Mesut Özil Makes The Difference But Laurent Koscielny Is A Liability

Sunderland (1) – (3) Arsenal
Giroud 11′, Ramsey 67′, 76′
The Stadium of Light, Sunderland
Barclays Premier League

An away game against struggling Sunderland was the scene for Mesut Özil’s Arsenal debut, after signing from Real Madrid for a club record fee of £42.3 million.

And it didn’t take him long to make an impression. On 11 minutes, he cooly controlled a ball over the top with his first touch and laid on a great chance for Giroud with his second, and the Frenchman duly obliged by slotting in at the near post.

Özil was particularly unplayable in the first 45 minutes, creating 4/5 excellent chances for his new club – some of which Theo Walcott really should have scored. We were dominant in the first half and Walcott’s wastefulness in front of goal looked to have dearly cost Arsenal just after the break.

On 48 minutes, Koscielny – not for the first time this season – panicked in the box and brought down Adam Johnson for a stonewall penalty. Craig Gardiner dispatched the penalty and the sides were all square.

The Mertesacker/Koscielny partnership was excellent in the final 10 games of last season but at times this season the Frenchman has been erratic at the back. He’s already conceded two penalties this season, and had a red card to boot. Whether he’s lost some confidence or he’s just out of form, it is worrying as better teams than Sunderland won’t let us get away with these fundamental mistakes. Vermaelen is close to full fitness and Arsene has to make a decision whether he should drop Koscielny until he gets his form back.

If the first half was all about Özil, then the second was all about Ramsey. After Sunderland equalised they had a dominant spell in the game where they looked much more likely to score. Fortunately for us, with a bit of luck (which we don’t usually get) and some last ditch defending, we managed to keep the home side at bay and then Ramsey popped up with a massive goal.

A cross from Jenkinson (who I’ve said for a long time is better than Sagna at crossing) found Ramsey on the edge of the box who smashed a low volley into net – a goal of superb technique and great significance at that point in the match. After that, Sunderland’s heads dropped and after some smart interplay with Giroud gave Ramsey his second goal which was well deserved.

Ramsey has really come on leaps and bounds over the last 18 months and is a massive player for us now. Giroud is in a strong vain of form at the moment and Özil adds that touch of class to the team. Would Arsenal have taken all 3 points without Özil in the team yesterday? It’s hard to say but we’ve seen Arsenal of old struggle with games of this type – and at times we did struggle. It would be nice to believe that having a world class player like Özil gave us that extra confidence and determination to get us over the line against Sunderland. Typically when we’ve seen Arsenal struggle in games it has ended in a draw or even worse, a defeat.

But yesterday, we fought hard and managed to take home all 3 points.

 

22 thoughts on “Mesut Özil Makes The Difference But Laurent Koscielny Is A Liability

  1. Ridiculous talking about whether to Drop Koscielny or not. We are in the CL only because of him. He is out best defender. The second most important player in the team by fans voting. Try to find yourself a better topic to discuss about.

     
  2. Agree completely insane, been our best defender for many games.. one mistake and now he should be dropped.. Villa red card wasn’t a mistake by him, but by the ref.

    Is it only us with ‘fans’ like this? or do other clubs have the same rubbish fans that spend all their time hating on their own team?

     
  3. Homer,
    Quite right. Some people just can’t help themselves. I recommend a course of Prozac. If you can’t be happy being top of the league, perhaps here’s some deeper seated problem in the authors life which manifests itself in the social platform this blog provides.

     
  4. Bit harsh on the boss (Kos), not sure how dropping him gets his form back and much as I like tommy V, I’m not convinced by him and buying another defender isn’t needed. The three we have and the Bak are enough.

    That Ozil can play and Rambo isn’t too shabby

     
  5. It was one game against Sunderland lol And use think your World Beaters lol You know use overpaid for FROGGY ( £20 Million Pound to much ) We’ll see where use are come January,I’m thinking 6th…

     
    • Fucking yids lurking on our blogs. The best ur boys are gonna get is 10th! U bought a 100 million worth of shit players (bar eriksen) so don’t go running ur mouth. Ur shit, always have been always will be! North London is red! Forever in our shadow!

       
    • Also u think ozil is only worth 22 million… No wonder u have a shitty average team. Sold a world class player and bought a load of shit. Hahahahaha
      “Let’s all laugh at Tottenham, nah na nah na hey”

       
  6. Koscielny is a good defender but he needs to avoid such tackles in the box. Much as he may be innocent the tackles look ‘bad’ at a referee angle and this leads to arsenal conceding penalties.

     
    • @ simon. I could not agree more with you. Koscielny is playing well and gives 100%, 100% of the time.

      Against Villa he was wronged as for Sunderland’s s match, may be the ref was right.

      Like you say that type of tackle in the penalty area is not a good idea.

       
  7. IDIOT!
    I’m sick of reading such rubbish. The sort of fan that slagged off Giroud last season, not able to see his obvious class. Henry when he first came, and Kos, who I believe is the divisions best CB, one mistake “he’s a liability”, one goal and he’s the best thing since sliced bread. YOU’RE the liability, and the other wingers, who instead of making up the “twelve” man you want to knock the club at every excuse.

     
  8. That’s utter nonsense to drop a player that was one of our best over a whole last season. We still have only conceded 3 goals in open play over past 11 games – yes 11 !!
    Villa was ref mistake, and against Sunderland the penalty was questionable as well, definitely not “stonewall”. Bah !!!.

     
  9. Koscielny is no doubt a strong defender & an important one for us,vermalaen has a problem with nerves …kos is a fearless warrior but his been over-aggressive sometimes results in regular send offs & penalties,is not good for our his confidence & that of the team,infact after we conceded that penalty kos morale & the team dropped before that spark from Rambo.moreso,it can costs us points against rivals…but no doubt he is a fighter.

     
  10. you guys realize that not everyone is happy in life no matter what you do to please them, the author is just airing his frustration for the simple fact that we won a game yesterday. i think he need a shrink to clear his disturted views of life

     
  11. Koscielny is arsenals best defender. Also if you actually watched the match it was Kieran Gibbs shitty clearance that put koscielny in that situation what caused the penalty. If Gibbs didn’t give the ball away in a non threatening position there would have been no danger in the first place.

     
  12. You wana drop anything? Why not start with your thumbs.. Can’t believe you use them to type such “rubbish” as far as i’m concern koscielny is EPL’S best defender albeit his tackle on johnson was rather stupid but i believe he knew the ball was in his sight before he made the tackle unluckily his back foot caught johnson but his front foot missed the tackle, No doubt it was a penalty but in all..he was pretty solid at the back besides his not the only defender to concede a penalty.

     

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