Arsenal slipped to a new low over the weekend, losing a fourth consecutive match, 2-1 against newly promoted Brighton & Hove Albion.

The showing wasn’t good enough from the entire team, but there were one or two performances that stood out, for positive or negative reasons.

Here are our individual player ratings:

Defence

Petr Čech 1.5

Čech was at least partially at fault for both Brighton goals, as he admitted himself afterwards. From then on he improved, and made a couple of decent saves, but the damage was done. In the Premier League, you can’t start matches with a needless two-goal disadvantage.

His distribution was also poor throughout. You could make excuses for him and David Ospina struggling to play out against a team like Manchester City, but not Brighton.

Calum Chambers 2.5

Before the match, fans were worried that Chambers wouldn’t be able to handle the pacey Izquierdo. In fairness, it wasn’t a repeat of the Jefferson Montero situation a few years ago, and he did catch the Brighton man offside once or twice. Still, it wasn’t a particularly confident performance either.

More importantly, Chambers didn’t do enough going forward, and that’s where Arsenal needed help.

Shkodran Mustafi 2.5

Mustafi was caught out for the second goal, watching the ball instead of getting close to his man. After that, 2-0 down against a promoted side, he shouldn’t have needed to do much. Even so, his partnership with Koscielny looked as shaky as ever when Brighton did get forward.

In his defence, other than losing Murray for the goal, he was very good in the air. He won seven of his nine aerial duels, but he lost the one that counted.

Laurent Koscielny 2

Just like Mustafi and Čech, Koscielny had his part to play in the second goal. He played a poor pass to Wilshere which Brighton easily intercepted to win possession in a dangerous area. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, there was no saving grace later on. He didn’t do enough throughout the match.

Sead Kolašinac 2.5

As with all the other defenders, Kolašinac didn’t do enough in the opening minutes. In the second half he took a big risk almost picking up a second yellow for a clash with Ezequiel Schelotto. He did create a couple of chances, which is more than you could say for half the players in front of him.

Midfield

Granit Xhaka 5

Xhaka had a decent game, not that he’ll get credit for it from Arsenal fans. He won the majority of his aerial duels and all of his tackles, and for once you couldn’t put any blame on him for the goals his side conceded.

Then he assisted Aubameyang well at the other end. He created more chances than Wilshere, Iwobi and Özil combined on the day. I’ll never understand his decision to shoot from his free-kick roughly 40 yards out, but other than that he played well.

Jack Wilshere 3

Wilshere did one thing well against Brighton, and that was dribble past opponents and win free-kicks. Other than that, it was an average performance. He did next to nothing to contribute defensively, didn’t make any chances, and delayed his passes too often. Plus he was caught in possession a couple of times.

He also went smashing through a Brighton player in the first half, and still thought it was a good idea to square up to their players on a yellow in the second.

Mesut Özil 3

Like Wilshere, Özil just didn’t do enough at either end. His attitude was also off after the team went 2-0 down. He still managed to make a chance or two, complete most of his passes and all of his dribbles, but he didn’t step up to the challenge like Arsenal needed him to.

Forwards

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 4

Mkhitaryan created the most on the team against Brighton, but it all came from his corners. He looked fairly lively, but was wasteful on a couple of occasions. Arsenal need to get him on the ball a bit more in future.

Alex Iwobi 2.5

Brighton dispossessed Iwobi more than anyone else on the pitch. The Nigerian international didn’t make a single chance, or complete any of his dribbles. In the second half he was the first player Wenger sacrificed to try and change the game.

He did have one moment of quality, staying calm in the box and finding Xhaka, who then assisted Arsenal’s only goal.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 5.5

Arsenal still aren’t creating enough for Aubameyang, but he was probably the team’s best player. He got both of his shots on target, scoring the first with an improvised finish from close range. He also made a couple of opportunities for his teammates.

From the first minute he looked lively and willing to run at the Brighton defence. It’s too bad the Arsenal defence made sure it was all for nothing.

Substitutes

Danny Welbeck 2

Welbeck was completely ineffective in his 20 minutes on the pitch. He had no shots, failed with every dribble he attempted, lost every duel and was dispossessed three times, more than anyone on either team in the entire 90 minutes except Iwobi.

Eddie Nketiah 5

Nketiah made a good case that he should be brought on first next time Arsenal need to change the game. In stark contrast to Welbeck, he made great use of his 10 minutes. He won all his duels, won the ball back from Brighton once and got his only shot on target.

He’ll perhaps feel a little disappointed he didn’t get more power behind the effort, but it was more than most of the senior players managed.

Hector Bellerin 3.5

Bellerin came on late and put a good cross in, but also lost the ball in his defensive third for an injury time Brighton chance, which could have killed the game. He can’t make that kind of mistake against Milan, but hopefully the rest he got should do him good.