Arsenal eased past FC Vorskla on Thursday, with a 4-2 scoreline that ended up flattering the visitors, if anything.
Unai Emery picked a fairly strong side to ensure the win in Arsenal’s opening Europa League fixture, making it four victories in a row in all competitions. It took a while for the team to get going, as many didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength. Once the first goal went in though, the game opened up and the Gunners never looked in trouble.
Vorskla got a couple of very late goals, but even then the feeling was more disappointment than fear the away side might actually come back into the game.
Let’s have a look at how the individual players did on the night.
3Forwards
Alex Iwobi 7.5
Iwobi had an extremely similar game to Mkhitaryan. He was dispossessed and gave the ball away a fair bit, but when it counted, he found the right pass for the opening goal. The 22-year-old created four chances, which was more than anyone else.
Danny Welbeck 8
Welbeck had a pretty underrated performance. He got a goal, but also completed a lot of forward dribbles to progress the play, whilst also losing the ball less than the likes of Iwobi and Mkhitaryan. Hopefully he’ll continue to make the most of his opportunities like this.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 8.5
This is the performance we’ve been waiting for from Aubameyang, and hopefully the one that kick-starts his season. He scored twice and should’ve had a third, hitting the post, despite only spending 57 minutes on the pitch. He completed all of his passes, and retained the ball a lot better than he has sometimes recently.
Emery likely gave Aubameyang this start in the hope that the striker could grab a couple of goals and build his confidence, and it worked.