2-1

"We dropped physically in the second half because many players are not used to that level"

"It was a positive performance but not a positive result"



Pointless game - hoping that our mentally strong jaded first team players have had some rest and have had time to fix the handbrake.

Rosicky was by far the best player we had, and hopefully he can give the first team a boost for half-dozen games before he gets injured again.

Watching games like today just confirms every weakness that Gervinho demonstrated before we signed him is true. A pile of dogshit on the pitch is more useful than him - at least an opposition player can slip on it. Still, Wenger will still be hellbent on proving us wrong by giving him as much time on the pitch as possible.

There's a serious lack of determination not to lose that runs througout the whole squad. It doesn't matter that this was a 'dead rubber' we shouldn't of lost that from the position we were in.

Too many players are just willing to accept defeat. Not good enough.

Didn;t watch the game but listened to the 5Live commentary. Started brightly with Rosicki at the centre of everything, even scoring. not much to talk about from the first half. The second was even worse, with Tomas being subbed Arsenal it seemed had no impetus or idea. The only two to come out with any credit were the full backs!! Oxlade huffed and puffed but the likes of Ramsay, Gervinho and Chamakh were practically non-existent. I know we had already qualified for the knock-out stage, and in truth whether you finish top or second, the next opponent will still be formidable, but we now face the possibility of meeting the likes of Barcelona / Dortmund. Going back to the performance, The likes of Gervinho and Chamakh, imo, should be moved on asap. The former is like an headless chicken, all pace with no end result, ok he did set-up the goal, but week in and week out he promises but does not deliver. Chamakh, is first touch is atrocious and added to that he cant hold the ball up to bring any one into the game. Ramsay is not the player he was before he had the misfortune to break his leg, he used to be quite good as an attacking m/fielder, now he seems to have lost all vision and drive and, as a result, is torn between defending and attacking, the former being his worst attribute, with too many stray / careless passes. Sorry to be so negative but these players give me no joy or confidence at the moment

Our first meaningless game of the season. Don't feel like Danny on the nature of defeat, after all the team contained several individuals that get regularly railed against on these forums. We're already through, we'll take our chances in the last 16 with whoever we get, draw a line under this one and the season starts again on Saturday.

A winning mentality breeds success, and I just dont see it anymore. Meaningless game or not, they still wear the Arsenal badge on the pitch, and if they arent bothered then this becomes a cancer in the club. There was no pressure on the players this evening - they had the opportunity to play the beautiful football that Wenger has been known for, but they could not perform. Go back 10 years and see our 2nd team play - a world apart from out 1st team now.

Team full of players that get regularly railed on these forums? With the pressure off, they had an opportunity to express themselves but nothing. Its not as if Ramsey and Forehead are bit part players - they have featured often in our first team

No fight in the players. No hunger. We had been known for pretty football with no end product, but even the pretty football has disappeared.

Mucky, yep, agree they're wearing the badge and should show some pride but like I said there were players tonight who have little or no future here and don't see it like we do. Did you think Squillaci, Arshavin and Chamakh were going to bust a gut tonight? Most of the guys who need to re-discover the winning mentality weren't there tonight.
Yes, players who get railed against. Let me see, Squillaci, Chamakh, Arshavin who are all going, Gervinho who got classily compared to dogshit tonight, Ramsey who gets slagged relentlessly, Rosicky who plenty were drumming out of the club in the last week or so and now is a shoo-in on saturday. Add a couple of newbies and a difficult place to play in and the omens weren't good. An untypical side for an untypical game.

I'm not too bothered about this result providing the justification for resting so many players gets results over the Christmas period, a time of year when I do actually believe tiredness becomes an issue for footballers not an excuse like everything up to now. It's OK players being tired and resting them but they have to do their jobs properly when they come back into the team. At Arsenal that is no guarantee, most of our first team coast through matches anyway as if they are sitting on the couch at home so I doubt having a night off will change their mentality.

Chamakh showed more last night than he has in the last 2 years, I don't know whether that was to put himself in the shop window or to show Wenger to stop playing Gervinho and play him, a think probably the former. He wasn't exceptional but seemed motivated, something he has seriously lacked for a long while.

What!!!!! Not used to playing at this level. Im sorry that is complete and utter bollocks.
So szchezny, vermaelen, rosicky,arshavin,ramsey and gervinho arent used to it??? And to a lesser extent the ox, aninternational player now, and jenkinson who has played at this level when sagna has been out. Even chamakh is an international player. The only ones genuinely not used to this level were coquelin and meade. The others could at least have shown a bit of personal pride but it seems they dont have any.

Chamckh was decent, dont think Squillachi was that bad either to be honest, the whole defence was ok.

But little creativity and poor ball retention evident throughout.

Agree with you - robinyourpersie, the guys you mentioned played OK.

The game was there for the taking, terrible choice of pass time and again around the box, terrible mindless dribbling and passing from gervinho and anonymous play for Arshavin, Oxlade Chamberlin and to a lesser extent Ramsey.
Coquelin put in a shift, as too did Meade.

Also what the hell is this tactic of giving Scezny the ball and letting him punt it upfield.

Finally the persistence with 4-3-3 leaves us exposed time and again down the flanks with 2 on 1, Jenkinson was continually out manouvered by simple give and goes, not entirely his fault as the Ox was often 3 yards nehind the man he should have been tracking.

I know, and it's made even worse by nobody playing that near to Chamckh (or in general games - Giroud) meaning that if the ball is won, it still goes to the opposition, it drives me mad.

Apologies for comparing Gervinho to dogshite. I have to realise that some people here have a lot of affection for some of the players. Its not Gervinhos fault that he wears the badge and is chosen time and time again to play and Im sure he tries as hard as he can.

But... I think the fact that I am genuinely looking forward to the African Nations Cup just so that we don't have to see this sorry excuse of a footballer for a while says it all.

Come on the Elephants - all the way to the final please and then make sure the brainless wonder loses his passport while he's out there

No worries, Mucky. I'm as frustrated as you are with him, just thought it needed a bit of context. I think we'll all be cheering the Elephants on.

Not sure if it says more about the form we are in or me that I was fairly pleased with that. My big issue was that as the game drifted from us, once again Wenger (Bould was guilty of this in his games), nothing we done from the bench to try and get a grip.

Midfield was a problem, we failed to win the ball so left our defence exposed and despite the break up the pitch. Thought some of our lesser lights in defence played quite well, Squillachi perhaps came up short but put in a good effort and Mee looked a decent player. I was quite pleased with three of our front three, they couldn't get any service after an hour: Arshavin came on and showed he still has the craft to unlock defences, Gervinho kept takiing the game to Olympiacos, constantly carrying the ball forward and trying to make things happen. Chamakh deserves more of a chance after his performances here and against Reading, yes he was clearly rusty so things didn't come off but he kept making a nuisance of himself, trying to get on the ball, trying to unsettle things. If he had more game time before then, think more chances would have been created by him in that first hour.