Arsenal finished their first game of the new year 4-1 winners against Fulham at the Emirates Stadium, a scoreline which doesn’t quite reflect how close the game was at times.
Arsenal started 2019 with a rare first-half lead, thanks to Granit Xhaka, though they easily could’ve conceded at least one in the opening period. In the second half, Alexandre Lacazette doubled the lead, but Fulham finally made one of their chances count to make it 2-1.
Aaron Ramsey came off the bench to score and kill the game before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added some gloss to the result in the final minutes, keeping his challenge for the Golden Boot going.
Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the match.
2Midfield and Wing-Backs
Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7.5
It’s great that Unai Emery is finding a way to fit Maitland-Niles into the team because he definitely adds something to the side. The 21-year-old is one of few who will take players on and put a cross in, with most of the rest of the wide options and full-backs more reliant on overlapping runs. Unsurprisingly, Ainsley led Arsenal in dribbles completed.
At the same time, one area the midfielder-turned-wing-back showed he has room for improvement was in defending opposition overlaps. Particularly at right-back, Maitland-Niles lost track of his man once or twice. Other than that it was a good performance.
Matteo Guendouzi 7
Guendouzi perhaps could’ve tracked Aboubakar Kamara a bit better for Fulham’s goal, though it was a great ball in by Sessegnon. On the ball, he was pretty good, but not quite as impressive as he has been at times this season. It seems like the 19-year-old could benefit from a rest at some point in the next few weeks.
Granit Xhaka 7.5
Xhaka had a bit of a strange game. In the first half, he made more mistakes than he would’ve liked, but he then scored the only goal before the break. He could even have had a second goal not long later. At the time, it was one of his worse performances this season, yet he was the reason Arsenal were winning.
After that, Xhaka improved and found his rhythm, ending the match having created three chances and completed all nine of his long balls. The second half performance combined with the first half goal threat just about cancels out the negatives early on.
Sead Kolasinac 8.5
Kolasinac was Arsenal’s chief chance creator, making four in the 90 minutes. One of those was converted by Alexandre Lacazette to add to the Bosnian wing-back’s assist tally. He also had a solid game defensively, with most of the major errors coming from the centre-backs behind him.
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