Arsenal's German defender Shkodran Mustafi (R) reacts after English referee Michael Oliver (unseen) awarded Liverpool's Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Salah (L) a penalty after he was fouled by Arsenal's Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Arsenal at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on December 29, 2018. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP)

Arsenal embarrassed: Player ratings vs Liverpool

Dec 31, 2018

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.

2Midfield

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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