Arsenal 0-2 Man City – Player Ratings
GK Petr Cech, 6 – He made some very important saves, although he did look a bit unsure with the ball at his feet and only Guendouzi made more touches. However, he seemed to enjoy that part of it.
RB Hector Bellerin, 5.5 – Had our best chance of the first half, and the system Emery used left both full backs exposed quite often.
CB Shkodran Mustafi, 5.5 – Turned easily by Sterling early on, but didn’t dive in too much which is a good sign.
CB Sokratis, 5 – Being an aggressive central defender doesn’t mean you clobber the opposition, it’s how you try and close down the ball, and for both goals today he wasn’t as aggressive as he could have been in that regard.
LB Ainsley Maitland-Niles, 5 – Absolutely roasted down the left in the opening periods, after which it settled down a bit, but he’s a young guy playing out of position and he should have been given more protection and better guidance from the experienced defenders around him.
MF Matteo Guendouzi, 6.5 – There was a lot to like about his performance, particularly after he was poor for the goal and struggled in the opening 20-25 minutes. He worked hard, never hid, and those are positives, but there were times when his inexperience at this level was evident and he was lucky one bad mistake wasn’t punished with a City goal. Hopefully he’ll be a quick learner.
MF Granit Xhaka, 4.5 – Late back from the World Cup and hasn’t had as much pre-season preparation as some of the others, but he was still poor and rightly taken off.
MF Aaron Ramsey, 5 – We can only assume he was playing that far forward because he was instructed to, and he did produce some good moments in the first half, but he was hooked early in the second half to make way for Lacazette.
MF Mesut Ozil, 5 – Had some chances late in the second half which a player of his quality really should have done better with.
MF Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 4 – Invisible and lightweight.
FW Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 5 – We never got him into the game at all.