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.
2Midfield
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.