Arsenal never really had to hit top gear to beat Newcastle United at the Emirates Stadium on Monday night, though they left it late to secure the victory in the end.

Aaron Ramsey gave the Gunners the lead twice in the first half, with his first effort disallowed for a foul by Sokratis Papastathopoulos. Arsenal just couldn’t find that second goal to kill the game, even though their opponents barely had a chance to speak of throughout the match.

Eventually, with less than 10 minutes to go, Alexandre Lacazette executed an inch-perfect chip to make it 2-0. The striker then scored another disallowed goal, and this one was extremely harshly ruled out. Nonetheless, 2-0 was enough to secure the three points and move up into third place in the table.

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

Goalkeeper and Centre-Backs

Bernd Leno 7

Leno only had to make one save all match, and he made it. The German wasn’t even particularly involved in possession. His strong recent form has certainly earned him a clean sheet or two, even if he didn’t have to do much for this one.

Shkodran Mustafi 7

In the first half, Mustafi was defending pretty well, but he kept giving the ball away in dangerous areas. In the second, he tightened up that side of his game and was consistently on the front foot to win the ball back and keep the Gunners on the attack.

If his earlier mistakes were punished, the game might have been a different story, but as they weren’t, Mustafi ended up having a pretty good match.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos 6.5

Sokratis really had a game of two halves. In the first, Salomon Rondon was all over him. The Greek centre-back won just two of his six individual duels and let the Newcastle striker in for his only shot on target of the match, after falling over far too easily.

After the break, the 30-year-old was much improved, winning four out of five duels and killing any hope of a Newcastle fight back. He also did well not to pick up a yellow card that would have ruled him out of the next two league games.

Nacho Monreal 7.5

Monreal quietly had a solid and dependable performance, without any of the lax passing or inconsistent defending his centre-back partners suffered from at times. Only the midfield pairing completed a greater percentage of their passes from the Arsenal starters, no one won more tackles and the Spaniard won the majority of his duels too.

Midfield and Wing-Backs

Ainsley Maitland-Niles 7

Maitland-Niles didn’t have a particularly busy time defensively, only contesting one aerial duel, one tackle and making one interception. At the other end, he tried a lot, some of which came off. After a couple of eye-catching performances against Manchester United and Rennes, this was a bit more subdued.

Aaron Ramsey 8.5

Ramsey was on top form against Newcastle. His disallowed goal was well taken, and though it was probably the right decision to rule it out, it was Sokratis’ fault for a shirt pull and the Welshman may well have scored anyway. The second finish was even more clinical on his weaker foot, and this time it counted.

More than that, Ramsey’s performance all around was excellent. He won a couple of tackles and he completed a game-high 93% of his passes (not including substitutes). The only negatives were that he was dispossessed more than anyone else too, and he went off injured.

Matteo Guendouzi 7

Guendouzi’s passing was also very good, second only to Ramsey, but he took many more unnecessary and potentially dangerous risks in possession. The Newcastle players targeted him to try and win the ball back, and the Frenchman was a little lucky to get away with only losing it once, as he never looked completely comfortable.

The midfielder won a few free kicks but also gave a few away, and he only won seven of his 17 individual duels. Nonetheless, his work on the ball mostly made up for that.

Sead Kolasinac 6.5

Kolasinac picked up good offensive positions as usual, and he made a few positive runs forward. He just didn’t do particularly well with his final ball. The Bosnian international completed just 67% of his passes and only created just one chance, a low total by his standards.

Front Three

Mesut Özil 8.5

Özil picked up the official man of the match award, after running the show in the final third. He created a couple of chances and was part of some lovely flowing one-touch moves linking up with Lacazette and Iwobi. The German is really cementing a place in Arsenal’s lineup, right when the team need him at his best.

Alex Iwobi 6.5

As mentioned, Iwobi was part of a couple of nice moves with Özil, but he’ll be a little disappointed not to have created any chances or had any shots at goal. Part of the problem was that Kolasinac was having a bit of an off game, which didn’t help. Iwobi ended up coming off for Aubameyang with half an hour to go.

Alexandre Lacazette 8.5

Lacazette scored a lovely chip and was robbed of a second goal, once again. It’s hard to think of many players more unlucky than the Frenchman this season.

He had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside vs Huddersfield, a goal given as an own goal despite seeming to get a touch against Manchester United, and many penalty claims waved away, most notably in the Anfield defeat to Liverpool. Monday’s disallowed goal was just the latest decision to go against him.

Nonetheless, the striker still scored one and created two chances, as many as anybody else on the team. Playing as a lone striker is always one of the more difficult positions when it comes to completing passes, but the 27-year-old found a teammate with 82% of his. Another very good performance from one of Arsenal’s players of the campaign.

Substitutes

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 8

There’s no doubt that Aubameyang is always that little bit more effective when he’s coming on against tired legs. In this case, it wasn’t a tactical decision to start him on the bench, but one Unai Emery was forced into as the forward had a temperature pre-game.

The Gunners’ leading scorer didn’t seem to have any problems after coming on though, assisting Lacazette’s goal and making a number of dangerous runs down the wings. He also went close with a shot after running in behind, set up by Özil.

Mohamed Elneny 7

Elneny pretty much did what he always does, winning the ball back once or twice but mostly just helping Arsenal keep possession in midfield. He did make one particularly poor pass straight to a Newcastle player after coming on, but it would be fair enough if he was a bit rusty after his limited game time this season. Otherwise, he was solid.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 7

Mkhitaryan just made a brief cameo appearance for the final 6 minutes of the match, but it was a positive few moments as he completed all nine of his attempted passes. He’s sure to get more game time in the coming weeks, with a very busy schedule ahead.