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.

3Forwards

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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