Arsenal kept their impressive win going with a 4-1 win in what we discovered on Friday would be Arsene Wenger’s final London derby, against West Ham.

Arsenal struggled to break down the Hammers at first, and it took until the 51st minute for Nacho Monreal to open the scoring. Just as the fans were starting to enjoy themselves, Marko Arnautovic scored an equaliser.

The usual frustration started to build, until the team eventually opened the floodgates and scored three goals in the final 10 minutes to win the match.

So how did the players do individually?

Defence

David Ospina 7

Ospina generally did pretty well, and didn’t have much hope stopping West Ham’s goal. The only thing you could hold against him was his punch in the build up, which was much too central. Other than that this was a good bit of preparation for Thursday’s crucial Europa League tie. His distribution was particularly impressive, with 91% accuracy.

Hector Bellerin 5

I saw people arguing on social media that it was too much of a risk to play the likes of Bellerin in this match with such a key game on Thursday, but his performance showed exactly why it was so necessary. Bellerin hadn’t played a match since Arsenal’s trip to Moscow, and he didn’t look at all sharp. Let’s just hope he’s ready for Atletico now.

Shkodran Mustafi 4

In the most predictable moment of Sunday’s match, Mustafi failed to notice Arnautovic getting into space for his goal. His form is becoming a concern ahead of the Europa League semi-final. He also slipped over for the second time in two games to allow an attacker in. Change of studs needed maybe?

He did get back and make an excellent last-ditch tackle to deny Arnautovic early on. Even then though, he shouldn’t be ending up in a situation where he’s having to make a very difficult tackle from behind in the penalty area.

Laurent Koscielny 7

Koscielny was generally a lot more assured than his defensive partner, as he so often is. The centre-back won all of his attempted tackles, made clearances and interceptions and completed 94% of his passes.

He put Arnautovic under pressure all match, but struggled a bit in the air against the striker and Andy Carroll. In fairness, that definitely wasn’t an easy task.

Nacho Monreal 8

It was Monreal to the rescue once again at the weekend. Scoring his fourth goal since Alexis Sanchez last played for Arsenal, the Spaniard is really stepping up to make sure the goals don’t dry up without last season’s leading scorer. It was a well taken finish, and just added to the 32-year-old’s good work all game.

Midfield

Mohamed Elneny 6

Elneny made a fair start to the match, but injury forced him off before half-time. Fortunately, it doesn’t initially look like he’ll be out for very long, but he won’t play a part in the first-leg against Atletico Madrid.

Granit Xhaka 8.5

Xhaka pulled the strings for the entire 90 minutes, racking up a huge 12.4% share of the total possession in the match. The next closest player was Koscielny, with 6.8%. The Swiss midfielder was constantly on the ball, setting up the plays effectively. He also shielded the defence well, as he is often accused of failing to do.

Eventually his hard work was rewarded with an assist for the opening goal of the game. If we see this late season Xhaka all year in 2018/19, Arsenal will benefit enormously.

Aaron Ramsey 9

Ramsey’s amazing individual season continued on Sunday with yet another goal and assist. He is now in double figures for both this season, despite only playing 26 matches, and playing in midfield. He looked confident against West Ham, expertly dribbling past the defence on multiple occasions, the final of which allowed him to set up Lacazette.

Ramsey is another player who has particularly stepped up since January. Now he just needs to lead the side to Europa League glory.

Attack

Alex Iwobi 4

If Ramsey looked confident on Sunday, Iwobi looked anything but. He seemed to snatch at everything all day, even simple touches and short passes. If I really struggle for positives, he did create a chance and hit his one shot nicely. Other than that it was a relief to see him come off before the crowd got nasty.

Danny Welbeck 7.5

For much of the match Welbeck looked like Arsenal’s most threatening player, and it took a couple of good saves to deny him a goal. He worked hard all match, but unfortunately didn’t have much to show for it at the end. Nonetheless, if he keeps this good form up the team will keep seeing the rewards.

Alexandre Lacazette 9

Since coming back from injury Lacazette has been top class, and this was no exception. He links up with his teammates well, he finds space, and he seems determined to prove he should be playing alongside Aubameyang in the future.

The two linked up for the Frenchman’s first goal, which had a tiny bit of fortune about it, but there was no luck involved in Lacazette’s intelligent body feint and finish for the second. Six goals in six games since having knee surgery isn’t a bad return at all.

Substitutes

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7

Maitland-Niles filled in well in midfield, and I’m continually impressed by his ability to escape pressure from opposition players, as well as his seemingly constant state of calm.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 9

What a signing this man is proving. Arsene Wenger dropped him to the bench on this occasion so he could prepare his team for Thursday, which was the correct decision in the circumstances. However, you could see just what the team were missing without him when he came on.

Just his presence in the box forced poor Declan Rice into a mistake for Arsenal’s second goal, and then he set up the third for Lacazette not long afterwards. That’s six goals and three assists in nine games, in what is supposed to be a hard league to adapt to. He’s making it look easy.

Calum Chambers N/A

Chambers came on for the final moments and didn’t make any mistakes, which is good.