Arsenal managed to grind out their first win under Unai Emery on Saturday, coming from behind to win 3-1 against West Ham United.
It wasn’t Arsenal’s most convincing performance overall, with periods of the match where they looked vulnerable, and a sense they were missing chief creator Mesut Özil. Nonetheless, the result was all that really mattered on this occasion, after defeats to Chelsea and Manchester City.
Let’s have a look at the individual ratings for each player:
Goalkeeper and Defence
Petr Cech 7
Cech had to be alert on a number of occasions to keep West Ham from scoring more than the one goal they did manage. There wasn’t much the goalkeeper could do about Arnautovic’s well-placed shot through the defender’s legs.
The 36-year-old still doesn’t look entirely comfortable playing out from the back, but he did complete 83% of his passes, which is a good effort.
Nacho Monreal 8
Monreal was Arsenal’s hero again, scoring the equaliser and winning the vast majority of his duels at both ends. Still, he was caught out too far forward once or twice, and needs to co-ordinate with Bellerin a bit better so only one of them advances at a time. On this occasion though, it didn’t matter.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos 7.5
Sokratis had to make a couple of last ditch tackles and blocks, as a result of the fact that he was left so exposed for most of the match. The former Dortmund man is impressing fans after a slow start in pre-season, and is making a better case to keep his place on Koscielny’s return than his centre-back partner is right now.
Shkodran Mustafi 6.5
Undeniably, Mustafi needs someone to cover him a bit more. Hopefully when Torreira is starting more regularly he’ll have that. Even so, the defender was still caught out much too often, and getting nutmegged and then losing his man for the goal wasn’t a good look.
It wasn’t all bad though, and Mustafi did manage a massive 14 clearances, three more than the rest of the team combined.
Hector Bellerin 8
Just like Monreal, Bellerin was great going forward. Only his assist for Welbeck will go down in the record books, but the first goal was chiefly down to his cross as well. He also suffered from the same problem as Monreal at the back though. As mentioned, they can’t keep both going forward for every attack. It leaves Arsenal too open.
Midfield
Granit Xhaka 7.5
Xhaka got a lot of stick for his performance against Chelsea last week, but he proved he’s still an important member of the squad against West Ham. He won 75% of his aerials and tackles, completed more passes than anyone else and helped Arsenal in the build up play as he always does.
Matteo Guendouzi 7
Guendouzi always looks talented when he’s on the ball, but the issue is that he doesn’t seem to have the right partner in the first team. Guendouzi and Xhaka get goals, but concede just as many. Meanwhile, Torreira and Guendouzi couldn’t keep the ball against Chelsea.
Unfortunately for him, Torreira and Xhaka seem to give the team more balance right now. There shouldn’t be any rush though, the Frenchman is only 19 after all. He’ll have learnt a lot from these last few weeks already.
Aaron Ramsey 7
Ramsey’s performance split opinion among fans and pundits. He brought his usual high energy to proceedings, and created a couple of chances. At the same time, he didn’t give Arsenal the same kind of control in the final third as the likes of Mesut Özil would have, which made the match a lot more difficult for the forwards.
Forwards
Alex Iwobi 6.5
After such a good game against Chelsea, Iwobi wasn’t on such great form on this occasion. He didn’t necessarily make any major mistakes, he just didn’t add enough in the final third to get the win on the day.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 7
Like Ramsey, Mkhitaryan’s performance split opinion. If you only look at the stats, you’d think he had a terrible game, with none of his crosses finding their targets, and a lot of duels lost. If you watched the match though, you’d see how well he and Bellerin are working together offensively.
They make space for each other, and create most of the chances Arsenal are scoring from. Many of those failed crosses actually resulted in corners, and one of his shots would’ve led to a goal if Ramsey had stayed onside for the rebound. It’s just defensively where there are concerns.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 7
Aubameyang was way too isolated up front, and struggled to make chances for himself as a result. It was only when Lacazette came on that he started to come alive, and would undoubtedly have turned in the second goal if the West Ham defender hadn’t done it for him.
Click ‘Next’ for the Substitutes
Substitutes
Alexandre Lacazette 8.5
Lacazette came on and changed the game for Arsenal. With Aubameyang struggling to hold up the ball on his own, Lacazette came on and showed him how it’s done, linking up with the players around him (Aubameyang included) very effectively.
The Gunners were a lot more dangerous as a result, and it was the Frenchman’s cross that West Ham turned in to their own net to put Arsenal ahead.
Lucas Torreira 8.5
Just like Lacazette, Torreira showed what Arsenal are missing by leaving him on the bench. He formed an effective partnership with Xhaka, and played a couple of impressive direct passes through the West Ham defence immediately after entering the fray. It would be bizarre not to see Torreira and Lacazette getting a chance against Cardiff now.
Danny Welbeck 8
Welbeck’s overall game may not have caught the eye quite as much as Torreira’s or Lacazette’s, but he took his one chance impressively to become the first Arsenal striker to score this season. The Englishman faces a battle for minutes in 2018/19, and it looks like he’s up for the fight.