Arsenal put on a display of wasteful finishing as Tottenham Hotspur did the exact opposite on Wednesday night, with Unai Emery’s side losing 2-0 to crash out of the League Cup.
After a convincing victory over the same opposition in the same stadium earlier in the month, Arsenal fans were confident of a similar performance in the midweek League Cup quarter-final. However, despite a number of first-half chances falling Arsenal’s way, they failed to take a single one, and they ended up 1-0 down at the break.
It was the same story in the second half, with chances falling Arsenal’s way only for Spurs to double their lead with pretty much their only big opportunity. After that, the game was dead, and the Gunners’ efforts to get back into it were half-hearted at best.
Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the fixture.
3Forwards
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 4
After his two goals at the weekend, Mkhitaryan’s finishing was back to being wasteful again. He made the bizarre decision to shoot low and to the near post when one-on-one early on, despite the opening on the far side with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang running in for a rebound or a square ball.
The Armenian international couldn’t keep hold of the ball and didn’t create anything. His movement was good but other than that there were no surprises when he was taken off at half-time.
Alex Iwobi 4.5
Like Mkhitaryan, Iwobi lost the ball too regularly, only completing a couple of successful dribbles whilst being dispossessed twice as often, and making just 71% of his passes accurately. He did create a couple of chances though.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 5.5
Aubameyang started the game well, going close with an early shot. He also looked lively immediately after Alexandre Lacazette came on, setting the Frenchman up for the best chance of the second half. Other than that he had an extremely quiet game.
Click ‘Next’ for Substitutes