Arsenal suffered a poor 2-1 defeat to Östersunds FK on Thursday night, which was disappointing despite the aggregate result putting the club in the next round.

Östersund raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half, and almost looked like they might overturn their 3-0 home defeat in Sweden. Fortunately, Sead Kolašinac killed off the tie with an early second half goal.

Arsenal progress to the round of 16, but individually there were a lot of poor performances.

Here are our player ratings:

1Defence

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 22: Hector Bellerin of Arsenal during UEFA Europa League Round of 32 match between Arsenal and Ostersunds FK at the Emirates Stadium on February 22, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
(Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

David Ospina 3

Ospina didn’t have much to do, and couldn’t make a positive impact when he did. He conceded as many goals as he made saves on the night. The goals weren’t exactly his fault, but his distribution was also shaky and not up to his usual standards. A night to forget ahead of the cup final, which he will also start.

Hector Bellerin 5

In my opinion, one of the better performers on the night. He provided the assist for Kolašinac’s goal and his runs all night could’ve led to one or two more.

Calum Chambers 2

Chambers got turned inside out for Östersund’s second goal, and never looked solid at the back. He needs to do much better to make use of his chances in the starting eleven.

Rob Holding 3

Holding also needs to do better than let a team like Östersund score two in two minutes. He was caught out too often in the opening period. On the other hand, I thought he had a much better second half but that didn’t take much.

Sead Kolašinac 2.5

In attack, Kolašinac was fairly impressive, and scored the goal that killed the tie. In defence, he was a complete liability, and repeatedly lost his man. He couldn’t keep up with the away team on the counter-attack. I’m very glad Nacho Monreal is available for the cup final this weekend.

“…he just pointed at other
players to do it instead….”

Midfield next

Back