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.