RSSGallas gets another Tony Adams goal: report and player ratings
Dived at the feet of a forward effectively on a one on one and is generally miles away from the jittery wreck of four years ago.
7
Beaten for pace on one early attack, but that was probably just because the guy was really fast. Worked hard.
7
A goal when we really needed it. Seemed fairly composed otherwise.
7.5
Loaning him out was an idiotic decision. Let’s now hope he can kick on and really improve.
7
Slightly more jittery than usual with the odd misplaced pass. But the usual work rate was there too.
6.5
Does decent stuff occasionally but struggled to impose himself on the game really.
6
Does not yet have a massive presence but was cool and intelligent on the ball.
7
The impressive assist for Adebayor aside, he lost the ball far, far too easily.
6
Ah comrade, how I’ve missed you. Watching Eboue is like playing football on the computer. For a start, there is that almost robotic running style. Then there are the almost comical remonstrations when fouled. Then there is the dribbling, when you hold down the X button for extra pace but then realise you are running out of space and need to take your finger off the button and do something else. That’s when he goes down a blind alley.
There is also the attempt at crossing where you hold down for far too long and the ball loops miles out of play. And finally you have one of those moments where you press about five buttons at once and suddenly pull off the most incredible piece of skill. 6.5
Not really a hell of a lot to say really. Average.
6
Did not have a lot of service and did not manage a lot. But got his goal, which is what he’s paid for.
7
Some things worked, others didn’t. Got stuck in.
6.5
Almost got in within seconds of coming on.
6.5
Twente 0 Arsenal 2
YOU may have heard that William Gallas was a bit of a dick at Birmingham last season.
In fact, you’ve probably heard that something like 26,354 times from the pundits who seem incapable of uttering his name without harking back to that dark moment.
One thing they are less keen to mention is his uncanny ability to pop up with goals just when his team need them most.
Last night’s scrambled effort in Holland was as Tony Adamseque as you are ever going to get: a long free-kick slung in and the defender there to force it over the line.
And it was no one off. Gallas scored four times last season: to break the deadlock with ten minutes left at home to Wigan, the massive last gasp equaliser against United, the winner against Chelsea and the start of the incredible fightback at Bolton.
Criticise the man by all means, but be fair.
Last night we were indebted to his goal. It took the sting out of Twente and when Adebayor slotted a second from one of Theo Walcott’s very few positive contributions, we had ourselves a great result.
We struggled principally because we had a reserve midfield that the rest of the side were wary of giving the ball to in tight situations. Ramsey, who I thought did well, and the average Denilson, were not trusted to get out of tight corners in the same way Cesc is.
Talking of Cesc, without him there is a slight whiff of ordinariness. More in tomorrow’s season preview.
Up front Adebayor and RVP has never been one of the great partnerships and nor did last night suggest any great hope of that changing. But that said, they do seem to work in the sense Adebayor gets plenty of goals and RVP tends to pop up with them when nobody else looks like getting one.
We did only score six fewer in the league than United last year.
Overall, this was a great result and the best possible preparation for West Brom, when for me the season really starts.
And on a very positive side note, I ended the curse of watching games in my flat.
14 August 2008 at 7:48 am
Very well said playa.
Loosen up on Gallas folks.
That aside, I liked the Gallas Djourou pairing at the heart of the defence last night.
14 August 2008 at 7:58 am
Considering the length of time that we had Eduardo and RVP out last season, to score only 6 goals less than United is an excellent achievement.
I was actually disappointed with Ramsey last night. I know he is only 17 and this was his competitive debut, but he seems to play far too much facing our goal. It put him in a few difficult situations, as it did against Sevilla. Wenger needs to step up the search for a midfielder (preferably 2). Several of the proposed options are now cup-tied for CL (Cana, Yaya, Alonso)
14 August 2008 at 8:01 am
I couldnt agree with you more mate Gallas is a winner, but also sometimes hes a right bastard, more winning less bastardising and were sorted
14 August 2008 at 8:06 am
Ugly but through that’s all that matters. Be a different story when full team out
14 August 2008 at 8:17 am
gallas works hard, defend well and get a goal. he and djourou looks good in center defend. walcott and van persie seems to have a bad day last night but they both come out with an assist. i say this is title winning team. play badly but still win and players that look like have an off day still have major contributions.
14 August 2008 at 8:23 am
Ramsey is lightweight. He is the reason we couldn’t impose ourselves on the game. He’s not at this level yet. But he’s British so you rate him high. Good for you.
14 August 2008 at 8:31 am
I thought Denilson did a lot more work than Ramsey and grew into the game. He’s also not small anymore. I would have reversed the ratings.
14 August 2008 at 9:07 am
Last night you realised how much Hleb will be missed, nobody in our midfield could be consistently trusted to recieve the ball under pressure and keep it.
We need Cesc and Rosicky back ASAP.
Totally agree about Gallas, its a new season and time to get behind the captain and the rest of the team.
14 August 2008 at 9:23 am
Best… Eboue… Review… Ever!!!
14 August 2008 at 9:32 am
Ahh dammit I cant comment
14 August 2008 at 9:34 am
I had typed a whole comment and then got an error msg, sorry for the comment above.
What i was saying was the played 4-5-1 to our 4-4-2 which was silly of Wenger, cos Ramsey and Den were outnumbered in midfield. Also they were playing 11 behind the ball for 60 minutes, and our young midfield didnt have the experience to play the ball around in the final 3rd.
On a side note, And i dont give a F*ck about the scousers, but £50 million ‘Best strike force in Europe’ What a joke. Just goes to show you can spend loads of money and have the most experienced players but they not going to guarantee you a win
14 August 2008 at 9:51 am
Fair post as always, ‘playa.
14 August 2008 at 10:28 am
I agree with rating Eboue higher than Walcott (who was anonymous for most of the game). The real strength to Eboue’s game is his positioning when we are in defense. Very little ever comes down our right flank. I think the real problem is his own lack of confidence in both shooting and beating players. He just finds it easier to draw the foul. If he would just stay on his feet and bloody play, he could be a half decent squad player.
14 August 2008 at 10:41 am
Morning all
Great eboue review, i dont think anyone could have summed him up better than that!! However, he has a decent performance last night.
I would also swap the rating for Denilson and Ramsey!
I thought Djourou was good at the back, hope wenger starts him on Saturday! Walcott wasnt great, but neither was anyone else, when fab and co are back in midfield he will get the service he needs. The team wasnt playing to his strength (Pace) we should have tried to play more balls in behind to him, as the first time we did that he got an assist!
14 August 2008 at 10:50 am
I think you overrated Theo and Ramsey.
Ramsey and Denilson’s ratings should be switched. Ramsey was out of his depth(understandably so). He didn’t really defend that well, and with most of his passes going backwards, he added very little to any attack.
Theo was very poor throughout the match, I forgot he was even playing and on the rare occasion that he got the ball, he almost always lost it.
14 August 2008 at 11:27 am
Hey Goodplaya
Any idea who the new signing will be?
14 August 2008 at 12:00 pm
Why would goodplaya know that?
Ramsey did very well for the type of game he was thrown into. Im sure Wenger gave him instructions to keep it simple and to look for support from the defence.
14 August 2008 at 12:09 pm
I think Ramsey did OK. It was a bit of a step-up for the lad so we shouldn’t expect to much. One of the problems with the midfield last night was that none of the players closed down the position quickly enough. We gave their five man midfield too much time and space, allowing them to pass their way through us. No-one got tight enough.
14 August 2008 at 3:07 pm
[...] generelt havde en god dag (Man så endda Eboue i et par rigtig fornuftige aktioner. Læs iøvrigt Good Playa’s meget rammende playa rating om Eboue). Ramsey og Denilson virkede mere sikre end jeg havde forventet, og Theo og Ade var… [...]
14 August 2008 at 5:09 pm
Wenger loaned Djourou out last season because Djourou asked for it. He wanted guaranteed first team football, AW couldn’t guarantee it so Djourou asked for a loan-out. If AW had not agreed, Djourou might have been too disgruntled and asked for a transfer.
14 August 2008 at 5:39 pm
Pretty fair summary but like many others I cannot understand how anyone can rate Ramsey,s performance as being better than Denilson.Can only assume,as someone else suggested,it’s because he’s British and you are trying to hype him up for that reason.
14 August 2008 at 5:48 pm
I don’t think Van Persie was that bad, he showed some nice pieces of skill and got an assist, but his yellow card was absolutely idiotic.
14 August 2008 at 6:05 pm
Nothing to do with Ramsey being British… I just thought he did ok, particularly given his age and experience.
14 August 2008 at 11:22 pm
I have a funny feeling that Song could be our Flamini this season.
15 August 2008 at 7:36 am
blimey! swish new logo. well done
15 August 2008 at 11:26 pm
wish lassana diarra was still at arsenal, he could have slotted into flamini’s position easily eventhough he’s got some attitude problems