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.
3Forwards
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 8
It took a while for Aubameyang to really make an impact on the game, but when he did it was an eye-catching finish from outside the box that gave Arsenal a 2-1 lead. The striker really needed to get going after a few goalless games, and hopefully this should help him kick on now.
Mesut Özil 7
Quietly ran the show from behind the scenes, without ever really catching the eye. He drifted into the middle a bit too often, leaving Bellerin on his own, but did some nice work when he was on the ball. Overall a pleasingly solid showing, and hopefully the start of a big comeback.
Alexandre Lacazette 9.5
Lacazette scored one and assisted one, but take both of those away and I’d still peg him as Arsenal’s most impressive starter. He held up the ball for his teammates impressively for the full 90 minutes, creating three chances, the second most on the team.
With Cardiff players aware of Lacazette’s ability to bring others into the game, they backed off him to cover passing lanes, which gave the Frenchman an early opportunity to go for goal, hitting the post.
The striker’s assist was a well-improvised flick, and his goal combined a ridiculous amount of power and accuracy from a tight angle. A fantastic all-round performance.