Arsenal were embarrassed by Liverpool 5-1 at Anfield on Saturday, despite taking an early lead against the league leaders.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles put Arsenal into the lead with a nice finish after good work from Alex Iwobi 11 minutes into the game, but by the 16th minute, Liverpool were ahead after some disastrous defending by the Gunners.

After that, Sadio Mane capitalised on some more poor marking for a third, before Mohamed Salah made it 4-1 with a penalty before half-time. After the break, Roberto Firmino completed his hat-trick with yet another penalty, before Arsenal were denied a clear spot-kick of their own by Michael Oliver.

It wouldn’t have made any difference though, as Unai Emery’s side were dreadful for the most part, and they deserved to lose. Let’s have a look at our player ratings for the fixture.

Goalkeeper and Defence

Bernd Leno 4

You have to feel bad for Leno. What could he do about the deflection off Mustafi, Firmino’s perfectly placed second, or Salah and Mane combining in a two-on-one against him? The other two goals were penalties, so you could hardly blame him for those either.

The goalkeeper still made five saves, but the best he could offer this match was damage limitation.

Stephan Lichtsteiner 2.5

Lichtsteiner kicked the ball into Mustafi to allow Liverpool to score an equaliser just three minutes after Arsenal took the lead, then paid no attention to the man he was supposed to be marking (Salah) for Liverpool’s third. The only positive is that he was the one defender on the team to make more than one tackle.

Shkodran Mustafi 2

Mustafi was Saturday’s half-time substitution, for good reason. He didn’t make any tackles or clearances as he helped Liverpool score four first-half goals. He clearly wasn’t ready for this one.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos 2.5

As much as Salah invited the contact and went down easily for the penalty, Sokratis still shouldn’t have let him get goal-side of him, nor should he have stuck a leg in. The Greek defender also lost Mane for the third goal. He made one good recovery tackle on Mane in the second half. Otherwise, he was as bad as the rest defensively.

Sead Kolasinac 3

For the most part, Kolasinac wasn’t quite as poor as his defensive partners. He offered something in possession and wasn’t as directly at fault for the first-half goals. However, whilst the penalty he then conceded was soft, it was still brainless to shove a Liverpool player in the area at Anfield. There was no way he was going to get away with that one.

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Midfield

Lucas Torreira 3.5

This was certainly Torreira’s worst game in an Arsenal shirt. He was beaten far too easily by Firmino for the first goal and conceded possession for the second, which completely altered the dynamic of an already difficult fixture.

Bar winning a few free-kicks and taking a couple of good set-pieces too, this was nothing like the rest of his performances this season.

Granit Xhaka 4.5

Xhaka had a five-minute spell where he lost his head and could’ve been sent off, but other than that he was Arsenal’s best performer in the defence and midfield. That’s not to say he had a great game, but he was by far the closest to having an alright one.

He led the team in tackles with four and made a couple of interceptions, and he was decent in possession too. He was the only midfielder to create a chance for Arsenal to score. Like everyone else on the team, he still needed to do more to prevent Liverpool racking up opportunities.

Aaron Ramsey 4

Ramsey also made four tackles, and made some good forward runs, but did very little with the ball when he got it. This was another chance for him to make a statement about Unai Emery leaving him out and letting him go, but it was an opportunity he failed to fully grasp.

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Forwards

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 6

Maitland-Niles took his early goal well, and he was solid throughout the rest of the match playing in a position that was extremely unfamiliar to him before this season. It’s a shame his efforts meant very little in the end.

Alex Iwobi 6

Iwobi had one of his best performances for a while in Arsenal’s worst performance of the season, which was unfortunate for him. He created the goal with a clever pass on his weak foot and linked up with his teammates effectively throughout.

He did still lose the ball more than a few times trying to take on Liverpool players, but it was far from Arsenal’s biggest problem.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 4

Aubameyany only had 13 touches all game, and almost half of them were from kick-offs. There wasn’t too much more he could’ve done, given very few chances fell his way, but it was a fairly anonymous performance.

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Substitutes

Laurent Koscielny 4

Koscielny came on at half-time and Arsenal only conceded one further goal from then on, to a penalty. However, that was more to do with Liverpool relaxing and seeing the game out than anything else. The hosts still had the chances to add to their tally whenever they countered, they just didn’t take as many of them.

Alexandre Lacazette 6

Lacazette was Emery’s last throw of the dice, with the game all-but-lost. The striker should’ve had a penalty, and won a corner with another decent attempt, but other than that he got as little service as Aubameyang before him.

Matteo Guendouzi N/A

Guendouzi only came on to avoid Kolasinac picking up an injury, with Monreal still out. The game was completely finished by the time he entered the field.