Zac says:

I think our back four were excellent. Santos showed great offensive and defensive skills. Apart from arteta’s save and aoc goal, our midfielders lacked pace, creativity and the killer pass. Aoc will be great for arsenal and surely he deserves to start..”

LFS says:

This is my concern as well about Chammak, we’re given the guy too much credit for “working hard and shielding the ball”. Ok, he wasn’t bad, but was far away from being good. The guy isn’t a threat at all and seems too passive, just looking for someone to pass the ball to.

As I said, he’s no threat to defenders because he almost never shoots the ball and our style doesn’t give him too much crosses for his headers where he’s actually good at.

I don’t know, I have huge expectations for Marouane, and I try to defend him as much as I can, but he needs to step up, grow a pair, face the opposition, face defenders and score some goals, we desperately need another player scoring regularly, besides RVP and Walcott. We don’t need someone nice and calm, we need a striker who can score and terrifies defenses.

sam says:

hey we won!

got a bit embarrassed in the end coz we frustrated the greeks with few divings a la barca to win freekicks.
great result considering we had many players out, misfiring attack let us down we should have scored more.we’ve seen alex the ox its now time to bring park chu young.

WC says:

We still conceded from Arsene’s silly zone marking. Per had to try to mark 2 men of which one scored – that wouldn’t have happened if we worked on man to man marking which is far more effective and leads to less confusion in defending set pieces. You know who your man is and if there’s a goal, you know who’s job it was. Whereas in zone marking you can pawn off the responsibility to the teammate closest to you and there’s bound to be a free man around the box because player A thought player B would mark him and player B thought player A would get him.

Despite what Arsene thinks we need a proper defense coach.

Scott (USA) says:

Rosicky is not insync with anybody it seems. Frimpong is not ready for this level. Ramsey in the short appearance was shakey at best again. We really need someone in the midfield with Arteta. Arteta is quality but with Wilshere out we are really short in the midfield. It was good to get the 3 points but Sunday will be a very hard game.

Mark says:

Thankful we pulled out the win, but a very nervous one. Same old problems of turning the ball over way too much putting undue pressure on the defense (and not just from certain people, i.e. – Denilson) and not reacting quickly to things on defense (even the second time they did the short corner). I worry about how easily Sagna is being beaten to the end line over and over this season in 1 v 1 defending and either conceding corners or allowing dangerous crosses.

It’s good to get three points, but still has me worried about our form going forward, especially when teams are starting to really press us up high on the field more and more and getting good results when doing it. I wish once we would try and play that same kind of defense for a stretch instead of dropping back and letting people attack us.

Charlie says:

I didn’t get to see the game because it started at 2:30am here in China so for once i have no opinion but i notice the difference between the journalists and the fans. To read the journalists you’d think it was a very shaky defensive performance. I think that in the circumstances with Song out of position, Per having to get used to yet another defensive partner and an inexperienced DM we should be happy with the win. Walcott, RvP, Gervinho and hopefully Kos and/or Djourou will be back for Spurs then Vermaelen back for Sunderland (my first ever trip to the Emirates). Only English team to record a win in Europe this week, i bet the biased journos hate that idea.

Yusuph says:

I love seeing Arsenal winning in an ugly way. AOC played very well on his debut, as for me Song is the man of match. I was expecting to see miyachi or park as sub not Gibbs.

Aminu says:

First of all congratulation all arsenal fans for being the only england team that win this week in champion league. I disagree with your rating over chamark, per, arsha. Even do cham did’nt score goal he played well and show him self by winning all our air ball and link up with the m.field deserve than 5.5. Per is motm he operate wel, clear the ball well and cover for sagna any time he overlap, on arshavin thank God we’ve many player that can play his position because his not ready to play like a professionaj.

Mikel says:

Chamakh played well,i think he need more game n a good creativity midfielder that will feed him the ball,kudos to all the players

Gerry Lennon says:

I think if you look beyond the obvious I think you wil find that, in an effort to make use of AOC, particularly after his goal, Sagna became the outlet ball from defence. Once the opposition work that out, they moved to cancel it. He was expected to do the work of three players, but in typical Sagna fashion, he did not shirk from it.
Rosicky was undoubtedly the weak link. More so than Arshavin imo, and it contributed to the above.
I was sorry Coquelin did not come on early in the 2nd half, disappointed he didn’t start in fact. He would have helped shore up the defence, allow Arteta to push further forward, and be an outlet for Frimpong. His passes would have kept their defence busy too. Perhaps his chance will come on Saturday?
I agree that Park would have been better than risking RVP.
I was amused at the Sky commentaters saying Arsenal were caught cold by the corner that led to their goal …. SO were their cameremen, as the ball was in play when they switched away from the goal area!

stewart says:

i dont understand why u put a faith on ramsey..u can see rosicky anger to him when to do counter attack.rossicky want to make a through ball.but what he do??just stand beside him and did not make run then loss a ball..he doesnt hve chmstry with anyone.believe me..then another one,when to counter.he in middle and the only one can provide assist for striker.bt what he do..pass a ball to defend to sagna which is behind far from him..waste a chance to make a goal from counter..very poor.i cannot see he play vs spurs..pleaseee

Jonesy says:

A few of your observations were spot on, particularly regarding Ox. In particular that lack of willingness to cover on defense and defend with urgency (particularly when he lost the ball). That’s not good enough. He and Arshavin (and even Theo) should look at how hard Ashley Young works for Utd. We need that kind of effort at both ends from our wingers.

Arshavin shouldn’t be on the pitch with the effort he puts in. Either show some leadership on ride the pine. If I have to watch him stand at the top of the box on another corner kick neither organizing the defense or doing any defending himself, I’m going to loose my mind. It’s not acceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated.

I like Santos but his positioning is still subpar. He’s caught inside way too often and if Arshavin is on his side then we know we’ll get punished down that flank.

On the positive side, we got the 3 points. I don’t expect us to have any “pretty” wins before the new year so I’m only concerned about the points. Arteta is growing into his role and it’s becoming clearer that our attacking threat is going to come from the wings with Gervinho, Theo, Ox, and hopefully Ryo at some point. We’re going to need to be efficient in front of goal and survive the defensive lapses that continue to plague us.

Good 3 points.

Kayciey says:

I disagree with your rating of Rosicky, the guy was massive. He created one goal and fouled an Olyppiacos player just outside the box. The guy could have scored. He is the reason why we won.

Cc says:

Good result,Arsenal still needs 2 do a lot of work on setpieces both ways(esp defensively) & we need 2 learn 2 intermingle shot power with our passing style of play 2 break down sturbbon defences. Alex was great & should play 6 more often if our defenders are injured till we buy another defender

davi says:

I think this game showed just how important it is to have better protection in front of the defence. The defenders individually did fine, didn’t really get caught out of position/playing people onside, but there was too much space in front of them. Of particular concern was obviously the lack of protection for the fullbacks. Both ox and arshavin just allowed their wingers through on occasions, and it hurt us. I was more surprised by oxlade, as he has looked very defensively responsible in the other games I’ve seen him in, but arshavin should be doing more – with his experience, he must know how dangerous it is.
Great to get the win, but I hope we will take notice. Perhaps it would even have made sense to put coquelin on instead of rosicky, particularly once we had that 2-goal lead. I know it was against shrewsbury, but we saw the benefits of the frimpong-coquelin shield in the league cup game, as both are very hard working, and with the two of them in midfield, one can go out wide to help the fullback while the other stays central.
I’m liking arteta more and more with each game. He’s not grabbing the headlines yet, but you can see that’s not his goal – he’s a team player first and foremost, and he does what is required for the team. A bit like wilshere, who wouldn’t have got the same press last year if he were a 29-year old spaniard, but his performances were obviously vital to us.

goon says:

Ramsey is very sloppy. I’d rather have Rosicky, even though he had a pretty average night. Rosicky attracts very much unfair criticism due to lack of goals. But he still had an off day.

big ernie says:

Mann ….. do you actually know anything about football – We put a team out to get a result and got one. We had a midfield of Arsh, Ros, Art, Frim and the Ox, the two most experienced (games played) arsenal players were Arsh and Ros ….. but both had shockers (a recurring theme with those two). The other less experienced Arsenal midfield did leave the defence exposed as they were more concerned on attacking and the gap between defence and attack was too big (I think Glen Hoddle even spotted this). But that is down to inexperience of the youngsters, so get off their backs and start supporting them FFS. Frim is going to be a class player, no doubt, but he’s inexperienced and will learn ……… so get off his back !! With regard to the senior players performance last night, the player for me that should get a kick up the arse is Arsh as he has the skill, just can’t be arsed. Ros is not good enough (not his fault) and Cham has no confidence, we know he can do it as he did it at the start of last year, but something has snapped in this head (I feel sorry for him when I see him out there, struggling). Bring on the spuds on Sunday and FFS get behind the team, support the team as this is going to be the toughest year in many a year and we might not come away with anything. Even if this happens, lets hear cheering not booing ….. support the Arsenal, not join the media band wagon of trying to tear the club apart, for whatever reason they are doing this ? …… Be a Shepard not a sheep !!

Bruce says:

Gibbs and Santos in the same starting 11 – nuts?

I’m thinking a 4-4-2.

Chesney
Sagna Mert Song Gibbs
Walcott Ramsey Arteta Santos
Gervinho RVP

Chairma Gallant says:

People should stop moaning whenever Arsenal concede a goal in a match because the players are not supermen,afterall we won the game last night and that is all that matters.Would some people have prefered a 0-0 scoreline?
Olympiacos played like men possessed last night and we could have lost if we were complacent.Kudos to our boys for a job welldone.I particularly doff my hat for Mert, Song,Santos and AOC. I think they were just awesome with their performance.
I am just pleased that Pat Rice will not be incharge when we play Spurs next Sunday , the man was panicking with his subs…
Now, three wins in a roll.Things can only gets better.

Chris123Y says:

I have to say I think you are far too hard on Arshavin, Rosicky and Chamakh, and way too lenient on Oxlade-Chamberlain. Chamakh helped so much off the ball its ridiculous people don’t see him as a wealthy addition to the squad (creating space for Oxlade-Chamberlain a classic example) and some headers he won he had no right to. I think Chamakh played with a lot more aggression in his game, which is an improvement – and until later on in the game he looked like if he just got the right cross he’d bury it tonight – that’s why we bought him. I think he played well at holding up the ball, battling on his own up front with defenders to allow the midfield to catch up. To call him ‘poor’ in that game is just not fair whatsoever.

Rosicky was on the pitch too clean up a few loose ends and tidy things up, like he always is due to his age and experience, and that at least I thought he achieved to a standard far better than ‘5/10′. He had lapses in his passing sure, but no more than ramsey, no more than arteta, and no more than even van persie in these past weeks. Rosicky is on the field not to make the killer pass or score, he’s on the pitch to provide backup for the who’s job it is to do that. So without being the front row of attack or last line of defence he will look inconspicuous, but he’s on the pitch to make both sectors of the extreme easier to deal with, by mopping up or being sufficiently creative in the middle of the park.

Finally, I just don’t understand where criticism of Arshavin is coming from anymore. I really think he’s turning the corner. He made a number of key chances and almost scored himself. He also provided more defensive cover than usual, and when Fuster scored we could have so easily done the Arsenal-esque complete capitulation which is so habitual for us these days, but that didn’t happen. Arshavin was one of few players to keep discipline and keep plugging away, and despite Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal, which was good and crucial, Arshavin’s performance surely exceeded Oxlade-Chamberlain’s in the duration of the match. I applaud the fans that cheer for Arshavin because I honestly believe if we get him back on form we can assure competitive performances right up until the January transfer window. For me, Chamakh 6.5 (good but not clinical enough), Rosicky 6 (the same reason), Arshavin 7 and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 6.5.

Although I completely agree with your assessment of the defense. I thought the lads at centreback were outstanding, and the goal Olympiacos scored was clearly trained before the game over and over in light of our terrible set-piece record. You could tell this because they had 3-4 set piece variations where they tried some drills. Astute coaching I feel, but you’re right again – we need to tighten up there if we want to win anything against a team that really could punish us.

Bouba says:

We cannot afford to defend like we did, otherwise we won’t make it…
What is the point of scoring 2 or 3 goals if you concede 4 or 5…???

The way we play will get better as Arteta is improving ( different than Everton system ), but we need to start sorting the defensive side of our tactics, because it is now embarrassing.

It feels like anybody could score against us.
What is Wenger, and whoever is working with, doing in training ???
He obviously needs some help… I hate this sensation that I have to wait until the final blow before knowing that we have secured a result…!! We are constantly on the edge, because we know that teams can come back easily while playing us.

It is obviously a collective thing, because Per and Kosc are good defenders.
We need to stop this zonal marking, that’s just suicide. It seems that we are willing to concede at every corner or free kick.

Sort it out Wenger !

harvey says:

AOC just score one goal and he is now like a superstar, what about the chance he had one on one put through by chamakh but finish poorly. Base on the overall performance defended poorly at times, was he the best player, i doubt that. I think arshvin had a very good game, almost scoring as keeper made a good save, excellect through ball to chamakh, as well as creating the second goal togerther with rosicky, crisp and accurate passing. Chamakh also had a good game link up play with the midfielders and creating chances as well. Way to go arsenal.

winn says:

Frimpong will be a great player for us, its only the start of the season. He played well. These kids need to be given time.!!! His defensive work is excellent. Coquilin will also be good for us. The OX scores and indeed its all about him at the moment. But he is a kid and has lots to learn too! . All in all Spurs game, has come too soon for me. But after that its the international break and TV will be available , and we will have a good squad fingers crossed!!