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.
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.