rest of the top 6-3 of them away from home. Certainly not an easy run of games! We've improved quite a bit since that 3-0 drubbing by City.

Just out of curiosity what league games coming up worry you so?

Or, you can look at what you see and make a judgement based upon that - I don't see any reason to put a deliberately positive or negative spin on things, but maybe that's just a question of character.

I think it's become extremely apparent over time that you have a rather dour forum persona. You come out with a lot of things that are unquestionably and overtly negative. But, as you say, perhaps that's just a question of character.

 

[asajoseph]

I'd call it objective, rather than negative, but call it what you like. I think it's pretty obvious that we've fallen away badly this year.

 

[Anzac]

Realist v Idealist?
The glass may well be half full, but no one is topping it up.........

 

[Timleaf]

Much like the criticism aimed at Arsenal, I think this debate could become a tad trite.

However, I maintain that we have turned somewhat of a corner-at least insofar as we don't look anything like as bad as we did in losing 3-0 to City and 2-0 to Villa. That is positive.

 

[Anzac]

Much like the criticism aimed at Arsenal, I think this debate could become a tad trite.

However, I maintain that we have turned somewhat of a corner-at least insofar as we don't look anything like as bad as we did in losing 3-0 to City and 2-0 to Villa. That is positive.

Agreed - but we're still shyte as seen by our results & match ratings, and have a LONG way to go before we can consider ourselves to be good.

 

[Timleaf]

Much like the criticism aimed at Arsenal, I think this debate could become a tad trite.

However, I maintain that we have turned somewhat of a corner-at least insofar as we don't look anything like as bad as we did in losing 3-0 to City and 2-0 to Villa. That is positive.

Agreed - but we're still shyte as seen by our results & match ratings, and have a LONG way to go before we can consider ourselves to be good.

But we're not shyte judging by our results. League-wise we've had a reasonably tough run of fixtures since the City game and we've come through them fairly well. About as well as we could have hoped for, even if we were challenging for the title. Draws away to Everton and Villa, Win at Chelsea, draw with Liverpool etc.

As for the match ratings-hmmm...given that it's been known for people to rate players on this forum without even watching the game how much emphasis should we place on these 'match ratings'?...know what I mean? ;-)

 

[Anzac]

But for me they were only tough games because we have been poor, or because our players are not up to standard required for Top 4 & CL status following injuries to 1st choice starters.

 

[asajoseph]

Judging by our results?

We've muddled through a relatively straightforward series of fixtures and come out the other side with a reasonable set of results.

Judging by our performances?

We've been poor, and showed little sign of making significant improvement, especially lacking in quality in the middle. This Arsenal side is more than capable of dropping points against any team. Maybe in April, when Cesc and Rosicky come back, we might improve, but until then I think we look as likely as anyone else in the top 6-7 to drop points against 'weak' teams.

 

[Proof]

Almunia - 7

Sagna - 6
Gallas - 7
Djourou - 7.5
Clichy - 6

Denilson - 5.5
Diaby - 5
Song - 5
Nasri 6.5

Van Persie - 7.5
Adebayor - 5

 

[TomasCR]

Almunia 6

Sagna 6
Gallas 6
Djourou 6
Clichy 5.5

Denilson 5.5
Diaby 4.5
Song 4
Nasri 6

RvP 7.5
Adebayor 5.5

Can´t believe we´re so ****. Not to be RvP, who is the only one player able to create something on his own, we would have been in some serious ****. I love Wenger´s inteviews after games, he is so full of **** it´s not even possible. 'We needed to show character to come back' How the **** we showed character, we have no character whatsoever, bunch of average losers, **** them all, c**nts.

 

[AnthonyG]

Geez, a little harsh there Tomas. We did show fight and character to score at the death. A 1-1 with Everton would not sting so much if a lot of damage hadn't already been done in prior games.

 

[A_Gooner_Matata]

Bored, so I might as well...not that anyone cares!

Almunia: 6 - Meh
Sagna: 4 - Didn't overlap, didn't close down Baines' cross, didn't cross well himself.
Gallas: 7 - Still think he's our best defender.
Djourou: 6 - Fine. The centre-back pairing was good.
Clichy: 5 - Hardly a threat, but at least he and Nasri can pass to each other.
Nasri: 6 - I actually thought he was very good in the first half. Ineffective, but I think he would have been influential in the middle.
Diaby: 3 - Awful, awful, awful. Terrible first touch that lets down the whole team's possession play, poor passing, poor tackles (though he might have walked). Lovely assist. He's just not good enough.
Denilson: 5 - Limited, but a decent enough worker.
Song: 5 - Suppose he can't be blamed, but the midfield pairing was mareish. I guess they kept a heavily-packed Everton midfield quiet enough. Can't pass.
Ade: 4 - Doesn't really work hard enough, but zero service from the midfield.
RVP: 7 - Brilliant goal.

Subs

Bendtner: 6 - Looked lively
Eboue: 6 - ditto

 

[TomasCR]

Geez, a little harsh there Tomas. We did show fight and character to score at the death. A 1-1 with Everton would not sting so much if a lot of damage hadn't already been done in prior games.

Hars? Perhaps a little. You´re right though, it´s just that you keep telling to yourself that the game before, it was just a bad day, just an unbelievable concurrence of circumstances that cost us the points. Then you go on about how it will be certainly better in the next game, but it isn´t better at all. You just don´t want to accept the truth but at the and of the day, you have to draw the line and check the reality.

You´re looking forward to seeing the players you have been talking about all the time, but then the game starts and they´re playing like they never did it before, pathetic. Fine, we showed character, if you call running all over the pitch, kicking the ball out of your side as far as it´s even possible to create an attack, then we showed some character, but that´s not the character I want to see.

 

[Clrnc]

Almunia 6
Sagna 6
Djourou 7
Gallas 6.5
Clichy 6
Denilson 5
Diaby 5.5
Song 5.5
Nasri 7
RVP 7.5
Ade 5

Bendtner 5.5
Eboue 5.5

 

[1970*Gooner]

Almunia - 6

Sagna - 6
Gallas - 6
Djorou - 6,5
Clichy - 6,5

Denilson - 5
Diaby - 3
Song - 4
Nasri - 6

RvP - 8
Adebayor - 4

 

[General]

Timleaf, I'm certainly with you on this one. Our scenario is far from ideal but improvements have been made.

 

[irishgunnerz]

Timleaf, I'm certainly with you on this one. Our scenario is far from ideal but improvements have been made.

It all comes back to the fact that some like Asa sneer that we've muddled through our games while United win professionally when playing bad. Its like listening to Hansen at the minute! Points are points. Would you rather go back to last year or year before Asa when we dominated games and couldnt score? Losing to some long aimless hoof up field?

We're not playing well but we're 9 games unbeaten, we dont look like losing games like we did at the start - and thats despite our first choice winger and star midfielder being out long term. It aint pretty but its far more effective than it was at the start.

 

[asajoseph]

It all comes back to the fact that some like Asa sneer that we've muddled through our games while United win professionally when playing bad. Its like listening to Hansen at the minute! Points are points. Would you rather go back to last year or year before Asa when we dominated games and couldnt score? Losing to some long aimless hoof up field?

Would I rather go back to last year?

Er, really? If we played like we did last year, with the rest of the top clubs stuttering as much as they have, even another broken leg wouldn't have prevented us from winning the title. Of course I'd rather go back to how we were last year!

Perhaps an illustration - we've won in the league by a two goal margin once since October 26th last year. There've been a couple of good performances along the way, but between that game and now, our league results have been W 6, D 5, L 3 - that's the record of a team that's dropping far too many points. By contrast, Manchester Utd's record is 11-2-1 over the same period. Of those wins, 4 were by a two goal margin or more.

The difference between us and Utd is obvious - they're mixing up 'professional' one goal wins with more dominant scorelines, and are winning regularly. Our 'professional' performances are more commonly mixed up with games in which we drop points.

 

[arsenalfc0719]

Everyone in midfield gets 3's or 4's.

 

[hackajack]

The difference between us and Utd is obvious - they're mixing up 'professional' one goal wins with more dominant scorelines, and are winning regularly. Our 'professional' performances are more commonly mixed up with games in which we drop points.

The difference largely seems to be that ManU's 1-0s are 'professional' and ours are 'crap' performances.