The team went into this match in tremendous form, winning the last 9 games on the bounce and top of the Premier League.
Form wise, Napoli, were not too different, who had beaten Dortmund in the group, and who sit behind Roma in 2nd in Serie A.
We were however, too good.
Szczesny – 6 - A very quiet performance. A decent catch from a corner in the 55th minute, caught a shot at around 70 minutes. He is looking better in the air.
Sagna – 7 - A decent game, going forwards he perhaps wasn’t the greatest, but he won all of the 4 aerial duels he attempted and clearly played a valuable role in the clean sheet. The ball up to Giroud set up Ozil’s goal was impressive.
Mertesacker - 7 - Good tackle after a difficult ball into the box. A few important interceptions, but beyond that, the highlight was his obscene passing accuracy. The BFG misplaced 2 passes, while completing 71 of them.
Koscielny - 7 – A fairly predictable game for the Frenchman. Had a decent interception for a ball through to insigne. He had a chance to score that he didn’t quite take. Completely blocked them out of the game, reducing them to exclusively long shots.
Gibbs - 6 - Continued his run of good performances with a valuable clean sheet. His runs forward have never been bad, but he seems to have honed in on them more this season. Again, didn’t have too much to do defensively.
Flamini - 7 - Flew into tackles as usual, lucky not to give away a free kick in a dangerous position after trying to recover from losing the ball after slipping over. The “admiral” type player that allows the other midfielders to get forward and show off their creativity, best shown by Ramsey’s movement today.
Arteta - 7 - Not at his best, still coming back from injury. Even not at his best he is one of the most consistent players on any football pitch, a 95% pass accuracy is never a bad thing for a central midfielder.
Rosicky - 6 - Clearly coming back from injury, not at his usually sharp best, came off for Wilshere 62 mins. He wasn’t terrible, but gave the ball away too often and didn’t add an enormous amount going forwards.
Ramsey - 8 - Undeniably the best form of his life and it showed. I am pretty sure there isn’t a blade of grass he didn’t cover, as this pass map shows. His assist came from the right wing, while performing a sensational tackle outside the left hand side of our box. The kid can do very little wrong right now.
Ozil - 8 - A goal and an assist on his home Champion’s League debut. This took his tally of assists in the CL to 14, overtaking Messi as the highest ever. His passing was spot on, as always. Fully switched on at all times, the run for his goal, let alone the finish, were outstanding. Assist wasn’t too bad either. He will be overhappy by that performance
Giroud - 8 - Had a hand in both goals, setting up Ramsey brilliantly for him to lay it off to Ozil, before grabbing one for himself minutes later.
Just like Ramsey, he is in the form of his life, and grabbing goals for fun. His hold up play was brilliant and the link up play between Ramsey, Ozil and Giroud (especially in the first half) is something that I haven’t seen since, dare I say it, Henry, Bergkamp & Pires.
Subs
Wilshere - 7 - Had two crosses that probably should have met their man after coming on in the 62nd minute. Always seems to lack that final edge to becoming a truly brilliant player. He does, however, bring a dimension to the game that no other member of the squad really has, having 3 “take-ons” in half an hour, which was more than any other Arsenal player did over the 90.
Monreal - N/A - Late sub
A win in London meant that Arsenal have now won 10 games in a row, and are sitting on top of both the premier league and the “group of death”.
Wenger highlighted the importance of not getting carried away with this, given that it has only just turned October, but given the recent history, who can blame the fans for getting a bit carried away.
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