Arsenal started slow but finished impressively against Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium, coming from behind to win the match 3-1.
On Monday, Unai Emery’s side continued their record of never being ahead at the half-time break, but that doesn’t really worry Arsenal fans anymore. The Gunners always seem to come out stronger in the second half. This was no exception.
After an unfortunate own goal gave Leicester a lead that they honestly deserved, Arsenal responded with a Mesut Özil goal right before the break. The team then did their usual trick of scoring two quickfire goals in the second half to kill the game, playing some beautiful football along the way.
Let’s take a look at our individual player ratings for the match.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Bernd Leno 8
This was a very good performance from Leno again, as he fights to keep his place once Petr Cech returns. The goalkeeper had to make a couple of saves, including one excellent stop from Harry Maguire. To get to the ball was difficult enough, but pushing it wide and away from danger avoided an easy tap-in for the lurking Leicester players.
Leno also made a few good high claims and played out from the back very effectively. 80% pass accuracy is excellent for a goalkeeper. I’m not going to attach any blame to Leno for the goal, as it was a cruel deflection. However, he was caught out once on a corner and can count himself lucky that the ball hit the bar from the resulting header.
Hector Bellerin 7.5
Bellerin’s performance was very much like Arsenal’s as a whole. He started a bit slow and markedly improved as the match went on. The own goal was unlucky but only happened because he was diving in to get back in time.
After that, he made amends with some impressive work going forward, getting himself two assists and turning the game around. Only Benjamin Mendy (5) has more assists this season than Bellerin (4).
Shkodran Mustafi 8
Mustafi looks like he might finally be finding some form, just as the competition for places is hotting up with Sokratis, Mavropanos and Koscielny on the way back. No one won more aerial duels than his five, only one player made more tackles than his three, and the German’s passing was also as good as it’s been this season.
Rob Holding 7
Holding was also generally pretty solid, but he lost Kelechi Iheanacho on two separate occasions. The second time, he had to take a yellow card just to avoid the striker getting away.
Other than that he won most of his duels, blocked a couple of shots and like Mustafi his passing was very good. His turn to beat a Leicester player in his own box was ill-advised, but it worked.
Stephan Lichtsteiner 6
Playing out of position on the left-hand side, the conditions clearly weren’t ideal for Lichtsteiner’s first Premier League start. Playing with the in-form Iwobi, the defender still couldn’t make anything happen offensively, and his left-footed crosses were poor.
Lichtsteiner’s passing was generally okay, but there isn’t much else you can put on the positive side. He lost most of his duels and didn’t make any tackles or interceptions. Presumably, he’ll be back on the right on Thursday. Let’s hope he does better then.
Midfield
Granit Xhaka 8
Xhaka deserves huge credit for playing the final third of the match as a left-back. It’s never easy playing out of position, but he actually looked very solid. He even managed to get involved in the goal of the match, beating a man before laying the ball off to Torreira to kickstart the counter.
It was a good performance from the Swiss international, overall. He did get dispossessed a couple of times though, whilst playing in the middle.
Lucas Torreira 8.5
Another eye-catching performance from the Uruguayan. He seems to know just the right time to step in and win the ball, to stop some dangerous counter-attacks. Once he has possession, he finds a teammate better than anyone else (bar Özil).
For once, the midfielder managed to usurp Xhaka as the player who spent the most time on the ball throughout the 90 minutes. I can’t see the 22-year-old letting go of his starting XI spot in the league for a while now.
Mesut Özil 9.5
After two defeats in two matches for the German national team over the break, Özil showed them exactly what they’re missing with a world-class performance. The playmaker’s involvement in Arsenal’s third goal, eventually netting him an assist, was pure genius. He also scored one of his own after a one-two with Bellerin.
However, his pass to split the defence and put the right-back in behind for the second goal was pivotal and arguably his best moment. It made Bellerin’s job easy. The captain on the night led the team by example, playing some “sexy football”, as he put it.
Forwards
Alex Iwobi 8.5
I’m not sure how Iwobi picked up the man-of-the-match award over Özil, but that’s not to say he wasn’t top class once again. The Nigerian international worked incredibly hard, making more tackles than anyone else and getting up and down the pitch effectively all game.
It’s the way he takes the ball in his stride that’s really impressing me right now though. Even if the pass is behind him, he finds a way to drag it into his path. If it’s up in the air, he can hold a player off whilst bringing it down nicely. That gives him opportunities to take shots and make passes he couldn’t otherwise make. His nutmeg was nice too.
https://twitter.com/Lacazettes/status/1054483027546521601
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 7.5
Like Iwobi on the other side, Mkhitaryan did work hard to help to win the ball back. He also kept the team ticking over in possession, but couldn’t create much on the night. It’s no real surprise he ended up coming off with half an hour left to play, as Arsenal needed to try something new, and Emery wasn’t going to sub Özil or Iwobi at that stage.
Alexandre Lacazette 7.5
I’ve said this before, but I’m not a fan of giving players low ratings just because they miss chances. Anyone can have an off day with their finishing, the important thing is they keep getting in the right positions, which is what Lacazette did. He just couldn’t find the net this time around.
Other than that, he held the ball up well and even won the ball back on three occasions.
Click ‘Next’ for the substitutes
Substitutes
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 8.5
Aubameyang looked electric coming off the bench, scoring two goals in quick succession and beating a Leicester player or two in one v one situations. Only Eden Hazard has more goals than the striker in the Premier League, and he’s up to eight in all competitions already. Watching that sort of player coming on late in games must terrify the opposition.
Matteo Guendouzi 8
Guendouzi looked really good in his spell on the pitch too. He completed more passes in his 30 minutes than Mkhitaryan or Lichtsteiner managed in over 60. His passing was accurate and positive, which was great to see. He didn’t have so much to do defensively but did win his one aerial duel.
Aaron Ramsey 7.5
Ramsey did a decent job coming on for the last 10 minutes, showing good awareness of his teammates on a couple of occasions with clever passing and dummies. It wasn’t as impactful an appearance as against Fulham though, in all honesty, the game was dead by the time the Welshman came on.