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.
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.