Arsenal returned to winning ways with victory over Burnley in the early Saturday kick-off, in a fiery and physical encounter that left Unai Emery with yet another defensive injury.
Arsenal made a number of changes after their midweek clash with Spurs, and it seemed to work out pretty nicely as they took and held a rare first-half lead. However, Nacho Monreal was forced off with an injury in the opening period, which very much changed the dynamic of the game.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang doubled Arsenal’s lead quickly after the break, but Burnley pulled one back to set up an anxious final half hour. Eventually, Alex Iwobi killed the game with a goal in stoppage time. Overall, a hard-earned three points.
Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the game.
Goalkeeper and Defence
Bernd Leno 7
Leno didn’t have a great number of saves to make, but he came out excellently to win a ball over the top with a header, despite getting clattered by the Burnley man afterwards.
After a disappointing aerial performance against Southampton, it was good to see him looking a bit more confident in that regard this time. There wasn’t anything he could do about the goal.
Sead Kolasinac 8.5
Kolasinac had an excellent game at both ends, despite the difficult circumstances of the match. He wasn’t even passed fully fit until late on, he had to play in both a back-four and as a wing-back during the match, and his defensive partners also changed after Monreal’s departure from the field.
Nonetheless, he set up Arsenal’s first goal, stood up well to Burnley’s physicality, and his passing and link-up play was effective all game. With Monreal’s injury, Emery will need Kolasinac to keep up this kind of form.
Nacho Monreal 6
Monreal seemed to make a solid start to the game, but couldn’t even last the entire first half before going off injured. Unfortunately, the Spaniard has become completely unreliable with injuries this season, which may well force Arsenal into the transfer market for a new centre-back and/or left-back in January.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos 9
Sokratis was fantastic, despite starting the game partnered with a left-back, and ending it alongside a right-back and a central midfielder. He won eight of his 11 duels, and five out of five defensive aerials. He completed all five of his long balls, made a huge 11 clearances and won both of his attempted tackles.
The only negative was that he was perhaps a little over-zealous in his wrestling matches with a variety of Burnley players. His opponents certainly brought just as much aggression as he did though, so we can’t hold that against him too much.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7.5
Maitland-Niles bounced back from a slightly disappointing showing against Tottenham with a solid performance on this occasion. He got forward well, going close with a couple of shots on target and linking up well with Mesut Özil all day, in particular for the first goal.
He did play a few lazy infield passes that sparked Burnley counters, which could partly be a product of not having played with these teammates much under Unai Emery. Wipe out those mistakes and he could make a very solid alternative to Hector Bellerin in the Spaniard’s absence with injury.
Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Forwards and Substitutes
Midfield
Matteo Guendouzi 6.5
Guendouzi had a mixed game, with a lot of good work in possession balanced against a few defensive positioning errors and getting dispossessed a couple of times. He was a little more creative than fellow midfielders Elneny and Torreira after Xhaka’s position change though.
Granit Xhaka 6.5
Xhaka started the game excellently, and it was great to have him back in midfield. After that, he was forced back in the back-three, and he wasn’t so impressive from then on. His passing remained very good in general, with a couple of mistakes, but he was caught out once or twice defensively. You can hardly blame him, as this isn’t his position.
Mohamed Elneny 5.5
This wasn’t an impressive return to Premier League action for Elneny. His passing was accurate, but uninspiring to say the least. Worse was the way he was caught on the ball so easily in two very dangerous positions before he was subbed off for Lucas Torreira.
He did make a few tackles, but that masked the fact he didn’t provide effective defensive cover. Burnley’s runners from midfield found it all too easy to pick the ball up.
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Forwards
Mesut Özil 8.5
Özil made a very good return to the team after all the speculation over his future this week. Captaining the side, Özil didn’t misplace a single pass in the final third, and it was his genius chipped pass over the top that Kolasinac cut back for Arsenal’s opening goal.
Late on in the match, with players tiring all around him, the German drove at the defence and found a deflected pass for Alex Iwobi to finish. He showed the commitment over the 90 minutes Emery has seemingly been asking for.
Alexandre Lacazette 8.5
Perhaps it went a bit unnoticed after two goals from his strike partner and all the talk about Özil’s comeback, but Lacazette was also very impressive. He set up the second of Aubameyang’s goals, and his link-up play was excellent as usual.
The Frenchman will be disappointed not to have scored, though he didn’t really have a good chance to do so. Even without a goal, his performance must’ve shown Emery that the strike duo can work together.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 8.5
Aubameyang found two excellent finishes to put Arsenal into the lead in the first half and then double that lead in the second. The first was a lot more difficult than it looked, but he managed to prod it home through a gap nonetheless. The second was a powerful and accurate strike giving Joe Hart no chance.
The striker wasn’t involved in much for the rest of the game, bar creating one chance. As long as he’s scoring a brace that’s not a major problem though.
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Substitutes
Stephan Lichtsteiner 6.5
Lichtsteiner came on and did a decent job out of position, once again. He won seven out of his 11 duels, just one fewer than Sokratis, but remains a little slow on the ball. Arsenal’s style of play requires him to move it on a bit faster, so that’s the only major criticism of his performance.
Lucas Torreira 6.5
Is it blasphemy to give Torreira less than a seven out of 10? The Uruguayan has been Arsenal’s player of the season so far, but he took a little while to get up to speed in this one.
He struggled with three aerials in quick succession after coming on, but he made up for it with a few tackles before the end. It was a decent cameo, but not the near-perfection we’ve become accustomed to.
Alex Iwobi 7
Iwobi only had six touches of the ball after coming on, but pretty much all of them were flashpoints. First, he drew groans after hesitating and losing the ball, though it squirmed through for Kolasinac to cross anyway. Then he created a chance for Özil before he ended up scoring when the German’s shot landed at his feet via a deflection.
It was great to see the Nigerian international finding the net for the first time since the game against Chelsea in August. He needs to do so more regularly now.