Luton 3-4 Arsenal : Player Ratings and Match Reaction

Raya 1 - The Adebayo header was bad enough but letting a tame shot like Barkey’s past him is Taibi like


White 4 - Did ok getting forward but was often no where to be seen when Doughty got forward down the wing


Saliba 6 - Should have provided more of a presence from set pieces


Gabriel 7 - our Best defender on the night, very quick into challenges


Kiwior 4 - He’s not a full back is he


Rice 7 - Bumped him up a point because he got the winner but he didn’t cope well with the press, excellent reading of the game but not as I’ve said so many times the pace or passing range to match


Odegaard 7 - Started poorly was second to a lot of 50/50 balls, but was the driving force when we were chasing the game and it was his ball in that Rice got his head to


Havertz 8 - Probably his best game in an Arsenal shirt, lot of clever play…a well deserved goal. This is the Havertz I want to see more of


Saka 7.5 - A lot of doubling up on him but he put in a good shift going forward


Jesus 8 - Again probably his best game for us this season, not only a well taken header from Whites cross but full of running and good link up


Martinelli 8 - Scared the shit out of the Luton players, so they took turns in trying to take lumps out of him. Still got the goal his play deserved.



Subs

Zinchenko 7 - Right player to bring on when chasing the game and we looked much better on the left hand side


Trossard 7.5 - Constantly made himself available and was unlucky not to get on the score sheet



A ropey performance, played well enough going forward but seemed to struggle with Luton’s closing down and aggression. The set piece defending was near on diabolical. But going forward even before we got more space we made a lot of hay getting in behind their defenders. I don’t have one outstanding player of the game but I think it would be a choice between Jesus, Martinelli or Havertz….the link up and understanding between our attacking players was spot on. Yes it was Luton we were playing, but I still think if we can get the balance right between defending and attack we really do have a shot at something this season.

Tomiyasu is out for a while.

Shame, I think he was playing the best football of his time with us. We could have done with him considering our next 2 away trips are Villa and the dreaded Anfield.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Tomiyasu is out for a while.

Shame, I think he was playing the best football of his time with us. We could have done with him considering our next 2 away trips are Villa and the dreaded Anfield.

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Yeah, totally agree with this.

In fact, he was my MOTM in that demolition of Lens, a truly special performance.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

A ropey performance

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I didn't really think that. And thanks to Prime I actually did watch this one and am thus allowed an opinion ;)
I thought we played well overall, but Raya chucked in 2 goals. What do you do when your 'keeper does that? :shrug:
Despite that we won, although we got a bit lucky in the end. Luton arguably deserved something last night, they closed down really well, worked really hard.
The last 30 minutes was pretty much defence against attack but it wasn't one of those "we could play till midnight and not score" ones, we looked dangerous but it just wasn't happening for us till the dying seconds.
It's certainly the "stuff of champions" to win games like that. But when you don't have a top class 'keeper can you really keep getting away with it and win the title?
I'd advocate for Ramsdale playing in the next game but he's hardly been stellar this season - but for that Rice goal-line clearance we'd have conceded a goal from a Ramsdale mistake so we're between a rock and a hard place in that position.

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Originally Posted by Letters

I didn't really think that. And thanks to Prime I actually did watch this one and am thus allowed an opinion ;)
I thought we played well overall, but Raya chucked in 2 goals. What do you do when your 'keeper does that? :shrug:
Despite that we won, although we got a bit lucky in the end. Luton arguably deserved something last night, they closed down really well, worked really hard.
The last 30 minutes was pretty much defence against attack but it wasn't one of those "we could play till midnight and not score" ones, we looked dangerous but it just wasn't happening for us till the dying seconds.
It's certainly the "stuff of champions" to win games like that. But when you don't have a top class 'keeper can you really keep getting away with it and win the title?
I'd advocate for Ramsdale playing in the next game but he's hardly been stellar this season - but for that Rice goal-line clearance we'd have conceded a goal from a Ramsdale mistake so we're between a rock and a hard place in that position.

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It wasn’t just the goalkeeping though, when you look at the two times we took the lead…they really pressed us hard into giving away those corners that led to the goals. Until as you say it became defence against attack, we never really were able to impose ourselves on the game, especially not in central midfield where both Odegaard and Rice were not able to settle on the ball. Yeah I agree to an extent that you have to give Luton credit for that, and there’s no doubt in my mind that this side was far better than the one I watched that was spirited but ultimately hopeless against Spurs. But one of my main annoyances about the team is that we don’t have players that can play through the press and that’s why I was so keen on us signing Caicedo as that really is his speciality in my view.
Plus defensively we just weren’t great even without Raya, White looked rusty and Kiwior looked totally out of his depth as a full back and with the system we play that’s going to get exposed.
Attacking wise as you’ll have seen from my player ratings I think we did well, but in defence and midfield not so good…so you may think ropey a bit harsh but if we weren’t ropey, we don’t concede three goals to Luton Town…incompetent keeper or not.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

if we weren’t ropey, we don’t concede three goals to Luton Town…incompetent keeper or not.

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I dunno. I mean, I take some of your points but after Luton went ahead they said in the commentary that Luton had had 4 shots and scored 3 goals. Two of them were 'keeper mistakes. So I don't think it was that poor a display overall.

I don’t think we were quite ready for Luton’s pressing, I guess we felt they would tire but they didn’t. Didn’t think the midfield covered themselves in glory until we got a grip of the game at 3-3 and Zinchenko coming on helped a lot with that control. Luton hardly created anything though so it was a weird game and it was only turned into a contest by Raya’s weak keeping. Otherwise I have no doubt we would have ran out comfortable winners.

I don’t think Kiwior should be an option at LB, play him at CB or not at all. He looked very uncomfortable and doesn’t really have any attributes that would suggest he can play LB effectively.

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Originally Posted by Letters

I dunno. I mean, I take some of your points but after Luton went ahead they said in the commentary that Luton had had 4 shots and scored 3 goals. Two of them were 'keeper mistakes. So I don't think it was that poor a display overall.

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They were able to get in behind us because both our full backs were often out of position. And simply put we were just not agressive enough at dealing with set pieces.
And as MO has stated neither the defence or the midfield particularly did well with the closing down and pressing of Luton

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Originally Posted by Letters

I'd advocate for Ramsdale playing in the next game but he's hardly been stellar this season - but for that Rice goal-line clearance we'd have conceded a goal from a Ramsdale mistake so we're between a rock and a hard place in that position.

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As i said in the match thread, Ram would be fine if Arteta hadn't shot his confidence and made him effectively play for his Arsenal future every time he steps on to the pitch

I'd much prefer to see him brought back and told he's in for the rest of the season, but ofc that's not happening because Mikel always knows best

Raya is obviously the main man and that won’t change unless he’s basically costing us points every week. People are feeling sorry for Ramsdale here but it shouldn’t be forgotten that Raya is just as deserving of our support and I have no doubt the micro-analysis he’s dealing with every week has affected him too.

Ramsdale just need to be sold so this toxic issue can be put to bed. Pope is crocked long term so maybe Newcastle would be an option there to suit all parties.

Arteta can fall on his sword, this is entirely on him and the judgement will come in May.

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Raya is obviously the main man and that won’t change unless he’s basically costing us points every week. People are feeling sorry for Ramsdale here but it shouldn’t be forgotten that Raya is just as deserving of our support and I have no doubt the micro-analysis he’s dealing with every week has affected him too.

Ramsdale just need to be sold so this toxic issue can be put to bed. Pope is crocked long term so maybe Newcastle would be an option there to suit all parties.

Arteta can fall on his sword, this is entirely on him and the judgement will come in May.

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I think a lot of it comes from the fact fans didn’t want Ramsdale dropped to begin with. He’s far from perfect but there isn’t such a thing. Even Ederson who I think is the best keeper in the league is prone to error. Raya always looked good for Brentford but you have to wonder if he’s got the ability for a top club….where the important thing is concentration. Although Ramsdale’s admissions about concentration hardly filled me with confidence.

This is very similar to the whole Tierney/Zinchenko thing because Arteta has decided that Raya is a better keeper for picking the ball out of the air (yeah that’s not going so well) and better with the ball at his feet.

I think there’s a lot of assumptions made that if a team doesn’t have many shots on goal but they score with them it’s the keepers fault. Well last night with Raya it was, but actually you’ve got to look further up the pitch as to whether the defence and midfield has done its job to stop opposition players from getting into good goalscoring positions

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Ramsdale just need to be sold so this toxic issue can be put to bed. Pope is crocked long term so maybe Newcastle would be an option there to suit all parties.

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I heard somerthing about Ram and Newcastle yesterday - as much as i'd hate it he and the Gerodies would have a huge love in and he'd be happy there in the short term, although obvs there'd be an issue once Pope had recovered - the two of them could be competing against each other for No 1 at England and Newcastle simultaneously

I'd rather we kept him and disposed of Raya though - I'm confident in saying Raya has cost us points

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Originally Posted by Marc Overmars

Tomiyasu is out for a while.

Shame, I think he was playing the best football of his time with us. We could have done with him considering our next 2 away trips are Villa and the dreaded Anfield.

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Sorry to be harsh, Tommy is indeed a good player, but is always injured. We need to get rid of him, Partey and ESR. No room for wheelchair passengers.

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Originally Posted by Chippy

Sorry to be harsh, Tommy is indeed a good player, but is always injured. We need to get rid of him, Partey and ESR. No room for wheelchair passengers.

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I think you're right, no matter how good someone is, if we can't rely on them it's pointless, we end up being short of players all the time - it's particularly acute in Tomi's case given the current alternative is Zinchenko, at least in Arteta's mind anyway - he could, of course play Kiwior but Kiwior is not at Tomi's level either, even if he doesn't f*** up on a game-by-game basis like Zin does

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Originally Posted by Chippy

Sorry to be harsh, Tommy is indeed a good player, but is always injured. We need to get rid of him, Partey and ESR. No room for wheelchair passengers.

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Update.
Please can we add Elneny to that list of injury prone players. These fuckers are taking money under false pretences.