Arsenal Squad 2018-19 Review

So the season has come to an abrupt end after all the build up into it. We got exactly what we deserved; nothing less nothing more: a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of our London rivals Chelsea.

Part of our latest failure among the long line of disappointments is our cancerous fan base. We have fans out there hyping up the finale, gassing up our players to an extent where it seems we only need to turn up in the final to beat Chelsea as the somehow subconscious belief that Chelsea won’t be up for it as they already have the Champions League in the bag narrative is spread on social media.

Perhaps this is where the mentality thing kicks in. Chelsea wanted a silverware and not just the by product of it. And we? Oh we wanted to somehow qualify for the Champions League by hook or crook. Silverware was kept secondary, and probably that’s where we lost the match even before it started.

yOu kNoW wHaT?

Its time for a performance review of our squad.

I have categorized players based on the performances this season in 4 levels:

• World class players are world class and are pretty much recognized as world class by fans and critics alike. They also turn up in the semis, the finals, the derbys and the big away matches more often.

• Then there are top players performing consistently but not quite at the level of world class players perhaps because they go missing in the big matches more often.

• After that comes players of good quality who puts a shift in every week, gives his 100% more often and performs fairly well (doesn’t hog the limelight, though performs well on a frequent basis).

• And then there are some who are a liability in the playing 11, doesn’t do enough to warrant a place in starting 11, goes missing in big games, puts a poor shift in week in week out. Players that ought to be shipped out of the club.

1. Outright world class players (9/10 performances consistently). [L1]
2. Top top players (8/10 mostly; just below the world class level). [L2]
3. Good player (7/10 performances consistently). [L3]
4. Average players (4-6/10 performances mostly) [L4]

Arsenal Squad 2018-19 players performances Review:

Defence	Midfield	Attack
Leno: [L3]	Guendouzi: [L4]	Welbeck: [L3]
Cech: [L3]	Elneny: [L4]	Aubameyang: [L2]
Bellerin: [L3]	Torreira: [L3]	Lacazette: [L2]
AMN: [L3]	Xhaka: [L4]	Nketiah: [L3]
Lichtsteiner: [L4]	Ramsey: [L2]
Jenkinson: [L4]	Ozil: [L4]
Mavropanos: [L4]	Mikhitaryan: [L4]
Sokratis: [L3]	Iwobi: [L3]
Koscienly: [L3]
Mustafi: [L4]
Holding: [L3]
Monreal: [L4]
Kolasinac: [L4]

Summary:

Players that I have struck out as you may have guessed are either not good enough to play for this club or are already leaving for pastures new.

I am not going to explain each and every player’s rating as most of them are pretty self explanatory. But there are a few on border line ratings.

Lichtsteiner, Mustafi and Monreal have been awful in defense throughout the whole season whenever they have played. While former and later have got no legs to sustain the athleticism, the lesser I write about Mustafi the better it is as I can’t put him in words.

In the midfield we have Xhaka boom! He takes a thousand shots, bangs one of them in, and our fan base melts and sees him as the next version of Gerrard. He is an awful little player who is one footed, can’t turn back, looses possession in our own half, directly involved most number of times in giving away goals leading to his mistake, gives away frequent gifts by hacking down players wildly in our penatly box.

Mesut Ozil: Sitting on 350k a week is our so called “assist king” Mesut Ozil. Though he can’t dribble past any player, lost his whatever little pace he had over the years, can’t beat a man one on one no more, but yeah he is our assist king so lets pull up his meaningless, pointless previous stats to defend him no matter what he does. His once excellent range of passing has gone downhill and what is left of him is invisible to all of us.

He had Auba & Laca to play with but still hardly created chances on a frequent basis over the course of the season and with only putting someone on through to the back of the net twice, he is no more the assist king. Playing with him in the side is like playing with 10 men. Arsenal should try to do away with a player like him.