Two Arsenal stars made it into WhoScored’s Premier League Team of the Week for the most recent round of fixtures, after the team’s victory over Southampton on Sunday.
Arsenal 2-0 Southampton
With the way Arsenal’s season is going, it would take a couple of team-of-the-week performances in defence for the side to finally keep a clean sheet. That’s just how things panned out, with Sead Kolasinac and Sokratis Papastathopoulos making WhoScored‘s XI in a 2-0 victory over Southampton.
Sokratis was a defensive rock winning all four of his aerial duels and making more tackles and interceptions than any other Arsenal defender. Only Granit Xhaka had a higher pass accuracy in the match, and the centre-back completed 10 of his 13 long-balls. The Gunners certainly missed the Greek international when injured.
Meanwhile, Kolasinac was inspired going forward all game. He took players on, linked up with teammates impressively and created two fantastic chances. He was unfortunate Alexandre Lacazette couldn’t quite finish his opportunity just before half-time, or the left-back would’ve had another assist to add to his growing collection.
Kolasinac also made a crucial defensive block to help keep Arsenal’s clean sheet intact, and he made a few more tackles and interceptions throughout.
Let’s hope both can replicate their performances against Bournemouth in midweek.
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Bernd Leno 8
Leno kept a clean sheet and, in terms of shot-stopping alone, he was excellent. The Arsenal defence left him completely exposed in the opening minutes and forced him into a great save from Nathan Redmond, and the goalkeeper had to make a couple more important stops in the second half.
The German wasn’t perfect though. The sun seemed to be in his eyes in the first half, and he misplaced a couple of passes putting his teammates under pressure. The 26-year-old also came for one cross he should’ve left and missed the ball. Thankfully, neither of those things ended up being important, whilst Leno’s saves certainly were.
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Stephan Lichtsteiner 6
Fresh from his best performance in an Arsenal shirt on Thursday, Lichtsteiner wasn’t quite as impressive on this occasion. He did link up well with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but he also failed to make his cross attempts count and didn’t contribute much defensively.
A pretty average day overall was made worse when the 35-year-old was withdrawn with an injury. It doesn’t look particularly serious, but it’s still a bit of an inconvenience.
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Shkodran Mustafi 6.5
In general, Mustafi had a pretty good game. He was good in the air, as usual, he made a tonne of clearances and a couple of tackles and interceptions, and he didn’t let the team down when asked to fill in at right-back for the final half an hour.
Nonetheless, the entire match could’ve been different if Mustafi’s mistakes had been punished in the opening minutes. The German tried to play Redmond offside (and failed) even though two of his teammates would’ve been playing the Englishman on anyway.
After giving the 24-year-old a free run at goal, Mustafi then raced back eager to atone for his error. That just led to another mistake, where he arrived at such a speed that it was easy for Redmond to cut behind him and get a shot at goal off. Leno bailed his compatriot out in a big way, making a great save.
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Sokratis Papastathopoulos 8.5
Sokratis was excellent in his first start back after injury. He made more tackles than any other Arsenal defender, more interceptions as well, and he won all the aerial duels he contested. In fact, he won seven of his eight duels of any kind in the match.
On the ball, the Greek international was just as good, completing over 90% of his passes and 10 of his 13 attempted long balls.
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Sead Kolasinac 8.5
After being dropped to the bench against BATE Borisov on Thursday, Kolasinac made a fantastic case for his inclusion on Sunday. He made one crucial block, won both of his aerial duels, and made a number of tackles, interceptions and clearances.
However, his best work was in possession, as his marauding runs forward led to a couple of fantastic chances from which Arsenal should’ve scored. As always, he combined well with Alex Iwobi on the left-hand side, and we’ll have to cross our fingers now that the Nigerian international isn’t injured. An excellent performance from the left-back.
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Lucas Torreira 8
Torreira is already renowned for his work in recovering the ball from the opposition, but this was one of his better matches in possession.
The Uruguayan had some really nice touches to open up space for himself or his teammates and his link-up play was much improved on some recent performances. He also had a strong claim for a penalty immediately before Arsenal’s opening goal.
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Granit Xhaka 8
In general, Xhaka was just as good in this match as in his fantastic performance against BATE Borisov on Thursday. He ran the game from the base of midfield, played more accurate passes than anybody else (in total and percentage-wise) and created two good chances as well. He even saw a powerful shot go narrowly wide of the top corner.
That great work could all have been undone by one poor pass he made to a Southampton striker. For a certain section of the Arsenal fanbase, that will be all they remember of his performance. Nonetheless, overall, the midfielder was very good alongside Torreira again.
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Aaron Ramsey 7
Ramsey helped to keep Arsenal’s play ticking over, and he made a lot of energetic runs, but he needed to offer a bit more in front of goal. The Welshman didn’t have a shot or create a chance before his substitution in the 63rd minute.
This is unrelated to Ramsey’s performance, but it was strange to see him making such a show of his dismay at being taken off. The 28-year-old has his move to Juventus, he doesn’t need to impress anyone anymore. He just needs to help the team win.
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Henrikh Mkhitaryan 8.5
Mkhitaryan has been so much improved since his return from injury so far, and this was one of his best showings yet. The Armenian international had a goal and assist within 20 minutes, finishing his first chance of the game clinically. He also made more tackles than any player on the pitch and had a few nice turns and dribbles too.
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Alex Iwobi 8
Iwobi was almost as impressive on the other side, and he was unlucky to be robbed of an assist for Mkhitaryan’s goal by the slightest of touches from a Southampton man. The winger continues to be one of few players in the team you can always rely on to run at defenders and take them on, which he did well again.
As mentioned earlier, the 22-year-old’s link-up play with Kolasinac was very good, and it was just a shame to see him going off injured late in the game. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious.
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Alexandre Lacazette 8
Lacazette scored the opening goal with an improvised finish, his 9th ‘game-winning goal’ of the season per the Premier League’s definition, more than anyone else in the division. He also completed all five of his dribbles, won four out of five aerials duels and would’ve had a tap in for a second goal if Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had found him late on.
Unfortunately, the striker also missed a great chance after being set up by Kolasinac and had a couple more opportunities to add to his tally. It didn’t matter in the end, but he probably could’ve had a hat-trick with more clinical finishing.
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Substitute 1 – Laurent Koscielny 7
Koscielny didn’t really have a great deal to do after coming on, as Southampton didn’t really test him too much. His passing was good though, and he did make one important clearance. It’s great to have him and Sokratis fit and available again.
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Substitute 2 – Mesut Özil 8
Özil had a great cameo appearance in the final 30 minutes of the match. His touch around the corner to Aubameyang was the pass of the match, and he created another great chance for the striker towards the end. Those were certainly the best two opportunities for Arsenal to add to the 2-0 scoreline in the second half.
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Substitute 3 – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 7
It was a bit of a mixed bag for Aubameyang, as he got into some really great positions, but then couldn’t capitalise on them. The striker did everything he could to set up Lacazette with his first opportunity, but Vestergaard made an excellent block that could well have ended up in an own goal but for a save from the goalkeeper.
The 29-year-old should’ve scored his second opportunity, and was a bit wasteful when he found himself free in the box after a neat chipped pass from Xhaka. Hopefully, he’ll get a start and score on Wednesday.