Arsenal could only manage a draw against Brighton on Sunday, effectively killing their hopes of a top-four finish.

At this stage, Arsenal could only finish in the Champions League places if Tottenham lost to Everton and the Gunners beat Burnley with a goal difference swing of eight. Realistically, all the eggs are in the Europa League basket now, thanks to another game of wasted opportunities at the Emirates Stadium.

Unai Emery’s side took the lead early on, and they should have cruised to victory after that. It took some excellent goalkeeping and defensive blocks to keep the score at 1-0, but after that, another individual error gifted Brighton an equaliser in the second half, and Arsenal wasted chances to retake the lead.

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

Goalkeeper and Defence

Bernd Leno 7

Once again, Leno was let down by his teammates. Despite four good saves, his clean sheet was snatched away by an individual error and a penalty. The German’s distribution was also very good, and it’s getting ridiculous how many impressive matches he’s had where he’s still ended up conceding anyway.

Stephan Lichtsteiner 5

Lichtsteiner wasn’t terrible, meaning he was better than most Arsenal fans expected after a couple of months out. He was particularly good in the air, winning all five of his aerial duels. None of his crosses found their target though, and he didn’t really threaten Brighton enough.

Shkodran Mustafi 7

Ever since he screwed up against Crystal Palace, Mustafi has been frustratingly solid. He may have set Arsenal on a downward spiral, but his individual performances are as good as they’ve been all season, and this was no exception.

The German’s passing was (mostly) pretty good, he was great in the air, he made more clearances than the rest of the team combined and no one completed a dribble past him. If only he’d done the same against Tottenham Hotspur or Palace when it really mattered.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos 6

Sokratis passed very well, made an important block and a couple of tackles and interceptions. He also made a couple of errors, though neither of them were too costly in the end. His yellow card count for this season is way too high, and that needs to improve in 2019/20.

Nacho Monreal 5

Monreal won the penalty well with a typically dangerous marauding run forwards. He also won all but two of his 11 individual duels. However, he didn’t make a single chance unless you count the penalty, and Arsenal could really have done with a few more accurate crosses given the positions he found himself in.

Midfield

Lucas Torreira 5

As in so many recent Arsenal games, Torreira was consistently on the end of heavy challenges, and he didn’t win nearly as many free-kicks as he should have for it. He lost possession too often and was dribbled past too easily on a few occasions.

The Uruguayan did complete the greatest percentage of passes of anyone on the team, but few that really caused any problems.

Granit Xhaka 2

Xhaka set the tone for his performance with some wayward early passes, and he continued to be careless throughout the 90 minutes. It was his bizarre decision to cut across Solly March that gave away a penalty, and the midfielder made himself so unpopular with the crowd that he had to be substituted.

That was even more of a shame because he was also playing some very effective forward passes through the lines, something which his replacement Matteo Guendouzi failed to do. Essentially, Xhaka has to take the blame twice, because his idiotic individual errors robbed Arsenal of the lead and of his ability to restore it.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 5

Mkhitaryan had a couple of good shots, hitting the woodwork and forcing a save, and he also made a couple of good chances, as his passing was generally very accurate. Nonetheless, he also had a number of very frustrating moments, picking the wrong option in possession or failing to cover defensively.

Front Three

Mesut Özil 6

It’s difficult to argue Özil didn’t try his hardest, as he got up and down the pitch as well as anyone, created the most chances of any Arsenal player and completed the most passes in the final third. It just wasn’t quite enough.

Alexandre Lacazette 7.5

Lacazette had a really good performance, despite failing to get on the scoresheet. He was lively and hard-working even when his teammates’ heads dropped, pushing Arsenal forward and taking people on.

The striker completed more dribbles than anyone else for the Gunners, made as many tackles and won as many aerial duels as any midfielder or forward. He also saw one shot headed off the line and a header well saved. His individual showing deserved a better result.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 6

Aubameyang took his penalty really nicely, and like Lacazette he was willing to take people on. He also had the second-worst moment of the match, however, when he decided to scissor kick the ball so he could hit it with his right foot, rather than sweeping it home with his left.

The ball flew wide and drew sarcastic cheers from the Brighton fans every time it was shown on the replay. It was another crucial miss from a striker who has had too many of those this season, despite also scoring a very large number.

Substitutes

Sead Kolasinac 4

All three substitutes came on at the same time, with 13 minutes left, which honestly wasn’t enough time to have a significant impact on the game. Even so, Kolasinac was probably the least effective, as he completed just three passes and didn’t create any chances.

Matteo Guendouzi 4

Guendouzi got on the ball more than the other two substitutes, but that just gave him more chances to prove he was unable to find that killer pass Arsenal needed. He essentially just came on and did what Xhaka was doing with fewer mistakes but also slightly less incisive passing.

Alex Iwobi 5

Iwobi did at least create one chance, and one particularly dangerous driven cutback should’ve found an Arsenal man. Most of his crosses just ended up back with Brighton players though.