What a night in London!

After a first half when it almost looked like we’re going to Arsenal it in the end, a fantastic performance in second half with four goals and Mesut’s first ever career hattrick made it all OK.

Once again it was great to watch this Arsenal – in the second half.

David Ospina – 7

Ospina is looking good in the Champions League overall and he did pretty well in first half when his services were needed more than we all expected. His best save was with his face and he had nothing to do in the second half as Arsenal got their act together.

Hector Bellerin – 7

Hector did well, as always. His pace continues to amaze and he was in attacking positions more in the second half, but he was okay defensively in first half when needed.

Shkodran Mustafi – 6.5

Both Mustafi and Koscielny have been a bit off in last few matches and today’s first half was really worrying at moments. Thankfully none of them led to a goal for Bulgarians.

mustafi-flying

Laurent Koscielny – 6.5

He was pretty much at the same level as Mustafi in the first half, but was much more his normal self in the second when needed, which wasn’t often.

Kieran Gibbs – 7

Can I repeat for a thousandth time how great it is to have a player like Gibbs sitting on the bench, waiting for his chance to come in and give a great performance?

He got a rare chance to start the match and he took it. Looked good, shaky at first, but grew into the match as it went on. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start at the weekend as, well, Nacho has gone a bit stale lately.

Francis Coquelin – 8.5

Great performance from Coquelin who stepped in for Xhaka (surprisingly or not, I’ll let you decide). Helen was keeping track of his clearances during the match and he finished with 13 (more stats in the link above), so yeah, he had a really good match. No booking, no silly moments, just a really good DM performance.

Santi Cazorla – 7

Santi looked his good old self as per usual, in charge of the midfield, providing an assist for Mesut’s goal, and then limping off and getting his ankle strapped and iced as soon as he sat down. Let’s hope it’s not serious as we all know what happened last season when we lost him.

Theo Walcott – 8

Another brilliant match and superb goal for Theo, or whoever took over his body! Seriously, he has been out of this world, scoring for fun, but also pressing, helping out in defence and creating chances. It’s just lovely to watch.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 7

Man, I can’t understand what’s up with Ox. He is talented, and knows what he needs to do to succeed, but sometimes, ugh, I just want to loan him to Newcastle or something like that.

He was okay against Ludogorets, scored a nice goal and had a chance to score another one too (a much prettier one, I might add) but he still managed to frustrate me and other Arsenal fans as well.

Mesut Özil – 10

Yes, I gave him a 10.

I love Mesut Özil and you should too.

Anyone who loves football should.

Mesut got his *first* ever hat trick tonight, and if that doesn’t deserve a 10, then I have to add he also got an assist as well, his first one this season.

Still not convinced?

This is how he collected the match ball after the match.

Pure. Genius.

And he’s ours.

Alexis Sanchez – 8

What is this man eating and drinking? After playing constantly, scoring goals, , running counters in 80th minute like crazy, he gets angry when he’s subbed off against Ludogorets when we are 5-0 up.

I admire him and his will to play and be better than he was last time.

Once again, a great match, an outstanding goal, and more than a few outstanding moves.


Mohamed Elneny – 6

Elneny came to replace the injured Santi Cazorla and he looked good. He didn’t do much but it’s not like it was necessary.

Lucas Perez – 7

I love Lucas and his enthusiasm on social media and am so glad he got this half an hour to play.

No goal this time , but he came close, and he provided fantastic assists for Mesut’s last two goals.

Alex Iwobi – 6

Iwobi didn’t do much, joined in few attacks but didn’t leave any impression.