Arsenal won a hard-fought three points in Cardiff on Sunday, taking the lead on three separate occasions to eventually finish 3-2 victors.
Cardiff didn’t have a Premier League goal until this weekend, but of course they found their scoring boots against Arsenal. Fortunately the Gunners’ heads never dropped, and they kept finding increasingly impressive ways to take back the lead.
Let’s have a look at how each player did individually on the day.
2Midfield
Granit Xhaka 6
Yes, it was a terrible pass from Xhaka, and a very poorly timed one, that led to Cardiff’s first goal. The reaction from fans afterwards was completely ridiculous though.
Firstly, there’s no way that pass should’ve resulted in a goal. Cardiff made multiple passes and crosses afterwards, giving Arsenal plenty of time to win the ball back. If the Gunners concede every time they lose the ball in the middle of the pitch, we may as well fold the club now.
More importantly, it was one bad pass in a good performance. Xhaka assisted the first goal for Arsenal, he missed that one long ball but completed his other six, he made as many tackles as the entire defence combined, won seven duels, made two interceptions, etc.
Matteo Guendouzi 6
Guendouzi didn’t really do anything wrong, and most of his passes found their targets as usual. At the same time, he probably had his most ineffective game so far.
For whatever reason he just struggled to influence the game, and didn’t provide much cover for the defence either. Xhaka certainly looked a lot more in control alongside Torreira.
Aaron Ramsey 7
Ramsey started the match very well, making intelligent runs forward and getting into dangerous positions. Then he dropped off a bit, and started to give the ball away too often. Eventually he composed himself again though, and created four chances over the 90 minutes, more than anybody else.