Arsenal lost yet another away match on Wednesday night, this time against Leicester City, but for once the team had a valid excuse.
After just 15 minutes, referee Graham Scott reduced Arsenal to 10 men, right after the team had just conceded a goal. At that point it was a massive uphill battle to get back into the game.
It was therefore to Arsenal’s credit that they managed to do so. They got an equaliser in the 53rd minute, and dominated for large parts of the game. Eventually the work they’d put in showed in the final 15 minutes, with the players tiring and Leicester scoring twice to win the match.
Nonetheless, it was a better performance than most away games this year. Here are our individual player ratings:
2Midfield
Alex Iwobi 6.5
After a good goal at the weekend, Iwobi was back to his standard performance against Leicester. In other words, playing pretty well until he gets the chance to shoot. He created chances, he linked up play well, and he hit one of the worst shots of the season.
Granit Xhaka 7.5
Xhaka’s good performances over the last few months keep coming, and it was his inch-perfect ball that allowed Maitland-Niles in behind to set up Arsenal’s goal. As usual, he saw more of the ball than anyone else on the pitch, and generally made good use of it.
Of course, we had to see his trademark outside-the-box shot failing to trouble the goalkeeper. Other than that, it was another strong showing.
Aaron Ramsey 6
Ramsey struggled in comparison to his midfield partners. His passes weren’t nearly as accurate, he only created one chance and he didn’t manage a single shot.
Even worse, he lost more than half of his individual duels and was dispossessed more than anyone else on the pitch (five times). If you exclude Mkhitaryan (three times), that’s more than everybody else on the Arsenal team combined.