Arsenal players have been hit hard in the latest batch of FIFA ratings, with the majority of the first-team receiving downgrades against their base cards in FIFA 18.
The FIFA 19 ratings are all official now, as the game nears its release. Looking at the Arsenal squad, it’s hard not to notice how many key players have been downgraded this year. The likes of Aubameyang, Lacazette, Özil and Koscielny have all been pegged back, with even bigger downgrades for players like Welbeck, Cech and Jenkinson.
In some cases, that makes sense. Cech had a pretty poor season, even if dropping him four ratings is a bit harsh. Similarly Jenkinson hardly played last campaign, with his injury problems. I’m not sure what Welbeck did for his rating to drop by three, as he scored more goals than in any previous season for Arsenal.
The likes of Aubameyang dropping is just bizarre though. He scored over 30 goals once again last season, and as I write this he’s Arsenal’s top scorer for the current campaign.
Overall, if you add up all of Arsenal’s rating increases and decreases, they’ve actually slightly improved on last season. That’s solely because of the influence of youth players though. Nelson and Nketiah, for example, both received deserved upgrades, after their breakthrough campaigns.
Ignore players who were 21 or younger last season, and the remainder of the squad are rated a combined 18 points lower than last season. Have a look at the FIFA 19 vs FIFA 18 comparison list we’ve put together below, and let us know whether you think it’s a fair reflection of the squad.
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Attackers
- Aubameyang 87 (down 1)
- Lacazette 84 (down 1)
- Welbeck 77 (down 3)
- Nelson 65 (up 7)
- Nketiah 64 (up 5)
Midfielders
- Özil 86 (down 2)
- Mkhitaryan 84 (down 1)
- Ramsey 82 (no change)
- Xhaka 81 (down 1)
- Torreira 78 (up 3)
- Elneny 78 (up 1)
- Iwobi 76 (up 2)
- Maitland-Niles 71 (up 6)
- Guendouzi 67 (no change)
- Zelalem 65 (no change)
- Willock 61 (up 1)
Defenders
- Sokratis 84 (down 2)
- Mustafi 82 (down 2)
- Koscielny 82 (down 2)
- Lichtsteiner 80 (down 2)
- Kolasinac 80 (no change)
- Monreal 80 (no change)
- Bellerin 80 (down 1)
- Holding 74 (up 2)
- Jenkinson 69 (down 4)
- Mavropanos 68 (up 3)
- Bramall 63 (up 3)
- Osei-Tutu 56 (no change)
Goalkeepers
- Leno 84 (down 1)
- Cech 82 (down 4)
- Martinez 72 (up 2)
Overall changes
- Total upgrade points: 34
- Total downgrade points: 27
- Total upgrade points (excluding u21s): 9
- Total downgrade points (excluding u21s): 27
- Total players upgraded: 11
- Total players downgraded: 14