Rush for Toffee after Match and Player Ratings
By Boris Mellor and Matty Sadler
March 1 2015
After the match I felt a desperate need for sweets, when I got there the two bags of sweets for a £1 stall was besieged by an uncustomarily large crowd of Arsenal fans in the dire need of a sugar boost. Brian of BoF and myself burst out laughing as we realised what had happened. Yes 2-0 was good, and 3 points even better but it had been quite dire. Ah the wisdom of crowds. There had been some good invidual performances, and I don't see how Ozil only gets 5 here, maybe not being in the game is part of his genius as he had two assists, but the Gunners had only four shots on target, and Everton two shots on target, so none of it added up to very much. So it was all quite laboured with little real product for either team. Well enough of my musings Matty's ratings follow:
Ospina - 7. One shaky moment at the start of the second half, otherwise did very well. Still doesn't fill me with confidence though.
Bellerin - 7. Solid at the back and adventurous going forward.
Gabriel - 7. Shaky started but recovered and played really well.
Koscielny - 6. Not at his best but did okay.
Gibbs - 7. Solid. Responded well from Wednesday.
Coquelin - 7. Took a bit of a battering, but battled hard.
Cazorla - 7. Not at his best in the first half, but really good in the second half.
Oxlade-Chamberlain - 6. Looked lively and wanted to make things happen.
Ozil - 5. Never really in the game.
Alexis - 5. Poor, really out of form. Needs a goal and a bit of luck.
Giroud - 7. Started poorly and missed a sitter, but scored a great goal and grew in confidence.
Subs:
Rosicky - 6. Came on and scored via a deflection. Looked lively.
Welbeck - N/A. Not on long.
Chambers - N/A. Not on long.
Not a particularly good performance from us to be honest. Everton were probably the better team and we were on the back foot for most of the game. However, after the Monaco result, and United and Liverpool both winning, we needed a win no matter what, so that is all that matters.