Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy has said he could have chosen six Arsenal players to be man-of-the-match against Chelsea, such was their impressive collective showing at Stamford Bridge.
Murphy was so impressed by Arsenal’s performance he feels he could have chosen about six players for the award. Aaron Ramsey won it in the end and the footballer-turned-pundit feels he was a worthy winner, while admitting a lot of players deserve credit.
“I could have picked six of them [Arsenal] for Man of the Match, but I want to look at Aaron [Ramsey],” he said, reports the Express. “He took a lot of criticism from the defeat at Liverpool for a lack of discipline.
“He’s a brilliant attacking midfielder and he scores big goals no doubt about that. I thought his decision-making was excellent – he knew when to go forward and when he was in good possession, to vacate the space and see if his mate was protecting him.
“You can’t take away his attacking instincts, but choose to make sure when he does it.” While Ramsey’s performance was the stand-out, the game against Chelsea was one of those rare days where nobody performed badly.
The back three, in particular, had stand-out showings. In my opinion, Laurent Koscielny had his best game for a while, Nacho Monreal was excellent on the cover and Shkodran Mustafi did a decent job man-marking Alvaro Morata.
Arsenal’s defending this season has come under strong criticism, so it’s refreshing to receive some praise for our effort against Chelsea. The performance and the result proved a lot of people wrong, I feel. Nobody was giving Arsenal a chance before the game it seemed to me.
It was a game that Arsenal perhaps should have won in the end. Ramsey hit the post, while Welbeck and Lacazette had good opportunities as well. Still, there are plenty of positives to take from the performance. Now Arsenal just need to do it again when the time comes.