With pre-season coming to an end with victory over Lazio, we’re taking a look back at how each player performed over the five matches.

After yesterday’s post analysing Arsenal’s goalkeepers and defenders in pre-season, let’s now take a look at the midfielders and forwards, in terms of how each individual is doing in their preparations for the new season.

Midfielders

Matteo Guendouzi 8.5

Let’s start with one of the biggest positives of Arsenal’s pre-season, new signing Matteo Guendouzi. The 19-year-old midfielder appeared in all of the Gunners’ five matches, and was particularly impressive in the International Champions Cup games against Chelsea, PSG and Atletico Madrid.

The young Frenchman looked ridiculously composed on the ball, playing inch-perfect passes and skipping away from any opponents who tried to press him. He wasn’t perfect, taking a few too many risks in his defensive third, but he’s already putting himself in contention for the first-team squad at this early stage.

Aaron Ramsey 7

Ramsey started pre-season well, bagging an assist against Boreham Wood, and put in a couple of decent performances in Singapore. Then, unfortunately, he got injured just before the Chelsea match, and missed the rest of pre-season. Hopefully he’ll return in time for Manchester City at the weekend.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7.5

Maitland-Niles is another who started strongly, with an eye-catching run to set up Aubameyang in the opening minutes of pre-season.

Then he was forced to cover at left-back, and did so well enough, without any real standout moments for the remainder of the preparations. That’s other than a cheeky piece of control against Lazio. A solid few weeks for the youngster.

Emile Smith Rowe 8

Smith Rowe was another breakthrough star of the Singapore leg of pre-season. His goal against Atletico Madrid topped off a fantastic performance that day, in an otherwise fairly uninspired Arsenal showing. Then he came off the bench to assist Alexandre Lacazette in the next game against PSG.

Emile didn’t quite hit the same heights in the final two matches, but still made a big case for more chances this season.

Mohamed Elneny 6.5

Elneny joined pre-season late, and took a bit longer to get up to speed than many of his teammates. He really struggled against Chelsea, failing to provide any defensive cover and playing a number of poor passes, but improved for the final game against Lazio.

Alex Iwobi 7

Iwobi also improved as pre-season went on after joining late, and played very well in the final game on Saturday.

His shot off the post led to the opening goal, when Reiss Nelson turned in the rebound, and he consistently made intelligent and positive decisions all game. The rest of his shots throughout pre-season weren’t very impressive at all though, so there’s still work to be done.

Lucas Torreira 7.5

Torreira had a good debut game against Lazio, the only pre-season match he took part in. He completed 91% of his passes and won a number of duels, without performing quite at the high level he showed at the World Cup. That will come when he returns to full fitness.

Granit Xhaka 7

Once again, Xhaka only played one pre-season match, and wasn’t quite at his best as a result. Still, it was a solid performance, and his partnership with Torreira looks encouraging.

Joe Willock 7

Just like Jordi Osei-Tutu, Willock only appeared in the first few senior matches before dropping into the u23s. He got an assist against Boreham Wood, then used that first-team experience to great effect, performing well in his academy match.

Nonetheless, he might find it tough to get into the Unai Emery’s side with all the other midfield options available right now.

Click ‘Next’ for the player ratings for the forwards

Forwards

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 8.5

Aubameyang led the team for goal contributions in pre-season, with four goals and two assists across the five matches. Admittedly, three goals and one assist came in the first-half against Boreham Wood, but nonetheless the striker seems in great form going into the new season.

Alexandre Lacazette 8

Lacazette finished in second place for pre-season goal contributions, with four goals and an assist. Two goals came against PSG, one against Chelsea, one against Boreham Wood and he assisted Aubameyang against Lazio.

More than that, he showed a lot of nice touches to make chances for himself, and the only criticism is that he could’ve scored even more than he did.

Reiss Nelson 8.5

Nelson didn’t have one game where he really announced himself like Smith Rowe or Guendouzi, but he consistently performed well throughout. He assisted more goals than anyone else, as well as scoring two of his own.

The highlight was probably the way he set up Lacazette for the equaliser against Chelsea, but his finish against Boreham Wood was impressive, as well as the run he made to win a penalty in the same game.

Eddie Nketiah 8

Nketiah probably deserves more credit than he’s getting for his pre-season performances, because he did very well overall. It only took a few minutes for him to score a goal after coming on in the opening game, a trick which he repeated in Singapore against PSG.

Eddie only got one start in the five games, so to manage two goals and an assist is not a bad return at all.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 7.5

Mkhitaryan didn’t perform badly in the pre-season matches, but nor was he particularly eye-catching. His only goal contribution came in the Boreham Wood match, and after that he went fairly under the radar while other players stole the headlines.

Lucas Perez 6.5

Perez had a decent enough performance against Boreham Wood, but couldn’t get on the scoresheet, and wasn’t seen again during the pre-season matches. It seems like now he’s off to West Ham.

Mesut Özil 8

It didn’t take long for Özil to show us what Arsenal miss without him in the team, as he led an impressive first-half showing against PSG. The playmaker ended up getting the only goal of the half, but it was one of the best periods of football the team played in pre-season.

Then, after a slightly more subdued performance for much of the match against Chelsea, Özil’s reverse pass in the final seconds opened up the space for Nelson to set up the equaliser. The 29-year-old is certainly showing signs that he’s ready for a big campaign.