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Aubameyang gives Wenger’s Arsenal story a happy ending: Player Ratings v Huddersfield

Arsenal gave Arsene Wenger one final win as a send off on Sunday afternoon, with a 1-0 victory over Huddersfield Town.

The win brought to an end 22 years in charge of the club for the Frenchman, and the flowing final goal typified the way his teams have played over the years.

It also meant the side managed to pick up their first away points of the campaign, which should hopefully put that particular record out of the players’ heads before next season.

Here are our final individual player ratings of the season:

Defence

David Ospina 8

Ospina and Cech haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory this season, but on this occasion the Colombian really stepped up to the task. He kept a clean sheet, which was the main thing, but he also put his body on the line a number of times and made a few great saves to keep Huddersfield at bay.

This may well be his final appearance, with his contract up next summer, and a World Cup to impress potential suitors, so I’m glad it was a good one.

Hector Bellerin 7

Bellerin linked up well with the players around him, and looked a bit fresher for finally having a break in mid-week. He still wasn’t perfect, and lost most of his aerial duels, but in general performed well enough.

Shkodran Mustafi 8

Mustafi had a tough task on Sunday, considering he was surrounded by inexperienced defenders. He did well, and made a massive 14 clearances throughout the match, more than the rest of the defence combined.

This was his final chance to impress before the Germany World Cup squad comes out, so perhaps that gave him a bit of extra motivation.

Rob Holding 7

Like Bellerin, this was an adequate performance from Holding, with a couple of small mistakes littered in. Fortunately none of them were badly punished, and in general he did enough to withstand a lot of Huddersfield pressure.

Sead Kolasinac 7

Kolasinac continues to confuse me with his link up play, which seems to be simultaneously intelligent and sloppy. His pass accuracy was the lowest of the defenders, but he was still involved in some nice one-touch moves.

He does love to get forward, as most Arsenal full-backs do, which can leave the team a bit exposed at the back. At the same time, that trait helps a lot with the build-up play in attack. The new manager will have to figure out whether the positives outweigh the negatives.

Midfield

Aaron Ramsey 8.5

Ramsey captained the team and put in a captain’s performance for Wenger’s final game. He worked hard at both ends as usual, and created the only goal with an intelligent run and low cross for Aubameyang. He showed again why Arsenal need to get him tied down this summer, whoever is in charge.

Granit Xhaka 8

Xhaka’s impressive form this last few months has been one of the big positives for Arsenal. After a difficult first half of the season, he really picked his game up and improved, and it was the same again against Huddersfield.

Only three of his 57 passes failed to reach their intended targets, and his sweetly struck shot only went narrowly wide in the second half. He also covered well on one particular counter when Holding was caught out.

Alex Iwobi 7.5

Iwobi played a very safe game, and as a result he didn’t do anything particularly exciting, but didn’t do much wrong either. He just kept the team ticking over, which isn’t a bad thing.

Forwards

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 7

Mkhitaryan had a bit of an off day in general, but he redeemed himself towards the end, creating a couple of chances with some nice touches. This was a bit more sloppy from him than we’re used to though, for much of the game.

Alexandre Lacazette 7.5

Lacazette’s best moment came in the build up to the goal, with a nice flick to Ramsey. He did link up play very well all day, but didn’t get as many chances for himself as he would’ve liked, and failed to convert the one he did get.

The way his presence seems to take Aubameyang to the next level makes it worth having him on the pitch anyway.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 8.5

Aubameyang has still directly contributed to more Premier League goals than he’s made appearances, which is very impressive now he’s played half a season of football. He found himself in the right place at the right time again on Sunday, to score Arsenal’s final goal under Arsene Wenger. That’s no accident, his movement is world class.

He was always a threat on the counter attack, but ended up coming off early to give Welbeck a chance. Overall he’s giving the Arsenal fanbase massive encouragement for next season.

Substitutes

Danny Welbeck 7

Welbeck was lively when he came on, and created a great chance for himself by taking on the Huddersfield defence at the end. Unfortunately he couldn’t convert it, and maybe should’ve looked to set up Lacazette instead.

Nacho Monreal 7

Monreal didn’t really have much to do after coming on for his cameo appearance. He completed 10 passes, made one clearance and won his only aerial duel, but that was about it.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7

As usual, Maitland-Niles looked almost too comfortable out on the pitch. Nothing seems to phase him, which is good in general, but also worrying when he casually passes the ball away in the defensive third. He escaped pressure from three Huddersfield players well at one point though.

Overall he was deserving of Arsene Wenger’s final substitution after his fantastic progress this season. Hopefully the new manager can keep that going.

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