Written by Filip Urbancík Tuesday, 27 December 2011 18:03

GunnerTalk Blog

By Filip Urbancik

After a long time I made my mind up to write Ratings and look how it ended up. Really depressive result really gutted.

Szczesny (6) – There´s not much to tell about his 1st half performance. I don´t think it was his mistake when we conceded. He does his best but he can´t influence the final result sometimes. One of very few players with constant class.

Djourou (5) – I still don´t like to see him on the RB, to be honest and I don´t think he fits into our squad as a CB either. His forward runs so often end prematurely because of some little inaccuracy; he should pass the ball quicker. He´s another player who should play in his preferred position or not at all. Why didn´t we keep Eboue? He was at least better than Djouru.

Mertesacker (6) – As I said many times before his partnership with Vermealen has been getting better every match. They seem to be more solid and I like his sliding tackles and composed defending. He was really unfortunate not to score in the 66th min.

Vermaelen (5,5) – One of the best CBs in Premier League playing on a LB position, that´s a shame a little bit but he´s such a great player he can partly deal with it. His forward runs are perfect, he´s accurate enough to create passes for midfield players coming from behind. This match showed we need our best players in their preferred positions cause Vermi on LB isn´t the best for us. Santos was making huge steps forward since he came to Arsenal in terms of defending and by now he would be perfect. I just can´t believe we were relying on fitness of Santos and Gibbs for whole season.

Koscielny (6) – I remember times when people were saying he can´t play for Arsenal but those days are gone. Really solid defending combined with smart support of attacking players. I couldn´t see him much throughout the whole game, not sure if it´s good sign of our defence or his passive play.

Song (5,5) – Our midfield wouldn´t be same without him, he´s been constantly growing last 3 or 4 seasons and there´s no wonder Frimpong finds it difficult to break through into the starting XI even though he deserves to start more games. I don´t think it was necessary to pick up another yellow card, in many ways it was so stupid to take down 2 players in 5 seconds. What the hell was he thinking about, Wolves had got red card.

Arteta (6) – The more I watch him the more I think he has great understanding for the game. He can play behind RvP or he can create from deeper positions. He´s not as visible as Cesc but our performances wouldn´t be so good without him. He still needs to work on free kicks because 3 out of 5 hit the wall.

Rosicky (5,5) – In my point of view he can still offer something to Arsenal. Mainly experience and calmess into our midfield. He makes great passes but they sometimes lack that killer punch. At least he tries to shoot from distance. Still asking myself how on Earth he could have missed such a great opportunity in the 2nd half.

Benayoun (6) – I don´t know any Gooner who wouldn´t like him. His attitude and passion to play for Arsenal is exceptional. I wouldn´t expect him to be so quick in his age but it´s a must and honour to buy him at the end of the season.  He tried maybe too hard to find RvP but it´s understandable.

van Persie (5,5) – There´s huge pressure on his shoulders but he can deal with it. He was tightly marked so he tried to create for other players instead of trying to achieve record of Alan Shearer. What a free kick, even a stupid ref couldn´t stop him. I know we all want it from his side but he should have passed it to Song and he could make it 2/3- 0. The whole thing about some “stupid” record blinded him for today´s match.

Gervinho (6) – When I saw him twisting and turning in such a great opportunity I was bit nervous but he scored a fantastic goal. He needed that goal to get his confidence back. Really determined player with a clear vision. We just can´t blame 1 player for wasted chances when whole team screwed up theirs but he had enough chances to make it 2-0.

Substitutions:

Arshavin, Ramsey (X) – They both tried but no breakthrough at all.

I just can´t believe our f*cking bad luck, Hennessey saves were unbelievable. It seems to me that players just don´t want us to get into Top 4 or I don´t know. Depressing result!

That´s been our case for last few seasons every time we know we just have to win the game: we score in early stages, then we still end up fighting for it, searching for that one extra goal and then suddenly it´s 85th min.  It´s all square and we can´t find that one goal which would give us 3 points.