An Arsenal team of second-string players and youth stars had no trouble at all breezing past FC Vorskla on Thursday, winning the match 3-0 in Kiev.
With the North London derby on Sunday, Unai Emery had a call to make in midweek. Starting his star players would wear them out, and even taking them on the trip to sit in freezing conditions after a long journey to Ukraine could hardly do them any good.
As a result, he decided to trust in the Arsenal academy to fill the gaps in the squad, and it worked a treat. Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the match:
2Midfield
Mohamed Elneny 7.5
For the most part, Elneny played things pretty safe, leaving it to his teammates to take all the risks going forward. However, the Egyptian midfielder created one great chance in each half, one of which resulted in a goal for Joe Willock, the other perhaps should’ve done as well.
Matteo Guendouzi 7.5
No one completed a greater percentage of their passes than Guendouzi, but the Frenchman did take a few too many risks letting the ball run across his body and losing it a couple of times. Nonetheless, he grew into the game and created a couple of good chances.
Aaron Ramsey 8
As the only senior player in the attacking quartet, Ramsey had to make his experience count, and he did so well. For the first goal he linked up with Nketiah well, and for the second he won the penalty and then scored it.
With the game wrapped up early on thanks to his contribution, the Welshman had a fairly uneventful match after that, until his substitution midway through the second half.