Szczesny – 6 Made a few excellent saves (including one from point-blank range against Bryan Ruiz) but flapped at/missed a few crosses and was subsequently at fault for Fulham’s opener. Not much he could do about Zamora’s late goal.
Djourou – 5 Unlucky to have been sent off, but was always looking uncomfortable playing out of position on the right hand side.
Mertesacker – 7 Held of Zamora for most of the game, but was beaten to quite a few headers despite being ridiculously tall.
Koscielny – 7.5 A solid game from Kos, who took his goal well in the first half. However, he didn’t move before Steve Sidwell’s goal.
Coquelin – 7.5 Proved that he can play out of position, and looked reasonably comfortable at left back. He also worked well going forward, but was caught out of position on occasion.
Song – 6.5 A good game from our defensive midfielder, although he was lucky to not have picked up a yellow card because he did give away at least 4 or 5 fouls. Not as strong in the second half, but that is understandable. He has played a lot recently.
Arteta – 6 Deserves a rest against Leeds. Arteta simply can’t keep playing the full 90 minutes in every game, because he clearly was feeling the effects of having played against QPR only 2 days earlier.
Ramsey – 5.5 Doesn’t like to shoot when he has the opportunity, but played some nice through balls. Went missing from about 60 minutes.
Gervinho – 6 We should have had a penalty, but Gerv always makes the wrong decision from good positions. He really need to work on his finishing and decision making.
Walcott – 5 Same as Gervinho. His crossing was poor, he doesn’t shoot when he should, and he was quite rightly taken off.
Van Persie – 6 Couldn’t do very much given the poor service from Gervinho and Walcott, and was relatively ineffective for most of the game.
Subs:
Rosicky/Benayoun – 6 Neither had a great effect, but they put together a few decent passes and at least tried to push forward when we were looking for the winner.
Squillaci – 4 Completely at fault for Zamora’s goal and showed why he doesn’t play more regularly.
A bit harsh on ramsey, I thought his engine was excellent especially when others looked tired and I don’t think he chose not to shoot that many times, I think the main culprit for that is gervinho!! His decision making is shocking.
Coquelin is really impressing me, he is showing massive promise with his clear confidence in many positions which shows he must be a very intelligent and mature footballer for his age. Would like to see him in the middle a few times if the right game comes up.
i always think you are too generous, yet correct in some ways. I agree that Koscielny and coquelin were the best but 7.5 is a bit generous. I would give them both a 6.5 as there were quite a few errors everyone else would score between 4 and 6
Cheers for the comment. We always mark quite highly – a rating of 7/10 indicates they had an acceptable game. Most other websites/newspapers etc have a much lower ‘average’ rating, sometimes as low as 5.
for leeds we really need to use the squad, just not squillaci. trouble is we need some defenders otherwise we have to play kos and per. sagna, jenkinson, djourou, hoyte, bartley, vermaelen, santos, gibbs, botelho all unavailable due to injury, loans or suspension. the only genuine defenders available are koscielny, squillaci, mertesacker, miquel (which is likely to be the back 4) then there is hajrovic angha monteiro boateng and brislen-hall. there is also coquelin, yennaris, eastmond, song and meade that can do a turn there if needed. Think you will all agree, even though its only Leeds, we really need a couple of defenders by next Monday. Also we have swansea and man u just round the corner and the only defender likely to be back is djourou, i shudder at the thought of those 2 matches.
Squillaci isn’t Arsenal quality but your assessment is completely unfair. Coquelin is of equal blame (if not more) for Zamora’s goal. His contribution to stopping Zamora was that of a ball watching granite statue.
Agree that the overall assessments are a bit high considering the inability of the squad to finish and the general malaise/lethargy in midfield. Arteta and Ramsey both need a rest and Song is the most rested of the three.
Koscielny continues to improve and impress and Mertesacker is consistent in open field positioning and tackling. Despite the Zamora goal Coquelin impresses while being played out of position. I’m glad he’s with the club and hope he sees more time now that Frimpong is on loan. He doesn’t have Frimpong’s steel but is much more composed and intuitive at this point in time.
If nothing else I like Benayoun’s effort and heart.
I think the reason that we blame Squillaci more than Coquelin was actually summed up in your comment! “Coquelin impresses while being played out of position” – a proper LB should have been marking Zamora, but unfortunately Coquelin is not a LB, so he should be cut some slack for that mistake. It is a positioning mistake, and he is not used to having to position himself in the back four.
Excepting that Coquelin had been on the pitch the entire game at left back and part of another. Squillaci had 5 minutes on the pitch and was playing out of position and without the benefit of preparation in practice . Both made errors on the play and excuses can be made for both. My point is that I don’t agree with the author’s evaluation.
Fair enough! Both of them shouldn’t be defenders for Arsenal – although Coquelin will be a very good midfielder I’m sure!
I agree coq was best &sz made a mistake for both goal.