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Arsenal lost 1-0 to Manchester City today. Mikel Arteta said that his club’s performance showed him “a lot of positive things” and that his team is “on the right track” this season. I tend to agree with your assessment. It wasn’t a bad performance, per se, from the Gunners, but there is still room for improvement, especially in attack. Congratulations to the entire team for playing a disciplined game on defense and maintaining their form well.
Bernd leno – 6
He admitted after the game that he slipped a bit on the only goal of the game, and some would say he should have done better with his rebound control at the opportunity. I’m not sure how much more he could have done given that it was a reaction, save on a shot from about 12 yards. He made a couple of good saves to keep it 1-0, but had some timing failures. Fight to get the right touch on your fly passes.
Hector Bellerin – 4
But being beaten in goal, he thought he had a good game. I advanced a few times and didn’t make big mistakes. In the goal, he narrowed a bit to pressure Sergio Agüero with the ball. That gave Phil Foden (whom Bellerin may have lost track of a bit) too much room and allowed an easy cut inside for the opening shot.
David Luiz – 5
He had a smooth game. He was close to an own goal, but the intervention could have been important to break the game. He should never take another free kick for Arsenal.
Gabriel – 4
He got caught too high up on the field trying to get close to Sergio Agüero at the start of City’s scoring play. He came back, but changed everyone else’s position as they retreated towards the goal. Hit some good chips on the front line of the press – your pass is better than you bargained for. Everything else about his performance today was average or above average.
Kieran tierney – 5
I struggled a bit with Riyad Mahrez and he seemed like a guy who hadn’t trained for 10 days, which he hadn’t. Paired well with Bukayo Saka, as usual, to help provide most of Arsenal’s offensive threat from the left.
Granit xhaka – 6
He went through well and had three or four good innings that I can remember, including at least one in which he bounced back well after taking an initial beating. His range is still his biggest limitation.
Dani Ceballos – 5
He took a really bad chase angle / wrong step towards Sergio Agüero in the City goal, in part because he had held back when Gabriel came up. It was fine otherwise.
Bukayo Saka – 8
Clearly Arsenal’s best player of the day. He had the most successful matchups of all on the field and was involved in all of Arsenal’s threatening attacking moves.
Willian – 0
Clearly the worst Arsenal player of the day. He didn’t really bring anything positive, and with Mikel Arteta playing him in the middle, PEA was forced out. Hopefully this was a unique experiment. Generally concerned with what he brings to the table.
Nicolas Pepe – 4
Like the team, today was not bad, but it was not good either. I think his lack of memorable moments today was due more to not receiving the ball than to having missed chances. It is going to be difficult for him to get involved playing opposite Tierney-Saka-Aubameyang on the left.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 4
They are two quiet games against the best teams (City and Liverpool). As I said after the Liverpool game, part of his not being involves falls on his teammates who don’t give him the ball, part of it can be blamed on the setup with him open, but at least a small part of the blame falls on him too. He’s gotten off to a slow start to this season with just one goal in five games. I had a chance from behind today that was saved. The flag was raised, but the VAR would have ruled it out as onside.
Alexandre Lacazette – 3
I didn’t add anything when it came in. He actively declined a counter or two when he got to the ball. Not good.
Eddie nketiah – 3
He ran strong but didn’t achieve much as a substitute playing from the right wing. It is not your position.
Thomas Partey – N / A
He went in for about 10 minutes, but only caught the ball a handful of times. He completed his passes and had a partial defensive participation in the Arsenal area. It was a good march.
