Always Arsenal Player Ratings

Arsenal 3 - 2 Aston Villa

Played: January 29, 2012 4:00 PM GMT
Emirates Stadium — London
Referee: M. Jones
Attendance: 60019

Goals: Richard Dunne 32′
Darren Bent 45′
54′ (PG) Robin van Persie
56′ Theo Walcott
61′ (PG) Robin van Persie

 

Player Ratings: Arsenal 3-2 Aston Villa:
2 RVP Penalty goal and Theo's fluke Goal overturn the tides of Aston Villa last night which helped us to advance to the next round

Lukasz Fabianski - 5
-It was not his day and unfortunate that his first 'save' from Bent rebounded straight back to the striker. We cant blame him though

Laurent Koscielny - 7.5
-Best Performer for Arsenal this season and he was comfortably out-jumped by Dunne for Villa's goal bur once again looked the most composed and dominant of Arsenal's defenders. Remember he won us the second penalty with his forward moves.

Per Mertesacker - 5
-Worst performance in 1st half, He was caught well out of position during 1st half. but He did played a decent game in the 2nd.

Thomas Vermaelen - 6.5
-He was attacking and a good forward move through the flank. A decent game but he was little jumpy at times in defense

Francis Coquelin - 6
-A promising return from his hamstring injury but he needs to work on his position as he was in trouble whenever Agbonlahor put his foot on the accelerator.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - 7.5
-He did had a good game but He made quite few wrong decision like when to pass or shoot. He was composed and he did had a good possession of the ball. Definitely a guy to look for the future

Aaron Ramsey - 7.5
-Poor in 1st half but damn good in 2nd. He won the first penalty with his fine run. he provided an excellent and intelligent link between midfield and attack. But he needs to work on his finishing though.

Alexandre Song - 6.5
-Had a good defensive play in the central midfield as he usual goes for attack. He provided the ramsey with his pass which helped us to get a penalty.

Tomas Rosicky - 6
-Some positives form his performance. He is getting fitter but slow pace denies him the penetration and he had a few weak shot. Later He was substituted by Mikel Arteta

Theo Walcott - 6.5
-Good to see him score even though it was a fluke. He had fair game and He can do better. And again Poor Crosses and penetration.

Robin van Persie - 8
-Star performer for Arsenal. Showed great composure to score two penalties and he outplayed GIVEN on both the occasion. In short He played the captain knock

Arsenal Transfers-WHAT HAPPENS BEHIND THE CLOSED DOORS

Arsenal Transfers-WHAT HAPPENS BEHIND THE CLOSED DOORS

Standing in his office, Sir Alex patiently awaits an important phone call. A polite knock on the door and a man’s voice breaks the stillness in the room.

“Alex, you have a call on the private line…”

“Oh, good.” he replied while already in stride towards his desk. “What have you got for me?” he said into the phone as it reached his face.

“Well, he’s up to his usual trickery.” the voice on the phone grumbled. “Had to call in extra tails because of all the switching of vehicles, but we were able to track them all.”

“Fine, you’ll all receive your bonuses.” Sir Alex said hurriedly. “Now who are the targets?”

The sound of ruffling papers crackled through the phone. “Let’s see, Wenger’s scouts seem to be most interested in a youngster at Schalke by the name of Draxler, another at Montpellier named Belhanda, and more importantly, Mathias Suarez a striker at Anderlecht.”

“Fantastic,” said Sir Alex, joyfully interupting as he jotted the information down on a notepad. ” any other teams he’s in contact with on the phone records?” he inquired.

The background sounds coming through the receiver transitioned into the familiar tapping sounds of a keyboard. “Yeah, Wenger has spent quite a bit of time on the line with the teams Fiorentina, Spartak Moskow, CSKA Moskow, Borussia Dortmund, Borussia Mönchengladbach and of course Lille.” The man jabbed at the keyboard a couple more times. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to completely trace some of the calls Wenger made to Brazil, Africa and The Middle East…but my sources in Brazil believe they saw one of Wenger’s undercover scouts at the Internacional v Gremio game.”

“Well, Once again you prove to be an indispensable asset, thanks for the work, and your money will be wired shortly.” Sir Alex said before ending the call. Leaning forward in his chair, he pressed the intercom button that connected him with his assistant.

“Yes Sir Alex?” a female voice chirped through the speaker.

“Be a good girl and patch me a conference call with Redknapp, Dalglish, whoever the bloody manager is at Chelsea, and the scarf-wearing Italian on line one would you?” He said in a patronizing tone.

After the conference call, all managers were in accord. All parties agreed to continue feeding the desperate media with as many bait Arsenal Transfer rumours as possible, taking turns outbidding any of Arsene Wengers targets, and paying other teams to make bids on current quality Arsenal players. Dalglish had voiced his worry about Wenger acquiring the Anderlecht striker Suarez; but Sir Alex assured the others that even if Wenger somehow miraculously managed to sign Mathias Suarez, despite all their obstacles, that he would just arrange another “Eduardo” incident.

As the day was getting late, Sir Alex perused his weekly planner to see if he missed anything.

“Oh yeah,” he murmured to himself. He had forgotten to wire the money that Juventus wanted for their participation in unnerving Theo Walcott. As well as the funds that needed to go out to all of the bloggers that are posing as Arsenal supporters (adam kemp & company), who play a critical role in turning Arsenal Fans against each other, convincing readers to be pessimists, spreading negativity and destabilizing the support for the team.

The End,

Always Arsenal

Arsenal 1-2 Man United

In an eagerly anticipated match where two of the best teams the premiership has ever had faced off in a crucial match for both teams. Arsenal had to win to close the gap on fourth placed Chelsea, while Manchester United needed the win to keep up the chase that had been set by city rivals Manchester city, a chase that had been further increased after city’s last gasp win over Tottenham Hotspur.

The match started well for Arsenal however a resolute Manchester United defence proved hard to break down for the gunners. Arsenal maintained pressure without ever creating any real clear cut chances and as a result Manchester United started to find their feet, eventually taking over the first half reigns that had been first se by Arsenal. Manchester United showed their metal by going onto create chances in the first half and deservedly taking the lead on the stroke of half time, with the goal coming at the worst possible time for Arsene Wengers men.

The second was a different story and Arsenal played a lot better spurning a couple chances to equalize with the heart of Arsenal, Robin Van Persie, spurning the easiest of them chances when he decided to put his laces through the ball rather than place it into a corner. A shot on goal that should have made it 1-1. Aaron Ramsey also missed a good chance to equalize when he managed to slide past a couple of United defenders but only to see his shot blaze over the bar. Arsenal started to increase the pressure and it looked likely an equalizer was going to happen, and it did. Alex oxlade chamberlain, who had been a constantly running at the United defence found a gap and passed the ball to Van Persie who shot it through the legs of the onrushing defender to score past lindegaard, off the post.

Arsenal were now looking for the winning goal but never really created anything and this was further hampered by the removal of the ever popular Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain, much to the dismay of the Arsenal faithful. The player coming on, however, didn’t lighten the mood of taking Chamberlain off as the not so popular Andrey Arshavin came on for him. The substitution even proved bemusing to leading goal scorer Van Persie. Arshavin’s form this season has not been good especially when compared to the form he showed when he first joined Arsenal and was scoring goals like he did at previous club Zenit. This substitution proved crucial as Antonio- Valencia broke into the Arsenal penalty box with Arshavin failing to halt the run when it can be said he should have done better. Valencia cut the ball back to Danny Welbeck who dispatched the shot from inside the box to give United the lead with 10 minutes to go. Arsenal failed to create any clear cut chances in the remaining 10 minutes and the United defence stayed strong to give them a crucial 3 points in their chase for a 20th premier league title.

This loss could prove suicidal for Arsenal football club as they remain 5 points behind Chelsea and a 10 points behind North London rivals Tottenham. Could this loss be the pivotal factor in them failing to qualify for the champions league, finishing behind Tottenham and could it be even further pivotal by failing to keep fans favourite and top scorer Robin Van Persie?