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.
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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.