Goalkeepers: Chensey - 5/10 - A pretty disappointing season for the Pole, no longer the number one at Arsenal after being dropped for being a twat and smoking in the changing room, he is still very young for a goal keeper so I would not totally write him off but this season he has taken a few steps back in his development. Ospina: 7/10 - Good debut season for Ospina, but something about him is not right, at times he looks as dodgy as ****, and just does some wierd things. He seems like a good number two. Martinez - Great third choice keeper. Defence: Bellerin: 8/10 - The best youngster at Arsenal and his rise to the first team has been one of the stories of the season for us, unreal speed and always a threat going forward, which he showed by scoring two beauties, needs to to improve his defending but at his age that is only normal. Debuchy: 4/10 - A season ruined by injuries for him, but he did look pretty solid whenever he played. Chambers: 5/10 - Started the season well as a centre back but got found out at right back, especially by quick wingers, he had a nightmare against Swansea in particular, but he is still young and is a long term investment. Big ****ing German: 6.5/10 - Started the season very slowly but he did have a long summer in Brazil and did not have a pre-season, since the turn of the year he has been quality and the calm assured figure we need at the back. Kos: 7/10 - Hampered by an injury in the first half of the season and we missed him whenever he was out but thankfully he seems to be over that injury and has come back to form that great combo with Mert and we have looked pretty solid at the back since January. Gabriel: 6/10 - Not enough games to fully judge his potential, but whenever he was required, he did a solid enough job. Gibbs: 4/10 - Poor season for Gibbs, imo. He should have kicked on and established himself as one of the best left backs in the league this season but he has regressed and is no longer a first choice at Arsenal, he just switches off at the wrong time for me and at the high level we play, that is always going to be costly. Monreal: 8/10 - His upturn in form has been a happy surprise to most and has established himself as our first choice left back, with his strong form. Very good defender and rarely get beats in one on one's, sort of reminds me of Sagna at his best. Just a very solid defender who you can trust. Midfield: Coquelin: 8.5/10 - His return from Charlton basically in many ways saved our season, a very assured figure who has bossed some of the best teams in this league, his use of the ball is always very underrated, he keeps it simple but always picks the right pass. For me he can be our Javier Mascherano, who like Coquelin is not the tallest or strongest, but can read the game and can be fully committed in the one on one duals. Arteta: n/a Flamini: 3/10 - Poor all season on the pitch but does seem like he has a positive influence off it, but yeah probably needs to leave. Wilshere: 5.5/10 - Started the season well enough but got injured again and that ruined yet another season for him. He has still not found his best posistion and has struggled to find his way back into the first team, but he still has time on his side, and most important thing for him is to try and get through a sesson without get injured for months upon months. Ramsey: 6/10 - Nowhere near as good as he was last season and has also not been played in his best posisiton by Wenger and has also seen injuries affect his season, but Ramsey always has a goal in him and for that reason he is very valuable to Arsenal, also his all action style is a big plus. Tomas Rosicky: 5/10 - Whenever he has played he has looked like the same old Rosicky, but it's been another wierd season where Wenger does not play him for a long time or even name him on the bench for some reason. Santi Cazorla: 8.5 - Since Decemeber, this man has been utterly brilliant in that deep lying playmaker role. He is an utter genius at times and his range of passing is only matched by Ozil in our team, his ability with either feet allows him to open up the pitch in either direction, just like Inietsa or Xavi. His performance against Man City at the Etihad was the best indivdual performance by any Arsenal player this season, it was a 10/10 display. Mesut Ozil: 8 - Same problem as Mert in terms of performances in the first half of the season, because of the World Cup, he had no pre-season and therefore started slowly and then got injured shortly after anyway. Since his return, he has been top notch, to understand just how good this guy is you have to watch him week in week out and really watch him closely to see how good he is. His descion making when on the ball is just top notch, he always picks the right pass when it's on and the weight of that pass is always perfect, some of his deft touches are just out of this world, if this guy just added goals to his game and in order to do that he does need to shoot more at times because if he did that, he would be the complete attacking midfielder. Alex Oxlade Chamberlain: 6.5/10 - I think he had pretty good season in general, he was one of our better players in the first half of the season and his pace and trickery was valuable, he also seemed to learn a lot from Alexis and was getting around the pitch a lot more and learning to be more physical, but he is yet another Arsenal player who has had a season affected by ****ing injuires. Abou Diaby - Lolz. Alexis Sanchez: 9.5/10 - What a player, worth every penney we paid for him, the guy is just a superstar. But he does not act like a superstar on the pitch, instead he just works his socks off all game. Best debut sesson by any Arsenal player for a long time, when we could not get Suarez I was gutted but at least the summer after we got the next best thing to him (bet Liverpool fans wish they could have done the same thing ) Forwards: Theo Walcott: 5.5/10 - Missed the first half of the season and was clearly not physically right until the final few weeks of the season, but did deliver in our biggest game of the season. Olivier Giroud: 7/10 - sorry to repeat myself, but again this is a player who has had a season interrupted by an injury, and Giroud did well to come back from that and show actual improvement from previous seasons. For a while he was playing at a really high level, but did start to fade towards the end. Is he good enough to be a first choice CF for a team that wants to win the league? Not sure. Welbeck: 6/10 - I like Welbeck, he tries hard and can play upfront or on the wings, I am sure he wants to be a first choice player, but for me he does not have the quality to start for a team going for the title, but he is a good squad player to have.
Very good article - ftom me. I may have only given santi a 8/7.5 for the season as altho he has been a magician since the man c game, he was very poor at the start of the season. But when hes playing like he has for the last 4/5 months hes amazing and one of the best.
I think it's easier to form opinions on the latter half of the season as Arsene seemed to have finally decided on a formation. First half saw Santi play everywhere in midfield and the repeated experiments with Özil out on the left had me pulling my hair out. Saying that I'm not convinced by Aaron on the right either. I love his commitment but it's not his natural position and he's suffering there. My top 3 players from this season are Santi, Mesut and Alexis, with Nacho and Coquelin tied for an honorable fourth place!
I'll write up my ratings at another time but just a quick remark regarding Ches and Ospina; there's only a year between them. We either keep onto both of them or make a hard decision and choose one over the other and sign a truly WC keeper. I like Ospina but I still favour Ches despite his general twattiness and I think he has the potential to be a fantastic keeper if he can curb his immaturity. I might be suffering from Podolski-syndrome whereby Ches's social media presence is clouding my opinion though.
Yeah pretty much agree with all that. Except Sanchez is a forward and not a midfielder. I would also give Gabriel a higher mark. Not played much but was excellent everytime he did.
