Raya 7 - Made two very good saves one from Cunha one from Mbeumo, a little bit suspect in his decision making otherwise would have been rated higher


White 7 - Did ok in physical duels with Cunha


Saliba 6.5 - Made some good interceptions in the box second half, but seems to be missing something in his game at times


Gabriel 6.5 - Like Saliba got better as the game went on, but looked nervous and unsure at times, in fairness this was his first competitive fixture for us since April


Calafiori 6.5 - Better going forward than he was defensively, but given despite claims on here he’s not Zinchenko level poor defensively…his forward movement makes him a better should than MLS in certain games (if we are smart we will rotate so both get games)


Zubimendi 6 - Didn’t really have a chance to make anything happen


Rice 6 - Also underwhelming by his standards


Odegaard 6.5 - I don’t think it helps having him drift to the right, play him through the centre if you’re going to have only the one creative player in midfield


Saka 5 - Anonymous


Martinelli 4.5 - Can’t give him the excuse of being isolated, this is a player who for me has clearly got a lot of talent but if it’s not going to be on show…what’s the point of keeping him.


Gyokeres 5.5 - Everyone here knows my view on us signing this player, but I’m sure as hell not going to judge him after one game where the service was non existent and he’s clearly not 100% match fit anyhow



Subs

Madueke 6 - Never really had the chance to show anything


Timber 7.5 - I’d say he should have started but White played reasonably well too


Havertz 6.5 - Added physical dimension with holding up the ball but didn’t really carve out any real attacking opportunities

Lewis-Skelly 6.5 - Made sense to bring him on with Cala on a yellow but struggled just as much as he did with Mbeumo

Merino 6 - Completely anonymous, wouldn’t have even known he was on the pitch…frankly that’s how I like it


So a result we all I assume would have taken, and a performance I’m sure most of us feared would lead to dropped points. There’s no point going on too much, I think we all know what was missing…I don’t think the effort was lacking but in many ways it felt too early in the season especially when we had a rather indifferent pre season to play a fixture like this….and we got a result we didn’t really deserve. There have been loads of times we’ve gone there and deserved far more than we’ve actually got so nice to have the shoe on the other foot. I’m glad we don’t have to go there again, and whilst I’m naturally skeptical it’s also too early to say whether we will improve or not going forward and whether this is a hangover from last season or a sign of things to come