Arsenal shook off a comeback scare to progress to the Europa League semi-finals with a 2-2 draw against CSKA Moscow on Thursday night.

A few hundred Arsenal fans navigated all the hurdles associated with a match in Russia, and at first it looked like they would end up returning home disappointed. In fact, after taking a 2-0 lead CSKA were just inches away from making it three and going ahead on away goals.

Fortunately, the tie turned after the first substitutions, and Arsenal ended up with a comfortable looking 6-3 scoreline on aggregate. The performance wasn’t nearly as impressive as the final result looks though.

So how did the players do individually?

Defence

Petr Cech 5.5

Personally I think it’s harsh to blame Cech for conceding either goal, even though they were both rebounds.

The first was actually a fantastic save from the keeper, but his defence left him stranded on the follow up. The second wasn’t such a good save, but Golovin’s shot was well struck and did move in the air. Again, it would’ve been nice to see an Arsenal defender learn from the first half mistake and get to the rebound first.

Other than that Cech did make a few good saves, and kept Arsenal ahead. Then again, he hardly ever found a teammate with his throws and kick outs.

Hector Bellerin 5

Perhaps I’m being harsh, but I thought this was a poor game from Bellerin. He didn’t make any major defensive errors, but on the ball he was way off his best.

Plus, it wasn’t until the formation change that he even made his first of three successful tackles. Similarly, half of his aerial duels came in that final quarter of the match. For whatever reason, he struggled in the back four on this occasion.

Shkodran Mustafi 5

Mustafi wasn’t terrible in Russia, but after he let Shane Long in at the weekend to score you’d think he would’ve learned his lesson this time.

Instead, he stood and watched motionlessly as Cech’s rebound spilled to an attacker for CSKA’s first goal. He then turned and raised his arm hoping the assistant referee would bail him out.

Laurent Koscielny 6

Koscielny wasn’t at his best early on, misplacing a couple of passes, but fortunately he stepped it up as the game went on. He ended up with 88% pass accuracy, whilst the rest of the defence was in the 70s. A massive 11 clearances, 5 interceptions and 6 aerials won sum up how busy his night was.

Nacho Monreal 4.5

Monreal had a rough game, like Bellerin, until the formation change. He was beaten for the initial header for the first goal, and didn’t react to the rebound quickly enough for the second. He improved after that, but Arsenal can’t afford players only turning up at 2-0 down. A night to forget for one of the team’s generally consistent performers.

Midfield

Mohamed Elneny 8

Elneny, like so many others, didn’t start the game well. In fact, he attracted some criticism from fans early on. That all completely changed as the game went on, and he became the star of the show.

First he set up Danny Welbeck to kill off CSKA’s momentum. Then he worked tirelessly to try and grind out the result, before setting Aaron Ramsey up for a second goal. Both assists were perfectly weighted, and emphasised his improvement in recent weeks. Long may this new found form continue.

Jack Wilshere 4

Another poor performance for the Englishman, Wilshere looked no better than he has in any of Arsenal’s recent fixtures. Some are arguing the kick on the leg and ball to the face he took might have had something to do with that on this occasion.

Whatever the reason, Wilshere was lax in possession, struggled to create chances and didn’t help out at all defensively. He made no tackles, no interceptions, no clearances, not even a tactical foul. When he came off for Chambers Arsenal improved greatly.

Aaron Ramsey 7

Ramsey also suffered a minor injury, having his leg cut open by a tackle. He went off to get it stapled up, came back on and scored in injury time. It summed up his season so far that I don’t think any of us watching expected him to miss when one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

Attack

Mesut Özil 6

This was far from Özil’s best game in an Arsenal shirt, yet he still created four chances -more than anybody else – and should’ve had at least one assist. The fact he continues to make things happen even when he’s not at his best is what makes him such a top class player.

Danny Welbeck 7.5

I thought Welbeck struggled to get into the game for a while, and that’s reflected in the fact he saw less of the ball than any Arsenal player who completed the full 90 minutes.

However, when it really mattered and the game was on the line, he came up with a lovely turn, an intelligent one-two and a composed finish. He also contributed defensively a lot more than his English teammate.

In the end, he did exactly what the team needed him to do, and it’s largely thanks to him that they’re in the semi-final draw on Friday.

Alexandre Lacazette 5.5

Lacazette was a bit unlucky on this occasion. Arsenal spent most of the match defending, and couldn’t put two passes together when they had the chance to counter. Then when Welbeck’s goal put them back on the front foot, Lacazette went off for Alex Iwobi.

It’s hard to judge the Frenchman on a match where he was hardly involved, but perhaps he needed to force his way in a bit more.

Substitutes

Calum Chambers 6

Coming off the bench for Wilshere, Chambers allowed Arsenal to change formation and shift the balance of the game. He didn’t have a massive amount to do, but was solid and helped the team see out the match.

Alex Iwobi 4.5

Unfortunately, all Iwobi’s performance will be remembered for is his terrible shot when through on goal. He did the little else he had to do right, but fluffed his lines with his big chance. He really needs a few goals to kill these confidence issues.