Arsenal lost on penalties to Real Madrid to end their 100% pre-season record, after drawing 2-2 in normal time.

A 10-man Arsenal side ended up drawing with a 10-man Real Madrid side in 90 minutes on Tuesday night, despite the Gunners taking a 2-0 lead in the first half.

Alexandre Lacazette had an early goal denied by Real defender Nacho saving it with his hand. Thankfully, Nacho was sent off and Lacazette converted the resulting penalty before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added to the lead soon after.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos was very controversially sent off under a lot of pressure from the Real Madrid players, after which the Spanish side came back into the game. They scored twice to level the scores in the second half, before taking the game on penalties.

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

Goalkeeper

• Emi Martinez 8 – Martinez made a number of impressive saves, and he even saved a penalty from Gareth Bale in the shootout. He’ll feel hard done by for the first goal, as he seemed to have the ball between his hand and the floor (which counts as under control in the rules) when Marco Asensio kicked it away.

Defence

• Carl Jenkinson 5.5 – Thanks to Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ “tight calf”, poor Jenkinson had to play the full 90 minutes after playing 80 minutes against Fiorentina. He actually held his own for long periods, though the Madrid goals came from his side.
• Calum Chambers 7.5 – Chambers played well, particularly as he was part of a centre-back pairing with Granit Xhaka or Nacho Monreal for the majority of the match. That obviously made things more difficult, but he’s making a good case to be a starting centre-back when the season kicks off right now.
• Sokratis Papastathopoulos 6 – Sokratis may have picked up a red card, but he didn’t deserve one. Both incidents were harsh yellows even for a competitive match. He’d made a few good tackles and blocks up to that point.
• Sead Kolasinac 5.5 – There has been some improvement in Kolasinac’s performances over the tour, after a terrible start. He still had some nervy moments once Arsenal were down to 10, he was hardly the only one guilty of that though.

Midfield

• Joe Willock 7.5 – Willock put in another really good performance in the first half, and it was his withdrawal that turned the game against Arsenal. With Mkhitaryan as a makeshift midfielder, the team lost control in possession and the pressing the 19-year-old had been providing out of it.
• Granit Xhaka 6 – Xhaka looked exhausted by the end of the 90 minutes, and it showed with his poor penalty. Mostly he did well in possession though, and he played a part in both goals.
• Mesut Özil 7.5 – Like most of the team, Özil’s performance dropped off Arsenal went down to 10 men, but he was very good before that. He looked like his old self running the show in the middle for the first 45 minutes.

Forwards

• Henrikh Mkhitaryan 5.5 – Playing out wide, Mkhitaryan had one really dangerous shot in the first half. He could’ve been involved more and wasn’t so impressive after the break out of position in midfield.
• Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 7 – Aubameyang continues to look lively in pre-season so far, and he took his goal expertly. He and Lacazette completely stopped being factors in the match after Arsenal’s red card, after playing very well before it.
• Alexandre Lacazette 7 – Lacazette was unlucky not to score his goal in open play, only being denied by a handball, though he was maybe a bit lucky to see his penalty go in off both posts. The striker also set Aubameyang up with a nice flick.

Substitutes

Half-Time

• Nacho Monreal 5.5 – Monreal was yet another player forced to play out of position after the red card, with Shkodran Mustafi injured and therefore unavailable to play centre-back. The Spaniard didn’t really impose himself on the game as Arsenal dropped their 2-0 lead.

74th minute

• Eddie Nketiah 7 – There were positives and negatives in Eddie’s performance. He missed two good chances to win the match, but the way he made them for himself after Aubameyang and Lacazette had struggled to impact the second half was impressive.
• Bukayo Saka 7.5 – Created a really good chance for Nketiah and along with Nelson helped to make Arsenal a threat on the break. He scored his penalty well.
• Robbie Burton 7 – Burton made one excellent tackle to put Arsenal on the attack and played a few nice passes. Shouldn’t be too harshly treated for his penalty miss, as two senior players had already missed and put all the pressure on him.
• Reiss Nelson 6.5 – As mentioned, Nelson’s introduction helped make Arsenal a threat on the break, but he should’ve done more with a couple of the counter-attacking opportunities he helped create. Showed a cool head to put away his penalty in the shootout twice, after the first was ruled out.