Arsenal suffered a predictable and fairly dull defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

No one really expected anything other than a defeat this weekend, as City tried to bounce back from a shock against Newcastle and Arsenal travelled without a number of key defensive and midfield players thanks to injury. Still, that’s no excuse for how straightforward it all was for City.

The Gunners actually gave the hosts a pretty good first half, but a goal right before half-time killed the game, and both teams may as well have taken the remaining 45 minutes off.

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

Goalkeeper and Defence

Bernd Leno 6

Leno was guilty of punching a couple of shots he perhaps could’ve caught, but that’s partly thanks to the fact he had to make such a ridiculously high number of saves. Despite conceding three goals, none of which he could’ve done much about, the German’s save tally was just one away from double figures.

Stephan Lichtsteiner 2

Lichtsteiner made one block from a cross to Sterling towards the end, which was pretty much the first time in the entire 90 minutes that he managed to stop the Englishman. All of City’s best chances came from Lichtsteiner’s side, and that was no coincidence. He was particularly guilty of switching off for the pivotal second goal for City.

It’s getting hard to justify keeping Lichtsteiner in the team over Carl Jenkinson, or Shkodran Mustafi playing out of position, or anyone.

Shkodran Mustafi 3

Mustafi messed up his defensive line for the first goal, and like Lichtsteiner he didn’t do much to stop the danger on the right-hand side.

Usually the German racks up the aerial duels and tackles and interception even in games where he performs poorly, so it was telling that he didn’t manage more than two in any of those stats. His passing was also average, he went off injured and he definitely could’ve given away a penalty for a rash tug on Aguero. A bad day all around.

Laurent Koscielny 6

Koscielny played pretty well in the circumstances. The defender scored Arsenal’s goal, which probably helped prevent the game becoming another embarrassing drubbing. He wasn’t terrible defensively either, unlike the rest of the back four.

Nacho Monreal 4.5

Monreal got forward well in the first half, as he usually does, and he made a couple of interceptions in good areas to get Arsenal back on the ball and counter-attacking.

In the defensive third, he looked very shaky though, with Manchester City getting in behind him almost as often as they did with Lichtsteiner. Plus, in the second half, he couldn’t progress the play forward as effectively.

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Midfield

Alex Iwobi 4

Iwobi made a mistake in the first minute by trying to carry the ball out of his own box instead of just clearing it, and it led to Manchester City’s opening goal. After that, he didn’t have much impact on the game at all, positive or negative. He was never more or less than solid on the ball, and he didn’t offer much cover to the defence.

Lucas Torreira 6

Torreira won a few good free-kicks to release some of the pressure on Arsenal. He also created a couple of chances, and made a few vital interceptions, though he lost the majority of his individual duels, which was disappointing for him.

Matteo Guendouzi 8

Guendouzi was Arsenal’s man of the match by far. His passing was excellent all game, but particularly in the first half, during which he didn’t misplace a single attempt. His long balls all found their targets, and he completed a couple of dribbles.

The 19-year-old also won a couple of free-kicks, like Torreira. The one negative was that he still isn’t as switched on defensively, letting City players run in behind him at times. Hopefully, that will come with more experience.

Sead Kolasinac 4

The idea of using Kolasinac as a left-midfielder rather than a full-back wasn’t a terrible one, and he did pick up a few good positions offensively. His final ball was nowhere near as good as it has been this season in general though. The Bosnian defender struggled more than anyone else finding a teammate to pass to.

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Forwards

Alexandre Lacazette 4

Lacazette didn’t have any chances to score, but that wasn’t really his fault. The midfield could barely get any time on the ball, so it was understandably even more difficult for the strikers.

However, the striker’s passing was well below his usual standard, and he lost 13 of his 17 individual duels. He did make a few good interceptions though, and he dropped into the defensive shape well enough. It just didn’t make much difference.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 5

Aubameyang was a little better on the ball than Lacazette. He had the same near-complete lack of service, but he completed a couple of dribbles and 75% of his passes, which wasn’t bad given the circumstances. Still, he only had one attempt on goal, which is what he’s in the team to try and do.

The duo tends to put in performances like this when they don’t have Mesut Özil, Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka to work with.

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Substitutes

Aaron Ramsey 5

Ramsey was pretty lively and involved in the play after coming on, but it wasn’t enough to make any real difference to the way Arsenal were playing. He couldn’t make or take any chances on goal, which is what he needed to do if the team were going to get back into the game.

Denis Suarez 5

Suarez had a nervy first couple of minutes, where he got dispossessed and gave the ball away for a throw-in. After that, the new loan signing settled a bit and played the same solid and uninspiring football everyone on the pitch was playing at that point, completing 90% of his passes but very few that progressed the play forwards.

We can’t really judge how his Arsenal spell will go based on a 20-minute cameo where the team mostly couldn’t even get the ball to him.

Konstantinos Mavropanos 6

Mavropanos was typically fearless after coming on, throwing himself into a couple of challenges and trying to play passes half the length of the field. Though only one of his two attempted long balls came off, it shows his confidence in his own ability, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the defender get more chances for the next few months.