Arsenal slipped to a disappointing defeat against Manchester City on Sunday, a match they never really looked like winning, but there were one or two encouraging performances nonetheless.

Unai Emery’s team spent a lot of time trying to press City from the front. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very effective, given Pep Guardiola’s side are probably the best in the league at playing out of that sort of pressure.

Meanwhile at the other end, Arsenal’s defence was relatively easy to force into mistakes in possession, and that’s just what happened on a number of occasions. Let’s look at how each player did individually.

Defence

Petr Cech 6

Cech is probably the most difficult person to assign a rating to on this list. The 36-year-old made a few fantastic saves, but Sterling caught him out for the first goal, and he struggled to play out from the back all game. Even when his passes found their targets, that target was usually under masses of pressure.

Despite the shot stopping, most Arsenal fans are now calling for Bernd Leno, so the team can at least be a bit more comfortable in possession.

Hector Bellerin 7

Bellerin quietly had a good game, despite the situation around him. Mendy did get the better of him for the second goal with a clever cutback, but even then it was more a show of the left-back’s quality than of the Spaniard’s failings.

There was nothing Bellerin could do about the first except force Sterling back and towards Matteo Guendouzi, which he did. Unfortunately Guendouzi didn’t quite get it right on that occasion. For the rest of the match, Bellerin put in a positive showing.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 5

Maitland-Niles looked bright at first on the ball, although City were perhaps getting a little too much luck on the right hand side when they put together attacks of their own.

The Arsenal youngster challenged Walker well in a race at one point, but unfortunately it left him injured, and he could play no further part in the match. A shame, given it was his big opportunity with Nacho Monreal and Sead Kolasinac out.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos 6

Sokratis and Mustafi both had very similar performances, where they actually looked surprisingly solid defensively, but really struggled to play out from the back.

The Greek defender made one great tackle in the box, which could easily have been a penalty if he got it wrong, but he didn’t. Like Mustafi, he won all of his aerial duels, and he also made nine clearances. That’s only half the job in an Arsenal team though, he needs to improve at finding his teammates with the ball too.

Shkodran Mustafi 6

As mentioned, Mustafi was generally pretty solid defensively, but not as good in possession. If you look at the stats and see he completed 90% of his passes, you might be confused by that statement. The reality is those passes were either too safe, or put his teammates under too much pressure.

If you just focus on the defensive stats, they were pretty good. He won 100% of his aerial duels, 80% of his tackles and added three interceptions as well. But again, that’s half the job.

Midfield

Matteo Guendouzi 7

Undoubtedly Guendouzi needed to do more for the first goal, and one second half mistake should’ve resulted in another goal, if Aguero had just squared to De Bruyne instead of selfishly taking the shot on.

Nonetheless, he was one of Arsenal’s bright sparks all game, always showing for the ball, winning eight out his 12 duels, making three tackles, four interceptions and just generally impressing the Emirates supporters.

Granit Xhaka 5

Xhaka was not so impressive, unfortunately. He didn’t play a full game in pre-season, so perhaps we can forgive some rustiness, but his passing wasn’t as accurate as usual, and he was outshone defensively by Guendouzi. Hopefully he’s more ready for the trip to Stamford Bridge, as he normally performs well against Chelsea.

Aaron Ramsey 5.5

Response to Ramsey’s performance was mixed. For some, he pressed well, for others, he ran around wildly and left too much space behind him. Either way, he ran himself into the ground and had to come off after 54 minutes, having only made seven passes in that time. He did show glimpses of quality, but not enough.

Front three

Mesut Özil 5.5

Özil wasn’t at his best, and only managed to create a couple of chances in the full 90 minutes. He didn’t quite seem to be on the same wavelength as his teammates at times. Along with Mkhitaryan, he didn’t offer much cover for his full-back either.

In his defence, it was tough to create much when Arsenal spent so much time struggling to escape their own half. The German also won five out of his six duels, which probably flies in the face of a few narratives.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 5

Mkhitaryan did well pressing City, but didn’t then have the energy to get back and defend when they got past him. He ran down too many blind alleys, and couldn’t get his shots to beat the nearest defender. He improved when Lacazette came on, and almost set up a consolation goal, but that was one of his only positive moments.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 6

Aubameyang didn’t get good enough service from the players behind him. He showed exactly what he could’ve done with better quality balls into him with a nice finish over Ederson in the second half, but he was marginally offside on that occasion.

The striker pressed well, but just wasn’t involved enough in possession. He looked better with Lacazette and Torreira on the pitch, once again.

Substitutes

Stephan Lichtsteiner 6

Lichtsteiner came on and did well in an unfamiliar position on the left-hand side. A couple of his crosses were a bit wayward, coming off his weak foot, and he lost Bernardo Silva for the second goal, but otherwise he did a good job in difficult circumstances.

Lucas Torreira 7.5

By the time Torreira came on, the game was pretty much dead, but he still managed to inject some new life into it. He was lively, played a couple of great long balls, and completed 93% of his passes. That’s in a match where none of Arsenal’s starters in midfield or attack got above 81%. Torreira must start against Chelsea now.

Alexandre Lacazette 7

Lacazette is another who came on and proved his credentials. Like Torreira, he completed a high percentage of his passes (86%) under difficult circumstances, linking up play well in the final third.

The striker had a great chance near the end, but Mkhitaryan’s cutback was just behind him. Again, based on that performance, the Frenchman should start at Stamford Bridge.