Arsenal 2-1 Sp*rs: Player Ratings
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Barclays Premier League
Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham Hotsp*rs
ARS: Adebayor (47) , Bendtner (74)
CUNTS: Berbatov (65) , Keane (71- missed penalty)
Emirates Stadium
Manuel Almunia
Played well and made a VERY important penalty save. Some might blame him for the goal but I think the shot was hit with so much power that it just flashed past him.
Player Rating: 8 *MOTM
Bacary Sagna
Pushed forward when he could but a lot of his runs went unnoticed by the Arsenal players as Eboue frequently ran inside inside of playing 1-2s with Bacary like they usually.Still had a good game though.
Player Rating: 7.5
Kolo Toure
As always a rock in defence. His partnership has become very important to this team and losing him to the ACN will be a big loss. Gave away the penalty but thanks to Almunia went unpunished. His speed made sure that no Sp*rs player could get past the Arsenal back line.
Player Rating: 7.5
William Gallas
Was silently doing his job which is always a good thing for a defender. Got rid of danger with minimum fuss, perhaps should have tracked down Berbatov faster for the Sp*rs goal.
Player Rating: 7
Gael Clichy
Like Sagna played well but did not get the service when he went up. Although he didn't get to push up as often as Sagna due to Sp*rs playing Aaron Lennon very high up the pitch. Kept the mini-dude quiet for the most of the match, his speed makes it hard for any forward to get past him easily. Make countless interceptions with broke up numerous Sp*rs attacks.
Player Rating: 8
Emmanuel Eboue
Like most of Arsenal's attacking players played well below what was needed. Made a few good passes but didn't make much of an impact and went inside too many times when the obvious choice would have been to pass to the overlapping Sagna.
Player Rating: 5.5
Matthieu Flamini
Was the leader in midfield. Which was very important today as Hleb and Cesc were not as good as they usually are, Cesc especially.Controlled the midfield well. Hope he doesn't leave, sign the new contract please Matthieu. Though he didn't do too much defending, it proves that we need a DM that can also attack which to me would signal the end of Gilberto's time at the club. A commanding performance, but nothing to go hyper about. It just shows how bad the rest of the midfield played.
Player Rating: 7.5
Cesc Fabregas
Didn't do too much until he set up the opening goal. Almost all of his through balls were cut out easily and was robbed of the ball quite a few times in the Arsenal half. Having said that, the assist for Adebayor's opener was just as important as that Almunia save, what vision! Average performance.
Player Rating: 6.5
Tomas Rosicky
Largely ineffective and was pretty much absent in the first half. Played the perfect ball to Cesc for the opening goal but besides that didn't too too much until the last few minutes. It looks to me Rosicky looks best when Arsenal are not the counter and seems to disappear when Arsenal play are forced to push forward.
Player Rating: 6.5
Alexander Hleb
Was his usually tricky self. His first touch and turn is probably one of the best in the business. But like Cesc, his passes went nowhere and was caught out in Arsenal half more than once.
Player Rating: 6
Emmanuel Adebayor
Did exactly what his job was. Chase the ball and hold it up until help arrived. Cant blame him for the below par performance from the midfield today and took his goal excellently. There was this one occasion when Ade worked his butt off to pressure the Sp*rs defence and crossed the ball to the with an over head'ish kick only for there to be no one else anywhere near the box.
Player Rating: 8
Nicklas Bendtner
Well he was deployed to get the winning goal and he did it in. Can't say much else. Like Adebayor was chasing shadows in the last few minutes as Sp*rs threw everything forward.
Player Rating: 7.5
Gilberto Silva
Didnt play long enough to be given a rating.
Player Rating: -
Like the ratings show, the Arsenal side were full of 6 and 7s. This would have been another draw last season but this season the side have showed that they have the resources to change things when needed. Interesting enough, the midfielders were playing well below par today, whether it was good tactics from Juande Ramos or just a bad performance, I don't know. But the defenders stepped up when needed. When we were losing the ball in midfield, Toure pushed up and put a little more aggression in attack. Let's hope we don't see a performance from the midfield like this again, what if we played a side with actual quality today? :D
I know a lot of you do not agree with my ratings, feel free to post your views in the comments section below. Just click the red link.
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posted by highbury1913 @ 11:28 pm | |
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