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Arsenal vs Hull City Player Ratings

By on September 29, 2008

Hull City's Man of the Match: William "Captain Wack" Gallas

Arsenal’s “Jekyll and Hyde” season continued last night as they floundered against newly promoted Hull City.  Credit must be given to City for playing a fantastic match, but what must be more closely scrutinized is the complete lack of passion or desire that most of the squad played with last night.  Arsenal found themselves having one of those frustrating games in the first half, but came out in the second looking ready to play.  An own goal put the Gunners up but Hull came back with an amazing strike from Geovanni and then, in typical Arsenal fashion, the “captain” William Gallas conceded a goal off of a corner.  Time slowly dragged on and the game came to full time with Hull City beating Arsenal by a score of 1-2.

Almunia: 7 Solid game with solid distribution.  Cannot be faulted really for either of the goals.  No one was ever going to stop the first and the second off the corner was perfectly placed.

Sagna: 7 Good game getting forward and good recovering in defense.  The Frenchman was able to track back fairly well in defense.  Again he proved a vital part of our attacking game as he linked up well with Theo and put in some decent crosses.

Toure: 6 Kolo did not have a particularly outstanding game and, to be honest, I am having a hard time remembering anything he really did.  He never really seemed there on the pitch and perhaps that was his problem.  Where was he when Geovanni needed to be closed down?

Gallas: 4 Horrible, Horrible game from the “captain”.  What is so mind-blowing is that this is the second game Arsenal have lost due to  a Gallas mistake.  I cannot believe how little conviction Gallas seems to approach these games with.  He shows no passion and, frankly, he doesn’t seem to care about the club at all.  How he has retained not only his captaincy, but his place is the starting XI remains one of the club’s biggest mysteries.  It makes no sense at all really.  In any other profession, when one cannot do ones’ job, one is replaced.  Yet we forge on with Gallas at the helm.  It is the height of stupidity for Gallas to continue to hold his armband, let alone his place in the side.  t is about time that Wenger passed the captaincy on to our true leader, Fabregas, and give Djourou a shot in the starting XI.

Clichy: 7 Clichy again proved why he is so vital to our squad.  He was great in defense and getting forward.  If only the other members of the defense played with the same passion and fire that Gael does.

Walcott: 7 Decent enough game for Theo.  He was frustrating at times when he seemed to vanish but it was his run that led to the Arsenal goal.  I would like to see Theo be more imposing but I suppose that will come with games and age.

Fabregas: 8 Cesc seemed to be the only Arsenal player willing to rip a shot off.  Like usual he was great in possession and passing.  He found the open man and created space for himself quite well.  He was instrumental in the Arsenal goal and seemed to be the only one with any sort of urgency.

Denilson: 5.5 Not his best game.  He was okay going forward and decent in distribution but woeful in defense.  He should have closed down Geovanni and his failure to do so led to the equalizer.  His defensive shortcomings, especially in comparison with Flamini last year, are leaving a lot to be desired at this point.

Eboue: 6 Eboue caught a case of AHS (Alex Hleb Syndrome) the other night when he got into a good position in the box with no one between him and the keeper yet passed the ball away rather than shoot.  Eboue wasn’t bad but “not being bad” is hardly acceptable at Arsenal.  Needless to say, he really failed to make an impression on the game.

Adebayor: 5 Where the hell was Ade last night?  He seemed to disappear for much of the match only to show up in the second half to miss a chance to put us up 2-nil which could have sealed the points for us and then when right back to being Mr. Invisible.

van Persie: 6 Little went right for Robin.  He took some shots but never seemed to be able to find the target.  He was solid in his link-up play and good in finding some openings for the pass but was unable to take his chances and kill the game off, something one would want from a player like Robin in a game like this.  Hopefully he can find his shooting boots against Porto and Arsenal can get back on track.

SUBS:

Bendtner: 6.5 Decently effective coming off the bench but really had little time to make an impact on the game.  Both he and Vela inspired a more direct attack as soon as they came on.

Vela: 7 Carlos looked solid and creative.  He held off defenders and made some good runs but in the end he had too little time on the pitch and was unable to help inspire a draw.

Man of the Match: Fabregas gets the Arsenal Man of the Match for this game. Gallas gets it for Hull City.  Cesc seemed like the only one who cared about winning this match.  He pushed the troops forward, he looked for the passes and he was the one to pull the trigger on occasion.  It has to be only a matter of time before Arsenal’s true captain is given the armband.