Arsenal got the three points they needed with an injury-ravaged side taking to the field against Huddersfield Town, but it wasn’t a performance that will live long in the memory.

Arsenal took an early lead thanks to a deflected Alex Iwobi strike, and Alexandre Lacazette doubled their advantage before half-time with a goal from close range. After that, the team had a few good opportunities to extend the lead, and their wastefulness was almost punished as a Sead Kolasinac own goal cut the deficit in injury time.

Fortunately, it was too late for Huddersfield to grab an equaliser, and Arsenal took home the three points.

Let’s have a look at our individual player ratings for the match.

Goalkeeper and Centre-Backs

Bernd Leno 7

Leno generally had a good game, making one excellent save at the start of the second half and a few more throughout the match. However, he came out bizarrely for one free-kick he was never going to get to, and he was lucky Laurent Koscielny was around to mop up another rebound.

If we’re being kind, the wind might have made those incidents more difficult to judge. Still, it was a shame to see the German lose his clean sheet at the end.

Shkodran Mustafi 5

As usual, Mustafi racked up the interceptions and aerial duels in the statistics, but that didn’t make up for the way he kept giving the ball away in dangerous areas all game. A better team would certainly have punished the German’s mistakes.

Laurent Koscielny 8.5

Koscielny was by far Arsenal’s most impressive defender, and it was a bit of a throwback to the way he used to lead the back line at his peak. He made a couple of great last-ditch challenges, a huge 10 clearances and his passing was the complete opposite of Mustafi’s.

Without Rob Holding and Sokratis Papastathopoulos, for now, Unai Emery needs his captain to stay fit.

Nacho Monreal 6.5

Monreal’s best moment was a clearance off the line late in the game, but he had a relatively quiet match other than that, with most of Huddersfield’s best attacks coming from the other side.

There were one or two moments the Spaniard was caught a bit out of position, and he’s still more of a left-back than a centre-back. When he was back, though, he was solid.

Click ‘Next’ for Midfield, Wing-Backs, Forwards and Substitutes

Midfield and Wing-Backs

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 6.5

Maitland-Niles had a good game in general, but he has a bizarre habit of lazily playing infield passes to opposition players. It’s not as it passing is a weakness of his, but he seems to forget to look before playing the simple ones, and it almost cost Arsenal a couple of times.

Despite that caveat, the right wing-back did have a number of positive moments in the match. He set up what turned out to be the winning goal, with his first assist of the season. He also made six tackles, more than anyone else on the pitch. He just needs to stay focused when he has the ball.

Lucas Torreira 6

Torreira didn’t have his best game on Saturday, as he struggled to make an impact in or out of possession. His passing was pretty average, and he didn’t win the ball back as often as usual. There weren’t any major errors of note, the midfielder just didn’t make much happen.

Torreira ended up coming off early, which was probably partly with Thursday’s Europa League clash in mind, but in all honesty, it wasn’t a bad thing to see him withdrawn.

Matteo Guendouzi 6.5

Guendouzi had a better game than Torreira, but he wasn’t without his shaky moments too. The Frenchman was dispossessed a little too often, though he did win a couple of good free-kicks. In general, his passing was good as well. Nonetheless, Guendouzi and Torreira still seem a bit limited in possession when Granit Xhaka isn’t around.

Sead Kolasinac 6.5

Kolasinac played a great ball to assist the first goal, even if the finish was a bit fortunate. It was no surprise to see the Bosnian get forward so effectively as always, and his defending was pretty good for a while. Then he scored an own goal in injury time, which was a blot on his copybook, to say the least. His passing also lacked any accuracy.

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Forwards

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 8

On his return from injury, Mkhitaryan managed to win over some of the doubters with a strong performance overall. He did have one or two slip-ups, in one case literally as he tried to play Lacazette in for a second goal, but his general play was much better than it has been this season and he was unlucky not to get a goal or assist for his efforts.

Alex Iwobi 8

Iwobi’s performance was very similar to Mkhitaryan’s. For the most part, he was one of the driving forces of Arsenal’s attacks, but he did have a couple of moments where he should’ve done better, particularly when played in by Mkhitaryan for a second goal.

Nonetheless, he scored the opener by making his own luck with a deflected finish, and he perhaps should’ve had a second with a fantastic strike that was ruled out for offside. It was hard to tell if he was really off from the replay.

Alexandre Lacazette 8

Lacazette had a typically hard-working performance in a very physical battle with the Huddersfield defence. He managed to get free just before half-time for a goal, and would almost certainly have had another but for Mkhitaryan’s slip.

The striker also looked set to pull the trigger on another opportunity before an excellent recovering tackle from Huddersfield defender Terence Kongolo denied him the chance. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missing with injury, Lacazette certainly filled in the attacking threat.

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Substitutes

Mohamed Elneny 6.5

Elneny was a slight improvement on Torreira, making a couple of tackles and completing a few long balls. Other than that it was a fairly standard performance from the Egyptian. Not really enough there to earn him starts, but showing he can still fill in when the starters need a rest.

Denis Suarez 7

This was a much better cameo than the one where the team had already given up against Manchester City. The Spaniard didn’t have too much of a chance to express himself in the final 15 minutes against Huddersfield, but he also didn’t put a foot wrong.

The Barcelona loanee won the only duel he contested, completed the only dribble he attempted, made one interception and found his target with all of his passes. Promising signs ahead of a surely imminent first start, perhaps in Belarus on Thursday.

Joe Willock N/A

Willock only got on for the final couple of minutes and made one interception. There wasn’t enough there to rate his performance, but it was still great to see the 19-year-old getting his first Premier League minutes under Unai Emery.