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.
2Forwards
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.