Schalke Review

Well.. That was abysmal.

I have spoken about how highly I rate how Gibbs has been playing this season, and a night like this really shows how poor the alternative is. Santos is not Arsenal quality. The commentators were saying that his attacking prowess may make up for his defensive incompetence, but I don’t agree at all. Santos didn’t provide a great deal going forward, except for maybe an extra man near the box.

Not only is Santos worse than Gibbs defensively, but Podolski seems to disappear when Santos is playing. I’m not quite sure what the exact reason for that is, but it needs to be sorted out. I say give Coquelin a run at LB, or move Vermaelen wide and see what happens then. Vermaelen seem to like bombing forward so maybe he might actually do okay in the role.

I also though Coquelin was pretty impressive tonight. He worked pretty hard, and managed to contribute quite well to our midfield.

I’ll move straight onto ratings I think, I don’t really want to dwell on this one.

Mannone – 5: Goals weren’t really his fault, but he could have done better and he could have very easily given away a penalty if Afellay hadn’t dived.

Jenkinson – 6.5: Pretty solid in defence. Afellay is one of Schalke’s best players, and he was missing for most of the match mostly thanks to Jenkinson’s efforts. Maybe Jenkinson should have been marking him for the goal? I honestly can’t remember where he was.

Vermalen – 7: Once again, decent.

Mertesacker – 6.5: Not his best performance, I am having trouble remembering where he was for the second goal, and I can’t see him on the poor video I can find of the goal. He maybe should have done something for the first, but I think he though Huntelaar was offside, but Santos managed to stuff that one up.

Santos – 3: Wow. Not Arsenal quality at all. He wasn’t so bad last year when we were scoring goals almost non stop, but now his incompetence is really becoming an issue.. I personally think he was largely at fault for the first goal, and also for the second.

Arteta – 8 – MOTM: One of the few players who looked like they wanted to win today. Good performance, much like we expect week in, week out from Arteta.

Coquelin – 7: Looks promising, although when Frimpong, Diaby and Wilshere all return, I can’t see him being on the field too much to be honest.

Cazorla – 7.5: Good game, but didn’t have a great deal to work with. Fed Gervinho a few times, but as expected Gervinho did shit all with his service.

Ramsey – 6.5: Ramsey was also working really hard today, and tried to be creative a few times. Didn’t have the best of games, but I can’t imagine anyone in our squad doing any better.

Podolski – 6: As I said earlier, he was missing tonight. I personally think that it has something to do with Santos. He works hard and is quite a good player, but he and Santos work well together. Put a good cross in for Gervhinho, but it would have been hard for Gervinho to turn in.

Gervinho – 4.5: Its hard to win a game when your attacking play is going through a guy playing like this. He managed to mess up everything tonight basically. I was very angry when he dived. Racists and Chelsea players dive, not Arsenal players.

Subs:

Giroud – N/A: I know he was on the longest, but he didn’t get much of the ball. He probably wasn’t doing well himself, but I think the game was over by the time he was on.

Arshavin – N/A: I wanted to see him come on a bit earlier than he did. I think he would have been a good swap for Ramsey to try and get some creativity into our game. When he came on, though, the game was over, and the players knew it (and the fans who were filing out of the stadium). Didn’t really see much of him.

Gnarby – 7: Looked lively. Put a great shot on target late in the game, and also managed to put in what could have been a goal earning cutback. I like the kid, however, it makes me angry that when we need goals in a big game, he is our answer..

Well I’ll leave it at that. Hopefully this terrible run ends on the weekend.

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