Arsenal picked up yet another win in their trip to Azerbaijan on Thursday, defeating Qarabag 3-0.
It wasn’t necessarily the best performance from Arsenal at the Olympic Stadium in Baku, but it didn’t need to be. The Gunners took their chances well, and Bernd Leno made sure defensive slip-ups weren’t punished. Three more points in the bag, eight wins in a row, top of the group, it’s all going pretty well in terms of results.
Let’s have a look at our individual ratings for this match.
1Goalkeeper and Centre-backs
Bernd Leno 9
Perhaps controversially, I’d have Leno as Arsenal’s man of the match. There were other good performers, but Leno’s saves were top quality and came at crucial points in the match. Let just one of them in and you never know how the scoreline could’ve ended up.
Nacho Monreal 7
Monreal had a decent first half, overall. In general, he was solid enough at the back, with one or two exceptions. He linked up with his teammates well and assisted the first goal. Unfortunately, then he was sacrificed in the second period so Emery could change the system. It was probably for the best anyway, with Fulham at the weekend.
Rob Holding 7
This wasn’t quite the stand-out performance we saw from Holding at the weekend, but a good showing nonetheless. He adapted well enough to the two systems employed by Emery.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos 7.5
Probably the best performer of Arsenal’s back three, but like Holding it wasn’t his most assured showing of the season. Sokratis took his early goal well, which helped settle the nerves and open the game up a bit.