Arsenal let a 2-2 draw slip in the late stages on Saturday, falling to a one-goal defeat against Chelsea after a spirited fight back from 2-0 down.

After having to start the season against Premier League champions Manchester City, Arsenal moved on to one of their worst away grounds in recent years, Stamford Bridge.

For half an hour it looked like Chelsea might give the Gunners a battering, going 2-0 up and threatening constantly. Then Arsenal made a large number of fantastic chances, took two of them, and went in at half-time on level terms.

After that, only Chelsea seemed to come out with any intent to win in the second half. Eventually they got a late goal through Marcos Alonso, and saw out the final 10 minutes without trouble.

Here are our individual player ratings for the match:

Defence

Petr Cech 7

Cech made some very good saves to keep Arsenal in the game, but only after the team went 2-0 down. There’s not much he could’ve done about the goals, in fairness.

Cech also still didn’t look confident playing out from the back, though that’s likely just as much on the central defenders as it is on him. Overall he kept the Gunners in the game though.

Nacho Monreal 6

Monreal reminded us what we were missing without his forward runs, as he caused Chelsea a lot of problems along with Alex Iwobi on the left hand side. Defensively he wasn’t quite as solid, but ultimately the fact that all the goals came through the middle or from the opposite flank suggests he did enough.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos 5

Sokratis fought well, but just wasn’t good enough in a positional sense. He lost Pedro for the first goal, and couldn’t get back in time to help Mustafi for the second after the team was caught out by Chelsea runners again.

Shkodran Mustafi 5.5

Mustafi’s best work came on the ball, with a couple of nice forward passes setting up Arsenal attacks. Like Sokratis, he didn’t do well enough for the goals though, letting Morata turn him, and not being aware of Alonso’s position in the box.

Hector Bellerin 6.5

Bellerin was very good in attack, and his clever cutback for Aubameyang would’ve been an assist in any other game this season. This was just a rare game where the striker couldn’t finish the easy chances.

However, two of the goals came down Bellerin’s side defensively, as Chelsea took advantage of the Spaniard’s forays forward. In fairness, Henrikh Mkhitaryan or Alexandre Lacazette should take more of the blame than Bellerin on each occasion.

Midfield

Matteo Guendouzi 7.5

Another good performance from the Frenchman, and an improvement on a decent game against Manchester City. His pass to Bellerin in the first half was fantastic, and should’ve resulted in an Arsenal equaliser. Guendouzi made as many interceptions as the entire Arsenal defence, and four tackles to their five.

Granit Xhaka 5

Xhaka was terrible at times, and ended up coming off at half-time for Lucas Torreira. On the other hand, you could see Arsenal’s problems without him in the second half, as the Gunners couldn’t keep possession and didn’t make any chances.

They did look more solid defensively, but that doesn’t matter if you still let one in and can’t score. With Xhaka, it’s becoming a case of ‘can’t live with him, can’t live without him’.

Mesut Özil 6

Similarly, Özil didn’t have his best game, though he was far from the reason for Arsenal’s defeat. When he came off though, the team didn’t make enough happen.

Forwards

Alex Iwobi 8

A fantastic performance from one of the most heavily criticised members of the Arsenal squad. Iwobi made chances, and took his big opportunity to score after Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang had wasted shots from similar positions. He linked up effectively with Monreal, and covered the Spaniard defensively.

In all honesty, he probably didn’t deserve to come off early, but you can understand Unai Emery rolling the dice.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 7

Mkhitaryan was good in patches, and poor in others. He took his goal very nicely, which makes you wonder how he managed to mess up his previous – easier – opportunity so badly. As always when Mkhitaryan plays on the right, he made a big number of chances (five), more than anyone else on the pitch. He got an assist as a result.

Sadly, he didn’t cover Bellerin well enough defensively. He didn’t get back for the first goal, and that was one of a number of times he could be seen running back behind the play.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 6

If you replayed this game 10 times, Aubameyang would probably score in all 10 of them. For whatever reason, his ability to finish suddenly disappeared, and he wasted two fantastic chances. Nonetheless, he found goalscoring positions just as impressively as he always does. If he keeps that up he’ll have no problems this season.

Substitutes

Lucas Torreira 7

Arsenal lost their grip on the game in the second half, so it was particularly impressive that Torreira managed to complete over 90% of his passes, showing his quality in possession. He’s not quite up to speed defensively though, and should have tracked Alonso for the winning goal. At 22 years old, we shouldn’t expect the world just yet.

Aaron Ramsey 6

Ramsey couldn’t make the difference he would’ve hoped to have made on the day. His one positive moment came in the form of a powerful late shot which brushed the top of the net. Other than that Chelsea kept him quiet.

Alexandre Lacazette 6

It’s such a disappointment that the only real mistake Lacazette has made in months came at a crucial time in this match, and was badly punished. He should’ve done better than giving the ball away to Chelsea, and letting Hazard ease past him.

It was the Frenchman’s only inaccurate pass, and preceded by him making one chance and almost scoring as he pounced on a rebound. That’s football though.