Arsenal wasted their chance to take advantage of Manchester United’s earlier defeat with a limp and error-ridden performance in defeat to Crystal Palace.

Arsenal played one of their worst first halves of the season after being forced into a number of changes from the midweek win over Napoli. Christian Benteke gave Palace the lead as he was unmarked in the box from a free-kick, and that was pretty much that for notable first-half chances.

Mesut Özil dragged Arsenal back into the game early in the second half, before Shkodran Mustafi gifted Palace the chance to kill the Gunners’ momentum again. James McArthur added to the lead not long afterwards, and a positive individual goal from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang couldn’t help Unai Emery’s side avoid defeat.

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

Goalkeeper and Centre-Backs

Bernd Leno 6

Despite conceding three goals, Leno did make a few important saves (or rather, they would’ve been important if Arsenal didn’t continuously self-destruct). His distribution was also very good.

Konstantinos Mavropanos 4

Mavropanos was a victim of Arsenal having to change the system, as he was withdrawn at half-time. He was good on the ball, and had a few good defensive moments, but he also had one or two lapses letting players run in behind him, and he gave away the free-kick that led to the first goal.

Laurent Koscielny 5

Koscielny was dispossessed twice, which is a bit worrying as the central centre-back. His defending was mostly pretty good though, particularly as he had to cover for quite a few mistakes.

Shkodran Mustafi 1

What does it matter what Mustafi does for 99% of the game when the other 1% is him letting Wilfried Zaha in for a free shot at goal at the most crucial point in the match?

Arsenal had successfully come back from 1-0 down and were pushing for a second when the German killed the team’s momentum, the crowd’s enthusiasm, and with that any chance of Arsenal taking all three points.

Midfield and Wing-Backs

Carl Jenkinson 2

Jenkinson worked hard but his touch let him down repeatedly and he had no support on the right-hand side. In the end, he had to come off for Maitland-Niles, as he was having no impact on the game.

It’s lucky Maitland-Niles has really taken to the wing-back position because it’s been a long time now since Jenkinson or Lichtsteiner have had performance worthy of note.

Matteo Guendouzi 5

Guendouzi has never looked better than when he was alongside Elneny in the first half. He was caught in possession a couple of times throughout the match, but he tried to make things happen and showed more fight than a lot of his teammates.

Mohamed Elneny 2

Elneny’s performance was both disappointing technically and also in terms of his work rate. He seemed to hide from the ball on a regular basis and when he did receive it he wasn’t interested in trying anything other than safe sideways passes.

Despite only playing 20 minutes less than Guendouzi, Elneny attempted just 45 passes to Guendouzi’s 86. The onus to build the play was entirely on the 19-year-old and Mesut Özil when he was forced to drop back.

Sead Kolašinac 4

Kolašinac should’ve done better on the few occasions he did get in behind the Palace defence, but Aaron Wan-Bissaka was on top of his game and a lot of credit has to go to him for the way he shut the Arsenal man down in general. One rocket of a shot that almost crept in at the near post was Kolašinac’s best contribution.

Forwards

Mesut Özil 6

Özil scored his trademark finish to drag Arsenal back into the game early in the second half, and he had to do his job and Elneny’s job throughout the match, which he did fairly effectively.

He was caught in possession far too often, more than anyone else in the team, but he also had the best pass accuracy of anyone except the Arsenal centre-backs despite playing a significantly more advanced role.

Alexandre Lacazette 6

Lacazette’s clever reverse pass gave Özil the chance to finish for the first goal, and he did a good job throughout of taking players on and linking up with teammates. Nobody created more chances for Arsenal.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 6

Aubameyang only had one shot in the game, but he scored it, so it’s hard to complain much about that. Playing out wide in the second half, he put a few good crosses in that should’ve led to more. Still, he’ll want to be involved in the chances a bit more to secure the Golden Boot award this season.

Substitutes

Alex Iwobi 4

Iwobi started the second half brightly, but as it went on he grew more and more ineffective, turning the ball over when he should’ve been able to make something happen.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7

Maitland-Niles came on for another very positive cameo. He made a crucial last-man tackle and a couple of good interceptions and blocks. He also opened up the right-hand side of the pitch for Arsenal to attack, which was pretty much an impossibility in the first half.

It’s hard not to think what could’ve been if Emery had Bellerín and Maitland-Niles available on the right all season, instead of having to play Lichtsteiner and Jenkinson so regularly.

Lucas Torreira 4

Similar to Iwobi, Torreira turned the ball over too often after coming on, though at least that was through trying to push the team forward, so he was an improvement on Elneny in that sense.