Arsenal’s long unbeaten run came to an end on Sunday, with a disappointing defeat away to Southampton.
There were some mitigating circumstances to the defeat, with Laurent Koscielny playing his first game back, and every single other senior centre-back either injured or suspended.
Stephan Lichtsteiner and Granit Xhaka had to start the game as centre-backs before yet another injury to Hector Bellerin meant Lichtsteiner had to play at full-back. After Lichtsteiner was also forced off with injury, Arsenal ended the game with Ainsley Maitland-Niles at right-back.
Nonetheless, that’s no excuse for the way Arsenal’s defence threw the game away three times, despite Henrikh Mkhitaryan bringing the Gunners level twice.
Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the match.
4Substitutes
Alexandre Lacazette 7
Lacazette came on at half-time and provided the assist for Mkhitaryan’s second goal not long afterwards. He linked up well with his teammates but didn’t really have any chances of his own. The one that did fall his way was a glancing header which was excellently saved, but the flag went up for offside anyway (seemingly incorrectly).
Mesut Özil 6
Özil came on and created as many chances as any other Arsenal player managed in the full 90 minutes. However, it still wasn’t a particularly impressive cameo, as he lost a few physical duels and was unsuccessful with attempted dummies. He wasn’t quite at the pace of the game despite creating those opportunities for teammates to score.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7
Maitland-Niles, on the other hand, got up to speed very quickly, making two tackles, two clearances and an interception in just 16 minutes on the pitch. Maybe he could’ve done better with his chances to put a cross in late on though.
If Bellerin and Lichtsteiner are both out injured next week, the 21-year-old seems the obvious choice to replace them on the right.