Granit Xhaka’s winner against Chelsea saw Arsenal book their place in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, with Nacho Monreal delivering a man-of-the-match performance.
Without new Manchester United signing Alexis Sanchez and cup-tied Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Arsenal had to step up. Far from carrying their form from the 4-1 weekend win into the match, the Gunners started slowly, conceding to Eden Hazard within five minutes.
Fortunately, they got back on level terms quickly, before scoring the winner in the second period. Goals from Granit Xhaka and Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger gave Arsenal the win in the end.
The Gunners showed a lot of fight to win the match, even if they weren’t always at their best. Here’s how the players got on:
1. Defence
David Ospina – 6
There wasn’t much Ospina could do about Chelsea’s goal, but otherwise he played well enough.
Surprisingly, the keeper didn’t have much to do. As usual, he charged out and failed to get anywhere near the ball on a corner and got lucky.
Other than that, a decent performance.
Nacho Monreal – 9
Arsenal’s hero once again, Monreal forced Chelsea into an early own goal with his header.
The defender completed 92% of his passes, won three aerial duels and three tackles. Overall, he was solid all over the pitch.
Shkodran Mustafi – 7
Along with Laurent Koscielny, Mustafi didn’t do enough for Chelsea’s opening goal.
After that, did well to keep the Blues to just the one goal, and earned the win.
Laurent Koscielny – 7
As above, Koscielny should’ve done more to prevent Hazard getting in behind for the opener.
After that, he found his feet and performed almost as well as he did at the weekend.
Hector Bellerin – 7
I have very mixed feelings on Bellerin’s performance.
At times, he was excellent, throwing himself in front of Marcos Alonso’s shot and marshalling Chelsea’s wingers well all night.
On the other hand, he made a few mistakes on the ball. Still, not a bad performance overall.