- Pundit heaps praise on Arsenal star Declan Rice
- Arsenal showing ‘strong’ interest in signing Raphinha
- Arsenal ‘gaining in confidence’ to sign Bruno Guimaraes
- Arsenal ready to spend £60m to sign Michael Olise
- Arsenal have Marcus Thuram as Joshua Zirkzee’s back up plan
- Ferdi Kadioglu has agreed to join Arsenal this summer
- Arsenal eye swoop to sign Amadou Onana this summer
- Arsenal lead race to sign Bologna star Joshua Zirkzee
- Arsenal ready to sell trio to fund Bruno Guimaraes deal
- Arsenal target Xavi Simons can only leave PSG for a hefty fee
Player ratings: Poor Arsenal bottle it after gifting Palace a point
Arsenal once again bottled the chance to put some pressure on the top two after throwing away another two points with a 1-1 draw against Crystal Palace this afternoon.
These are my player ratings:
Cech 5 – Very poor for the equaliser as he got a full hand to Bolasie’s strike but failed to keep it out.
Bellerin 6 – Showed plenty of attacking intent down the right side but once again his delivery was disappointing.
Koscielny 6 – Made some important interceptions but nearly gifted Palace a winner with a mistake at the death.
Gabriel 6 – Put in a couple of decent recovery tackles but was dragged out of position a few times.
Monreal 6.5 – Also got forward on several occasions but like Bellerin, Nacho’s final ball was lacking.
Coquelin 6.5 – Solid in front of the back four and certainly put himself about to break up play.
Elneny 6 – Kept things simple but perhaps we needed a little more invention in the middle of the park to open Palace up more often.
Iwobi 6 – Not as influential as he has been in recent weeks but still worked hard in attack.
Ozil 7 – Showed his talent with some lovely touches and almost scored superb free-kick.
Sanchez 7.5 – Great header to open the scoring shortly before half time and was always a threat but spurned a couple of other decent chances to kill the game off.
Welbeck 6.5 – Found space hard to come by against a deep Palace back four but assisted the opener with a lovely ball.
Subs:
Giroud 5 – Ineffective after coming on for Welbeck.
Ramsey 5 – Made no real impact off the bench.
Walcott N/A
Disappointing is an understatement. We lacked any real passion or motivation and the players looked as though they were just going through the motions. They showed no desire to make a real statement and put pressure on the top two by beating a very poor Palace side who were there for the taking. Now, we’re back to fighting for forth place.
I’ve fought his corner for years but sadly it looks like Wenger has taken this squad as far as he can. He can no longer motivate them and he’s not getting the best out of the team. Time for change this summer….