Arsenal 2-1 Brentford Player rating and Match Reaction

Ramsdale 6 - I actually think his reaction save from Collins was better than the Toney save, I think he majorly fucked up for their equaliser but at the same time I think pass from Gabriel with Wissa on top of him didn’t help


White 8 - Really good cross for Havertz, on one hand don’t want him getting called up for England on the other hand it would be outrageous if Southgate overlooks him again and makes it clear there’s a personal issue there


Saliba 7 - Found Toney hard to deal with, but was prepared to match physicality with physicality


Gabriel 6.5 - I think he struggled out there a bit today. Got booked early on and Wissa seemed to get the better of him



Kiwior 7.5 - Has developed well with increased playing time



Jorginho 6.5 - Games like this expose his physical limitations a bit, wasn’t given the time to be as incisive in his passing



Rice 8 - Good headed goal, whilst he wasn’t able to dictate things like in previous games he was instrumental in what we did well



Odegaard 7 - Whilst our attacking fluency wasn’t there today (Brentford didn’t give us the time we’ve been used to), I think was doing his best to create things for others



Havertz 7.5 - Shot wide when put through by Jorginho, and blazed over…but earlier in the season he would have hidden, he made himself available and got the pay off


Saka 7 - Compared to Monday and games before that when he was tormenting teams, a bit muted by comparison


Trossard 6.5 - Never really got into the game



Subs


Jesus 5.5 - Doesn’t look fully fit…peripheral at best


Zinchenko 6 - Didn’t manage to balls anything up


Nelson 6 - No more effective than Trossard


Partey - A time wasting sub




This performance today, gave me the impression that we knew what to expect from Brentford and we did execute a game plan to deal with it, but there’s a difference between expectation and experiencing it. I think they did rattle us a bit today, and the swagger we usually play with well it’s not that it wasn’t there but it was more in fits and starts.

The performance wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible, the effort was definitely there but honestly I don’t think we could have considered ourselves that hard done by if Brentford had got a draw. I think they are far better team than their current league position…they are well organised, hard working and capable of good football.

The way they played today reminded me more of the team that beat City home and away last season more than the team that was utterly pathetic against Liverpool three weeks ago.


Good preparation for teams that will deny us the space to play, and will go for it.

Brentford made that pretty hard for us. The First time we’ve been tested in weeks so it was good to see us grind it out. There will probably be many more games like that in the run in, just relieved we got the job done and now we can sit back and watch the other 2 slug it out.

Happy for Ramsdale that he managed to bounce back and make some good saves. Unfortunately today though he probably lost any remaining sympathy for his situation. Keepers need to be able to come in from the cold and his 2 games against Brentford have seen some horrendous mistakes.

Yeah it's game over for Ram but two great saves.

Our performance was better than HCZ's scores, we played fairly well against 12 men (Brentford plus ref), there was one heartstopping moment towards the end whem Zin was on the ball in our area, but thankfully he just about avoided fucking up

Also I loved Arteta's mimicking of the Klopp thing at the clock end afterwards, we're becoming real shithousers :clap:

I think that game was really good preparation for Porto who will probably be quite similar to Brentford.

COYG :scarf:

I don’t think my scores were particularly harsh, no one got below a 6 (which is largely an average score…anything above that is a good performance) and I gave over half the team 7 or over.

We just weren’t as fluent as in recent games but as I’ve said I think that was as much down to Brentford. Arteta himself said in post match interview that he expected this kind of game and I think to a degree it showed

I just think a) a couple of players struggled with the physicality b) I think our finishing was a bit off

The main issue with referee for me was failure to award at least one of our penalty shouts. I think if he’d been their 12th man he would have sent Havertz off even though the first yellow card was nonsense

I was looking at the remaing fixtures last night and the Spuds are going to have a big say on where the title goes.

They will obviously do their best to beat us however, they need to win their other games to guarantee at least fourth.

They have hit a bit of form which is bloody annoying.

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Originally Posted by Chippy

I was looking at the remaing fixtures last night and the Spuds are going to have a big say on where the title goes.

They will obviously do their best to beat us however, they need to win their other games to guarantee at least fourth.

They have hit a bit of form which is bloody annoying.

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Annoyingly they’ve also only lost once to the current top six (home to Villa)

Im working under the assumption that they and City will probably beat us

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Annoyingly they’ve also only lost once to the current top six (home to Villa)

Im working under the assumption that they and City will probably beat us

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I’m inclined to agree and I don’t think it would be a surprise if we lost at Old Trafford either. Although with that being the penultimate game it could be inconsequential by then anyway.

I think we will need to take at least 4 points from City and Spurs to be confident of being in the conversation at the end.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Annoyingly they’ve also only lost once to the current top six (home to Villa)

Im working under the assumption that they and City will probably beat us

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I don't know how annoying that is. They have to play all of the top 3, two of those at home.
It would be annoying if they lose to City and Liverpool and beat us of course.
I'd fancy us to get a point there, not sure how they'll do against the other two although they have had a decent record against City.

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Originally Posted by Letters

I don't know how annoying that is. They have to play all of the top 3, two of those at home.
It would be annoying if they lose to City and Liverpool and beat us of course.
I'd fancy us to get a point there, not sure how they'll do against the other two although they have had a decent record against City.

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On paper I’d be confident of winning there, but they’ve been very good at riding their luck against the big teams. City bashed them about silly yet they managed to get a 3-3 draw at the Etihad.

It is annoying that they’ve managed to avoid defeats in these games. No other way to put it :haha:

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

It is annoying that they’ve managed to avoid defeats in these games. No other way to put it :haha:

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I guess it is BUT...that could be a help to us given that our rivals still have to play them again.

I am surely opening myself up for a roasting here, but given the fact that we are still fighting on two fronts, would it be a total disaster if we went out tomorrow night v Porto?

We have seen it before where we have fallen apart in March where it basically got too much for our thinnish squad.

I also belive that we have a better chance to win the Premier League rather than the Champions League.

Just putting it out there ;)

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Originally Posted by Letters

I guess it is BUT...that could be a help to us given that our rivals still have to play them again.

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Well all I can say to that is, it’s just as well that spurs aren’t playing any of these teams last game of the season or be looking at 1999 all over again

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Originally Posted by Chippy

I am surely opening myself up for a roasting here, but given the fact that we are still fighting on two fronts, would it be a total disaster if we went out tomorrow night v Porto?

We have seen it before where we have fallen apart in March where it basically got too much for our thinnish squad.

I also belive that we have a better chance to win the Premier League rather than the Champions League.

Just putting it out there ;)

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I was of that opinion last season with the Europa league which was far more winnable for us than the champions league is this season

As it turned out, not having to compete on two counts did sod all for us

Don’t get me wrong, I think the early FA cup exit might have been a blessing in disguise. But as much as I don’t think we will win either the league or the European cup, I think we probably do need to try and prove that we can be contenders for both and show that we can juggle both.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

On paper I’d be confident of winning there, but they’ve been very good at riding their luck against the big teams. City bashed them about silly yet they managed to get a 3-3 draw at the Etihad.

It is annoying that they’ve managed to avoid defeats in these games. No other way to put it :haha:

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We should be fine, we have a much better defence than City

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Originally Posted by KSE Comedy Club

We should be fine, we have a much better defence than City

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Much better?. Plus Spurs already caught us cold twice at the Emirates

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Originally Posted by Chippy

I am surely opening myself up for a roasting here, but given the fact that we are still fighting on two fronts, would it be a total disaster if we went out tomorrow night v Porto?

We have seen it before where we have fallen apart in March where it basically got too much for our thinnish squad.

I also belive that we have a better chance to win the Premier League rather than the Champions League.

Just putting it out there ;)

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This has crossed my mind! I have no hope that we'll actually win the thing.
But...I think right now given the run we're on we need to keep that momentum going.

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Originally Posted by Chippy

I am surely opening myself up for a roasting here, but given the fact that we are still fighting on two fronts, would it be a total disaster if we went out tomorrow night v Porto?

We have seen it before where we have fallen apart in March where it basically got too much for our thinnish squad.

I also belive that we have a better chance to win the Premier League rather than the Champions League.

Just putting it out there ;)

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That’s just loser talk.

If we go out tomorrow night it would be a total failure and quite frankly it wouldn’t make a difference in what happens with the final 10 games. We’ve consistently proven to be just as capable of throwing it all away regardless of what the work load is.

Good teams deal with hurdles placed in front of them. Is anyone at City or Liverpool dreading all the games they’ve got across all competitions? No, that’s why they’ve won so much because their eggs are never in just one basket.

I think Ramsdale's error was not lack of game time or confidence.

It was down to cockiness, pure and simple.

He had plenty of time to make a quick pass out but instead decided to take it a touch forward first, thinking he would be quicker than Wissa.
It was the same type of brainlessness at the end of last season - which ultimately put him where he is now.

His two second half saves though, were world class.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Much better?. Plus Spurs already caught us cold twice at the Emirates

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Yes, based on current form this half of the season.
It's the best in the league.

I didn't think City looked all that yesterday either.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

That’s just loser talk.

If we go out tomorrow night it would be a total failure and quite frankly it wouldn’t make a difference in what happens with the final 10 games. We’ve consistently proven to be just as capable of throwing it all away regardless of what the work load is.

Good teams deal with hurdles placed in front of them. Is anyone at City or Liverpool dreading all the games they’ve got across all competitions? No, that’s why they’ve won so much because their eggs are never in just one basket.

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:gp:

We need to keep the pressure on to some extent, even if we don't make it to the final.

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Originally Posted by KSE Comedy Club

Yes, based on current form this half of the season.
It's the best in the league.

I didn't think City looked all that yesterday either.

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I’m not knocking our defence at all, and yeah the statistics back that we have the best defence in the league. What I’m saying is…is our defence much better than City? Either in personnel or stats. They’ve got good defenders, but like us they play a high line and can be caught cold.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

I was of that opinion last season with the Europa league which was far more winnable for us than the champions league is this season

As it turned out, not having to compete on two counts did sod all for us

Don’t get me wrong, I think the early FA cup exit might have been a blessing in disguise. But as much as I don’t think we will win either the league or the European cup, I think we probably do need to try and prove that we can be contenders for both and show that we can juggle both.

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It's funny, last night I was on the verge of saying the same things as Chippy has, but i reflected on it and concluded what you have, i.e. we need to show we are genuine top-level competitors, there's no other way, I think winning breeds winning and anyway the further we get in the CL this year the more it gives ths still-young team experience and belief about getting a long way in these competitions.

MO makes a very good point that we hoped that the lack of cup games in the run in last season would go in our favour, but it just didn't. Winning becomes a habit and a setback in the CL could harm our league form by knocking confidence. Not what we need with a trip to the Ethiad next up.

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Originally Posted by Mac76

It's funny, last night I was on the verge as saying the same things as Chippy has, but i reflected on it and concluded what you have, i.e. we need to show we are genuine top-level competitors, there's no other way, I think winning breeds winning and anyway the further we get in the CL this year the more it gives ths still-young team experience and belief about getting a long way in these competitions.

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True and on top of that we haven’t played a big team in UCL this season. It would be good to have a Real, Bayern, Barca tie…..yes we want to try and win the thing eventually but it’s also for nights like that that we want to be at the top table

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Originally Posted by Letters

MO makes a very good point that we hoped that the lack of cup games in the run in last season would go in our favour, but it just didn't. Winning becomes a habit and a setback in the CL could harm our league form by knocking confidence. Not what we need with a trip to the Ethiad next up.

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Yep. Whilst I am conscious of fixture congestion. I think the one constant about Arsenal is that we are a confidence team.

So everyone's OK with me going and cheering us on against Porto tomorrow night then? :lol:

Even if we went on to win the league I’d still say it would put a little bit of a dampener on my feelings should we go out tomorrow night because it’s such a doable task.

It was the same in 2004, a year we absolutely should have won the CL because the usual suspects were nowhere to be seen. As glorious as the title win was, that Chelsea defeat in the CL was a real low point.