Arsenal came back from 1-0 down to draw against Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, in an encouraging display for Unai Emery’s side.
With most fans and pundits going into the game expecting Arsenal to be on the wrong end of a 4-0, the Gunners surprised everyone by actually having the better of the first half. Liverpool rallied and opened the scoring after the break, but Arsenal fought back and levelled through Alexandre Lacazette.
Though they couldn’t quite get the win, there were a lot of good signs in the clash against one of the title contenders this season. Hopefully, Emery also identifies what the team still need to work on to turn these matches into wins.
Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the match.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Bernd Leno 7
A lot of Arsenal fans on social media put the blame at Leno’s door for Liverpool’s goal, but go back and rewatch it. His save was actually going harmlessly to Sead Kolasinac until an unintentional touch off Rob Holding took it straight to James Milner’s feet. It was bad luck.
That said, the goalkeeper did have one bad moment, failing to reach an aerial ball ahead of Virgil van Dijk. Other than that, he made a few saves and did well to keep the score low.
Hector Bellerin 8
Bellerin had to race to be fit for this one, so the fact that he dealt so well with Sadio Mane for much of the game was all the more impressive.
At the start of the season, there were plenty of calls for Stephan Lichtsteiner to replace Bellerin in the starting XI, but those have almost completely gone away, and that’s a testament to how the Spaniard is pushing on.
Shkodran Mustafi 8
The world just seemed to be waiting for Mustafi to fall apart against Liverpool’s front three, but it never happened. His passing was excellent, he made a lot of key tackles and won a lot of aerial duels, and generally put in a great performance.
The German did fall asleep for one over the top through ball to Virgil van Dijk. Other than that, he deserves a lot of credit.
Rob Holding 8.5
Holding was the star of the show defensively, dealing incredibly well with Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah. The centre-back has had to adapt to playing with a large number of different left-backs recently, and the fact he’s doing so well with each one shows how much progress he’s making.
Sead Kolasinac 7.5
Kolasinac had the almost impossible task of coming back from injury after one game in three months to face last season’s top goalscorer. From that point of view, he did very well, though Holding did have to cover for him on a few occasions after his marauding runs forward.
Those offensive forays got the Bosnian in a number of great positions, and he deserves credit for knowing when to go and timing his runs perfectly. However, he didn’t make much of those positions, only creating one chance. That’s something to work on.
Midfield
Granit Xhaka 9
Xhaka led both Arsenal and Liverpool in passes, recoveries and tackles, in an all-action performance that showed exactly what he can do at his best. He completed an impressive seven out of his 11 attempted long balls, and he only made one foul in the 90 minutes.
The Swiss international dominated the midfield with Lucas Torreira, embarrassing Liverpool’s new signing Fabinho on the other side. In the end, the Brazilian was perhaps lucky to stay on the pitch after committing a cynical foul to stop an Arsenal counter, whilst already on a yellow card.
Lucas Torreira 9
The other half of that effective midfield duo, Torreira just did what he’s been doing all season. He made tackles, he broke up counter attacks, he won free kicks and he played the right pass nine times out of ten. The Uruguayan even found himself in a decent shooting position at one point, but he put his effort a little too close to Alisson.
It was great to see that the 22-year-old has this sort of performance in his locker even against the top sides in the Premier League.
Mesut Özil 8
Özil wasn’t quite on the level of the two midfielders behind him. Nonetheless, no one created more chances than him (as usual) and he consistently showed fantastic awareness of his surroundings when given the chance to play a ball around the corner to an overlapping attacker or full-back.
The German’s flick to Lacazette would’ve made highlight reels if the Frenchman could’ve found the net.
Forwards
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 7
Aubameyang actually started the match really well, having a couple of chances and creating one as well. After the first half an hour he really struggled to have any impact on the game at all though. His pass accuracy was lower than any other starter (56%), and he couldn’t complete a single dribble.
Without jumping to conclusions, it is starting to look like it’s not worth playing the striker unless it’s as a centre-forward, super-sub or as part of a strike partnership. Starting on the left he’s just not as effective.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 6.5
Like Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan had a pretty poor game where he couldn’t make anything happen. He had a couple of chances which he delayed too long to make anything of them. The worst was an opportunity to play the ball across the box to an open Aubameyang, but he instead chose to cut onto his left foot and lost the ball.
In the end, it was no surprise to see the Armenian substituted first. He still had some good moments, as everyone did on the night, but needs to do better to keep a starting XI spot.
Alexandre Lacazette 8.5
Despite the average performances of the other two forwards next to him, Lacazette still somehow managed to have an excellent match. He made some great runs, almost scoring from an Özil flick on, and nearly chipping Alisson after a Kolasinac cut back.
Eventually, he got his goal after latching onto an Iwobi through ball and intelligently delaying his shot until the perfect moment. He’s making a habit of this in the big games, after goals against Manchester City, Manchester United and Atletico Madrid last season, and assists against Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur. Hopefully, he can keep that up.
Click ‘Next’ for the substitutes
Substitutes
Alex Iwobi 8.5
Iwobi played the ball of the match for Arsenal’s equalising goal, and he deserves a high rating for that moment alone.
The 22-year-old is probably the squad’s most effective player on the left-hand side, creating chances and getting back to defend well. That’s why Unai Emery felt comfortable taking a risk and moving him to left-back to get Danny Welbeck involved. Iwobi adapted and got Arsenal level in minutes.
Aaron Ramsey 8
Despite all the speculation about his future in the media, Ramsey stepped onto the pitch looking focused and determined to get something out of the game. He hardly put a foot wrong, completing all but one of his passes, and eventually Arsenal saw the rewards of holding onto possession a bit better.
Danny Welbeck 7
Welbeck didn’t have much to do after coming on, but he won the only aerial duel he contested. That was about it.