Arsenal made heavy work of their win over Southampton but with Chelsea’s draw against West Ham, the Gunners are now closing in on fifth place.
If Arsenal hoped a winning run would bring the fans back to Ashburton Grove, they have seriously underestimated the depth of apathy around as thousands of empty seats once again greeted the team.
It was the topic of a sarcastic soliloquy from the Sky Sports commentator who implored people to feel sorry for this top six side on the brink of a European final. He had a point, but so do rocks sometimes.
The game was the perfect opportunity for fringe players to show that, not only do they have a future at the club ahead of the summer, they deserve to be considered for the first team for the important games.
So how did the players do individually?
2Midfield
Mohamed Elneny 7
Mohamed Elneny is a seven out of ten player. Sometimes he’s exceptional, sometimes he’s awful, but mostly he’s reliable, solid and competent.
I say this a lot because there isn’t really much else to say about Elneny who goes about his business in every game in the same way bringing a similar performance laced with competence but lacking any spark. To prove this point, I wrote this midway through the first half, confident I wouldn’t have to alter it and I’m not going to even though he saw red in the second half.
Every squad needs players like Elneny and part of Arsenal’s problem over recent years, apart from a lack of world class quality, has been the lack of 7/10 players who could be relied on, at the very least, to behave like professional footballers who know what they’re doing and who cycles the ball well without handing possession to the opposition on a regular basis.
Elneny also cleared one off the line, too. Why? Because he was put on the back post and he stayed there and you can always rely on Elneny to do what he’s supposed to do.
His red card was stupid. He shouldn’t have lifted his hands but the referee shouldn’t have sent him off. I mean, it’s Elneny! It was all Jack’s fault, anyway.
Granit Xhaka 6
Using both hands to shove a Saints player in the box at a corner before we’d even had 10 minutes of play was probably not the greatest choice from Granit. Luckily, like much in the game, the referee missed it.
Let one fly from range that was well saved down low.
Reiss Nelson 6
Reiss was welcomed to Premier League refereeing standards when he was the victim of a shocking tackle by Tadic before two minutes were even on the clock.
No card was issued despite the Saints man raking his studs down the back of Nelson’s calf with little care for the location of the ball. Another referee would have issued red for it.
Lovely flick to set up Xhaka for his long range effort but, on the whole, it was a quiet, non-eventful league debut for the teenager.
The groans that greeted his wayward passes will have done nothing to help his confidence and I can’t help but wonder if some of these people would boo their own kid in the school play for forgetting a line.
Was replaced after 64 minutes by Jack Wilshere.