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.
3Forwards
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.
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