11 Gunners went to the Euros, 3 remain.
With the Final in sight, here are ranking the Arsenal players at the European Championship and how they performed ranked from worst to best.
Aaron Ramsdale (England)
Logically is bottom of this list because is the only Gunner at Euro 2024 to not kick a ball.
Not that the 26-year-old has let it impact on his time in Germany.
Anyone who’s watched the FA YouTube videos will know the keeper remains a popular member of the squad as one of its biggest characters.
Gooners will miss him when he leaves but he’s too good not to be a number 1.
Trossard (Belgium)
You sense the 29 didn’t enjoy a moment of this Euros?
He was dropped after Belgium’s defeat to Slovakia and became one his nations main scapegoats.
Confidence wasn’t helped as a substitute when Keven De Bruyne’s body language made it clear he wasn’t impressed our Gunner taking an extra touch and not playing the ball first time.
Dad made things worse by publicly saying he thought the manager wasn’t very good and comparing his son to KDB!
Kieran Tierney (Scotland)
Was hard enough for our left back with Scotland conceding 5 in the opening game .3-0 down and a man disadvantage after half an hour it was apparent that Steve Clarke’s men lacked any game plan.
The defender would have already been low on this list because of that result, but then he was taken off injured after just an hour against Switzerland.
In that one moment it summed up why Arteta wants to offload the 27-year-old. He just can’t be trusted to stay healthy.
Raya (Spain)
Having already won their group, Spain made wholesale changes for their fixture with Albania meaning their number 2 Keeper got a game.
David Raya got a clean sheet but the closest he came from conceding was himself.
An attempted clearance hit his own defender and only luck stopped the ball bouncing into his own net.
As Jermaine Jenas said on commentary, ‘He’s a weird one. He just seems to have one of them in him every now and then ‘.
Which is how I would sum up the 28 years olds first season in North London.
Yes, he won the Golden Glove, but he makes too many individual errors.
Zinchenko (Ukraine)
A lot of outlets have started to publish their worse team of the tournament with our player included at left back.
Maybe harsh considering a 3-0 defeat to Romania was due to 2 keeper mistakes, while he assisted Ukraine’s equaliser against Slovakia.
When they needed to beat Belgium though he wasn’t trusted to start. A position he found himself in for his club in the title run in.
Kiwior (Poland)
Playing in part of a back three Poland were the first team officially eliminated from the tournament.
While there was no disgrace to struggle in the ‘Group of Death’ some Gooners will be concerned how our defender was targeted by wingers.
This was mostly apparent when the 24-year-old was isolated by Dembele and conceded a penalty.
5- Jorginho (Italy)
The nature of Italy’s elimination from the tournament has seen Luciano Spalletti be questioned on quite a few things including his treatment of Jorginho. Especially dropping a midfielder renowned for keeping possession in a last 16 tie where they couldn’t keep the ball.
His international manager was critical of the 32-year-olds performance against Spain.
Harsh?
4- Kai Havertz (Germany)
Both of his goals at the Euros were penalties. Like at Arsenal, link up play gets the best out of others, with Germany’s movement off the ball some of the best in the competition.
Judging the 25-year-old at the highest level though he remains not a natural enough finisher to be number one striker for club or country.
Certain touches and skills he makes though are world class.
3-Declan Rice (England)
The one English player with the most to sacrifice because of Southgate’s tactics and system.
In Group stages his country sat deep (maybe too deep) meaning our midfielder’s starting position was at times on the edge of his own penalty area. Passing poor at times (especially against Denmark), but is one of the best in the world at putting out fires.
2-Bukayo Saka (England)
Was part of an underwhelming England attack in the Three Lions first 4 fixtures. Although it remains a debate how much that is down to the tactics from his manager?
It showed the faith in him that Gareth Southgate resisted calls to drop him for Palmer from a reactionary media.
Ironically the 22-year-old produced his nations best individual display of the tournament after being dropped back to a slightly not unfamiliar position of right wing back.
Penalty against Switzerland and post-match hug with Southgate is one of the highlights of the Euros.
1-Saliba (France)
A lot was made before the Semi Finals of France’s inability to score a goal in open play and not enough of the fact that they hadn’t conceded one in open play.
It took two World class goals from Spain to change that.
Olmo’s three quality touches were the only time Saliba found himself wrong footed.
The 23-year-old is one of the few plus points to come out of the French camp.
Given that pre-tournament Deschamps felt the defender, ‘does things I don’t like’ the last month was quite a turn around.
The centreback communicated with his peers, started attacks with his passing and physically wouldn’t be bullied.
In a position where you don’t hit your peak past the age of 30, he’s only going to get better.
If Arsenal don’t win the League soon, we lose him.
Dan
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For me Am an England fun now am optimistic enough that this time round we gonna make it with Saka and Rice our boys only that the system of Southgate is not favorable to many players that’s why they have been struggling,
And with Spanish intertaining football with bright wingers like Williams,Yamal,Olmo in attack it’s going to be tough but am praying for them.
I root for Spain today even though I do not like them.
I wished England to win a major tournament so that I could see those passionate celebrations from their fans but seeing how Southgate has been ridiculed even though he has been the best they had since I started watching football, perhaps they do not deserve it.
Some have completely disappeared after he shut their big mouths big time with the second successive final.
Saliba was not culpable for the Olmo goal but Tchouameni most certainly was.Saliba had an excellent series considering he was played at LCB when he more comfortable and effective at right centre back.
Saliba did have an excellent tournament
Hence why he’s number one
The Olmo goal though Saliba heads straight to Olmo , then lunges at fresh air
Your interpretation of what happened gives a false impression in that you failed to highlight the pressure Saliba was under when he headed the ball nor the fact that Tchuameni was left for dead by Olmo.
Good Rankings Dan. Raya makes too many individual errors? Agree; yet, MA believed he would be such an improvement that he had to be brought in to replace the keeper who imo was a major part of the heart and soul behind our renewed spirit, confidence and resurgence.
MA is our manager and he must have the squad he feels is best on the pitch and Raya appears to be a fine keeper. It’s just as a long long time Gooner with the club’s “culture” in my veins, what happened with Ramsdale still feels so wrong. Still supporting MA and of course Raya but the bad aftertaste of what occurred is only fading away slowly.
And Arteta was wrong lol
Like we all do from time to time is to put emotions ahead
I don’t know if MA was necessarily wrong overall in preferring Raya over Ramsdale looking only at what he perceived were their strengths and weaknesses on the pitch.
Personally, I believe Raya is better defending corners and high balls and Ramsdale is better shot stopping, defending free kicks and handling defensive breakdowns. They both have had problems in distribution. Even if MA is proven marginally correct (idk how that’s conclusively proven in this situation), imo it was still definitely a bad situation that didn’t need to happen.
I believe even MA knew it wasn’t a good thing to do after-the-fact and that’s why he was saying that he could even envision changing keepers at halftime, etc and indicating that Ramsdale could somehow convince him that he could be the starter. Most suspected that Ramsdale wasn’t going to be the starter again any time soon barring injury or Raya looked like Benny Hill in goal. It seems we have been missing a big piece to the puzzle in this whole thing. Now to Euro2024, lol.
Raya is better with the ball at his feet by a distance, for a team like Arsenal that is essential
no doubt Raya is the better keeper for Arsenal, and that is all that matters
Disagree totally.
Even though you are clearly correct about good distribution being essential for Arsenal. I simply have seen too many goofs from the feet of Raya to note any significant or even marginal improvement in that area in comparison to Ramsdale.
I don’t get it.
Ramsdale is not the number one for country, and fans are debating him to be number one for club.
But I couldn’t recall the Arsenal keeper that was not number one for country in recent time, aside Ben Leno? and why he didn’t fit long time.
Almunia, number one for us, but never played international football.
Raya isn’t No. 1 for his country either.
Correct Ken.
Not to mention his hand distributions which have on several occasions gone straight to the opposition. I am hoping that his distribution improves as he continues to gel with the team.