Arsenal suffered a poor 2-1 defeat to Östersunds FK on Thursday night, which was disappointing despite the aggregate result putting the club in the next round.

Östersund raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half, and almost looked like they might overturn their 3-0 home defeat in Sweden. Fortunately, Sead Kolašinac killed off the tie with an early second half goal.

Arsenal progress to the round of 16, but individually there were a lot of poor performances.

Here are our player ratings:

Defence

David Ospina 3

Ospina didn’t have much to do, and couldn’t make a positive impact when he did. He conceded as many goals as he made saves on the night. The goals weren’t exactly his fault, but his distribution was also shaky and not up to his usual standards. A night to forget ahead of the cup final, which he will also start.

Hector Bellerin 5

In my opinion, one of the better performers on the night. He provided the assist for Kolašinac’s goal and his runs all night could’ve led to one or two more.

Calum Chambers 2

Chambers got turned inside out for Östersund’s second goal, and never looked solid at the back. He needs to do much better to make use of his chances in the starting eleven.

Rob Holding 3

Holding also needs to do better than let a team like Östersund score two in two minutes. He was caught out too often in the opening period. On the other hand, I thought he had a much better second half but that didn’t take much.

Sead Kolašinac 2.5

In attack, Kolašinac was fairly impressive, and scored the goal that killed the tie. In defence, he was a complete liability, and repeatedly lost his man. He couldn’t keep up with the away team on the counter-attack. I’m very glad Nacho Monreal is available for the cup final this weekend.

“…he just pointed at other
players to do it instead….”
Midfield next

Midfield

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 2.5

We’ve all waited a very long time to see Maitland-Niles in midfield, but we might have to wait a lot longer for his next appearance there. The youngster’s passing was decent enough, but he provided no cover for the defence, and his sole defensive contribution was to foul an Östersund player to prevent a counter attack.

In the end, Wenger had to sacrifice the 20-year-old so Granit Xhaka could come on and secure the result.

Mohamed Elneny 3.5

Elneny showed a lot of energy, and seemed a lot less nervous than the rest of the team when things started to go wrong. Like Maitland-Niles though, he didn’t provide enough defensive cover when the team needed it.

Jack Wilshere 2.5

One of Wilshere’s worst performances of the season, but also a very lazy showing. The moment that stood out for me was when Bellerin gestured for him to come close and provide an option to play out from the back, and the 26-year-old just pointed at other players to do it instead.

“…a chance for him to prove himself,
but he couldn’t take advantage…” 
Forwards next

Forwards

Alex Iwobi 3

I don’t think Iwobi was as bad as some are making out, and Arsenal relied on him a lot to help create opportunities, but he certainly didn’t play well. His main problem was, once again, his poor finishing.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 3.5

Right now, Mkhitaryan seems to be alternating between good and bad performances. He was only a shadow of the player who provided three assists against Everton and two away to Östersund. He still had a couple of moments of quality, and with more clinical players attacking his chances he might have come away with another assist.

Danny Welbeck 2

These two matches were a chance for Welbeck to prove himself, but he couldn’t take advantage. His four shots never troubled the keeper, and he couldn’t make any chances for his teammates either.

“…his most notable contribution was probably
falling over twice in 10 seconds…”
Substitutes next

Substitutes

Granit Xhaka 4.5

Say what you like about Xhaka, but he provided some much needed defensive cover on the night. There were a couple of trademark misplaced passes as well, but that was balanced out by the chances he created.

Joe Willock 3.5

Unfortunately, Willock’s most notable contribution was probably falling over twice in 10 seconds. He completed all of his passes but maybe should’ve done better with his shot.

Reiss Nelson N/A

Nelson won one defensive aerial in the few seconds he was on the pitch, but that was it.