Arsenal shook off a comeback scare to progress to the Europa League semi-finals with a 2-2 draw against CSKA Moscow on Thursday night.

A few hundred Arsenal fans navigated all the hurdles associated with a match in Russia, and at first it looked like they would end up returning home disappointed. In fact, after taking a 2-0 lead CSKA were just inches away from making it three and going ahead on away goals.

Fortunately, the tie turned after the first substitutions, and Arsenal ended up with a comfortable looking 6-3 scoreline on aggregate. The performance wasn’t nearly as impressive as the final result looks though.

So how did the players do individually?

2Midfield

Mohamed Elneny 8

Elneny, like so many others, didn’t start the game well. In fact, he attracted some criticism from fans early on. That all completely changed as the game went on, and he became the star of the show.

First he set up Danny Welbeck to kill off CSKA’s momentum. Then he worked tirelessly to try and grind out the result, before setting Aaron Ramsey up for a second goal. Both assists were perfectly weighted, and emphasised his improvement in recent weeks. Long may this new found form continue.

Jack Wilshere 4

Another poor performance for the Englishman, Wilshere looked no better than he has in any of Arsenal’s recent fixtures. Some are arguing the kick on the leg and ball to the face he took might have had something to do with that on this occasion.

Whatever the reason, Wilshere was lax in possession, struggled to create chances and didn’t help out at all defensively. He made no tackles, no interceptions, no clearances, not even a tactical foul. When he came off for Chambers Arsenal improved greatly.

Aaron Ramsey 7

Ramsey also suffered a minor injury, having his leg cut open by a tackle. He went off to get it stapled up, came back on and scored in injury time. It summed up his season so far that I don’t think any of us watching expected him to miss when one-on-one with the goalkeeper.