Arsenal defeated Brentford 3-1 to progress to the next round of the League Cup on Wednesday, in a game that was a lot closer than the first-half suggested it would be.

Arsenal came out of the traps quickly at the start of the match, and took the lead in the first five minutes. For the remainder of the half the Gunners dominated, and scored a second before the break.

When the two teams came back out though, Brentford looked like they had nothing to lose, and really put Unai Emery’s team under pressure. Fortunately Arsenal maintained a 2-1 lead until the 93rd minute, when Alexandre Lacazette killed the game with a third.

Let’s have a look at how the players did individually.

Goalkeeper and Defence

Bernd Leno 7

In general, this was a good game from Leno, but he made a couple of mistakes. Firstly letting the ball out of his sight to slip off the pitch early on, gifting Brentford a corner.

Then, for the goal, it seemed like the free-kick went a little central for the goalkeeper not to get a touch. However, the wall perhaps could’ve done better too, making it easy for Judge to get power on it from close range. Other than that Leno built from the back well and made a couple of good saves.

Stephan Lichtsteiner 6.5

It’s no surprise that Lichtsteiner looked ready to fight every battle, even in a League Cup game against lower league opposition. He still doesn’t seem to have found his feet completely in this Arsenal side though, and picked up a booking for a foul when a Brentford player was getting away from him mid-way through the first half.

Rob Holding 7.5

Holding looked by far the more composed of the two central defenders and had a very solid game. He did particularly well covering for a couple of Mustafi mistakes, and there was nothing he could do about the goal. You’d think the 23-year-old must be edging his way into Emery’s first-choice side at this point.

Shkodran Mustafi 6

Mustafi, on the other hand, looks like he’s edging his way out. Outperformed by Sokratis for the first few weeks of the season, the German is now looking just as shaky alongside Holding. There was one particularly poor moment where he gave the ball away and then fell over trying to defend the resulting attack. Fortunately Holding was covering.

In Mustafi’s defence, he did then step it up towards the end and won a couple of aerial duels to see out the match. It’s hard to see how you could leave Sokratis or Holding out for him now though.

Nacho Monreal 7

We expected Monreal to get a rest on this occasion, but instead he played the full 90 minutes. Whilst I’m not convinced that running the Spaniard into the ground is the best strategy, he performed well. His overlapping run in behind led to Arsenal’s second goal.

Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Forwards and Substitutes

Midfield

Matteo Guendouzi 7

After such a strong start to the season, Guendouzi had looked a little off his best in his last couple of appearances. This was a return to form though, and he set up Danny Welbeck very well for the opening goal. Still not a perfect performance, but Guendouzi is clearly willing to keep fighting to prove himself.

Mohamed Elneny 6.5

Elneny did a good job of shielding the defence, particularly in the second half when Brentford came on strong. His work in possession wasn’t quite so impressive, but solid enough. The problem is most of Arsenal’s other central midfielders are offering more than ‘solid’ at the moment.

Emile Smith Rowe 7.5

A full debut for the 18-year-old, and an exciting one. He made great forward runs for the 65 minutes he spent on the pitch. The one criticism from Unai Emery was that he looked a bit nervy finishing off those chances. That’s to be expected on your first start though, and the talent was clearly there for all to see.

Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and Substitutes

Forwards

Alex Iwobi 8

Another great performance from the 22-year-old. Iwobi had the Brentford right-back, Odubajo, on toast for much of the match. It was no surprise to see the Brentford boss choosing to take the defender off with his first substution.

Iwobi pressed well, winning the ball back and forcing mistakes, and his work on the wing was very good. He won the corner for the opening goal, then played Monreal in behind to set up Welbeck for the second. An impressive showing.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 6.5

Mkhitaryan had one or two good moments, in particular his work in the second goal. However, in general this wasn’t his day, and he lost the ball far too often. In the end he came off early for Torreira.

Danny Welbeck 8.5

Welbeck all but killed this tie off in the first half, with a quality header in the first five minutes, and a tap in after getting in the perfect spot for a Monreal cut-back. The Englishman looked a danger all game, particularly in the air. Emery praised the forward’s ‘quality’ and ‘commitment’ afterwards, two things you could never doubt in this showing.

Click ‘Next’ for Substitutes

Substitutes

Alex Lacazette 8

Lacazette is in fantastic form at the moment. Every touch of the ball seems to add something, and he turns average passes into good ones when he’s playing like this. That was no more true than with the third goal. He had to fight with two different players for an aerial ball, eventually won it, and finished clinically.

Lucas Torreira 7

Torreira came on and added something both in and out of possession, as he’s done every time he’s introduced from the bench. He might be able to claim an assist for the third goal, but he’ll be a slightly fortunate, since Lacazette did most of the work.

Aaron Ramsey N/A

Ramsey came on very late, and his biggest contribution was probably knowing to get out the way of Lacazette for the third goal. In all honesty he didn’t have enough to do for a rating.