Lucas Torreira came on to change the game yet again on Saturday, as Arsenal got another three points on the board away from home against Newcastle.

Arsenal got their first consecutive league wins in away games for over a season with a 2-1 win at St. James’ Park. They had to overcome a fairly poor first-half performance to get the result, but much maligned duo Granit Xhaka and Mesut Özil ended up coming up with the goals that proved enough, despite conceding a late consolation.

Let’s have a look at how each player did individually on the day.

Goalkeeper and Defence

Petr Cech 6

Cech really didn’t have much to do in this game, only making one save in the entire 90 minutes. It would certainly be harsh to attach any blame to him for the goal.

Nonetheless, he still looks nervous playing out from the back, and only encouraged Newcastle by passing out of play for an early corner. Fortunately that was his only major error in possession.

Hector Bellerin 6.5

A fairly average performance from Hector. He had some good moments and some bad ones, and definitely looked better earlier in the season linking up with Mkhitaryan on the right.

Shkodran Mustafi 6

It’s harsh to blame Mustafi for falling over, but he is making a habit of doing so at the vital moment. Fortunately he had Sokratis to cover for his mistakes on this occasion. Mustafi won a lot of aerial duels, which makes it even more disappointing that Newcastle’s one goal came from a header.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos 7

Sokratis has probably been Arsenal’s most consistent defender since the season got underway. In pre-season a lot of questions were asked of the centre-back, but he seems to be answering them now. He had the highest pass accuracy of all the defenders and covered his teammates’ mistakes well.

Nacho Monreal 6.5

Like Bellerin on the other side, this was a so-so game from the Spanish left-back. Neither of them seem to be doing enough to stop crosses coming in, but they weren’t Arsenal’s worst performers either.

Midfield

Granit Xhaka 8.5

Xhaka scored a fantastic free-kick to give Arsenal the lead, played the ball in which eventually led to the Gunners’ second and overall had a very good match. He was also the only one of Arsenal’s midfield trio starting the game not to get caught in possession at any point. A very good performance to prove some doubters wrong.

Matteo Guendouzi 6

Unfortunately, Guendouzi couldn’t find a way to move the ball forwards through the Newcastle midfield, and the team really struggled as a result. For most of the first half they were trapped, unable to beat the press from their opponents, and it was only after Torreira came on that it all changed.

Guendouzi didn’t do anything particularly wrong, this just wasn’t the game for him, and Xhaka-Torreira continues to be the more convincing pairing.

Aaron Ramsey 7

Ramsey was caught on the ball a bit too often, and didn’t get any shots off, but did create a few for his teammates. His passing was solid, and he helped out defensively with a couple of tackles, but needs to do more if he wants to keep that central position.

Forwards

Mesut Özil 8.5

Arsenal needed their star playmaker to show up in a big way, after all the questions over his previous absences for the trips to St. James’ Park. Thankfully he did so, with a goal and more chances created than anyone else on the pitch. Hopefully he can get a run going now, and build on this impressive performance.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 6

This was an off-day for Arsenal’s record signing. He had a couple of shots, but never really looked like scoring, and struggled to get into the game for the most part.

Alexandre Lacazette 8

Once again, Lacazette showed why he’s currently the preferred man up front. He linked up play really well, went close to scoring on a couple of occasions and only Özil created more chances than him for Arsenal. All the performance was missing was a goal.

Substitutes

Lucas Torreira 8

Torreira didn’t do anything particularly jaw-dropping, but his partnership with Xhaka changed the game. Suddenly Arsenal were creating chances, and didn’t look particularly vulnerable until the final minutes. It was another solid performance from the summer signing, and one which surely now must earn him his first Premier League start.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 6.5

Arsenal needed a bit more control over the game than Aubameyang was offering, so Mkhitaryan came on in his place. To be honest he wasn’t a huge improvement, but did enough to help see out the match. Solid, but I’d prefer to see him back on the right.

Danny Welbeck 6.5

Welbeck looked very lively after coming on, and had a good chance near the end, but perhaps should’ve laid it off for a teammate instead of going for goal himself. He should make a good substitute option this season.