Man City vs Arsenal 26.04.2023 Match reaction and player ratings

[mandela8]

Amazing reading some of the posts on here and other places.

Partey is taking plenty of criticism, and rightly so, as he's been below his usual standard for a while but not one person has mentioned the complete disappearance of Xhaka.

He touched the ball twice, I think in the first half. I've had a wee look for actual stats on this but no joy. I'm happy to be corrected but won't be far off. For a CM that is unforgivable. His first, and literally only meaningful, touch came on the 47th minute with a poor shot. The next time he was involved was an altercation with Haaland. He was then taken off.

I'm all for attributing responsibility (blame) to players like Partey but where's the balance here? I've highlighted the nonsensical standards players are held to on here before but I genuinely think Xhaka's performance last night was the worst I've ever seen from him. And, as we all know, that's a huge claim about someone who has been putting in woeful performances for the best part of a decade.

Partey was exposed badly last night. Let's call it out. But we need to also call out the mitigating circumstances. He was a lone midfielder against a team with 4 CMs, ffs.