Arsenal earned a comfortable 2-0 win against French giants PSG in the Champions League this evening, and here are our player ratings.
David Raya – 7.5
He was superb in goal. He controlled his area well and made saves when he needed to.
Jurrien Timber – 7.0
Used as a right-back and delivered with class. He made Bradley Barcola struggle all night before he was subbed off.
William Saliba – 7.0
Nothing special today, but he got the job done at the back.
Gabriel Magalhaes – 7.5
Continues to have arguably his best season in an Arsenal shirt and PSG attackers will see him in their dreams tonight.
Riccardo Calafiori – 7.0
Another solid display. Even when he was moved to right back, he hardly put a foot wrong.
Declan Rice – 7.0
Made crucial tackles, launched attacks and was generally involved in most of the game.
Thomas Partey – 7.0
A tidy performance from the Ghanaian, who stifled PSG’s creative midfield players.
Bukayo Saka – 8.5
Man of the Match performance and deserved his goal for causing PSG all kinds of trouble.
Kai Havertz – 8.0
Brilliant all-around performance from Arsenal’s striker, and he took his goal very well.
Gabriel Martinelli – 7.0
His runs caused PSG so many problems and limited Hakimi from joining their attack too often, but he needs to score goals.
Leandro Trossard – 7.5
Superb assist for the first goal and seems to be improving as he enjoys a sustained run in the first team.
Substitutes
Jakub Kiwior – 6.5
He replaced Timber at half-time and helped to keep the clean sheet.
Mikel Merino – 7.0
An impressive debut, even though he came off the bench. He knows how to read the game and spot danger from opponents.
Gabriel Jesus – 6.5
Brought on to add another goal to Arsenal’s lead, but he did not look like scoring.
Myles Lewis-Skelly – N/A
Yes, I think those ratings are about right. It was a competent Arsenal performance against (as it turned out) pretty average opposition. Dembele’s absence probably helped, but Arsenal played well for most of the game without being really pushed.
We just have to hope that the likes of Saka and Havertz don’t get injured as the season progresses.
I know he wasn’t on for long, but what really is the point of bringing on Jesus? He doesn’t do anything – certainly doesn’t look like threatening to score a goal, let alone actually get one. Apparently, he hasn’t scored since last January – 20 games ago. At almost £14m a year reportedly, he’s a luxury Arsenal can’t really afford, isn’t he?
Very fair ratings. It just goes to show what a great team performance it was that the scores were so close
I thought havertz and trossard were the match winners really. Martinelli also played well – shame he didn’t finish the chance on the volley. Thought saka was good as usual but not motm, imo.
PSG’s fullbacks were excellent but I thought they looked a bit raw overall – not enough experience in that team?
I disagree with Jesus; there was a good chance to score a third goal if he had passed the ball in front of the goal. Two or three Arsenal players were waiting for the cross that never came. I would give him a 5.1.
Jesus wants to hog the ball and not pass to his teammates who are in a better position to score.
He did the same thing on Saturday, luckily the ball bounced off Kai and landed in the net.
I was pulling up my hair out, for the opportunity lost.
Fair assessment all around. I’m liking the cut of Calafiori though. He’s the wild card. Controlled chaos…👍🏾
Absolutely.
Being honest the duo of Saliba and gabby is the best central defense in the world now
Really like Calafiori but he can be a little hot headed (a la Xhaka) at times, could possibly been sent off last night and at the weekend so needs to calm it a bit. The ratings are about right but 7 for Marino, really? Thrown straight into his very first appearance I appreciate, but think he was a little disappointing, unless anyone can tell me what I may have missed?
Agree on merino to an extent – the 7 is definitely inflated but thought he looked promising. I don’t think he’s going to be the most exciting player to watch in the main but he’s very solid defensively, with a little bit of cleverness to his play, which was showcased in his short time on the pitch yesterday. He’s a bit like edu imo.
I am *a little* less enthused by his signing than many others seem to be – imo what we really wanted/needed was partey 2.0 and we’ve settled for xhaka 2.0 because there aren’t many partey-like players available.
Merino did make a big impact for Spain in the euros but he wasn’t a starting player, which makes him hard to judge just on that tournament. There’s a chance he’s not going to be a starter for us either, and will be more of a squad player – whether or not that’s the case, however, I think he’ll be a major contributor over the course of the season. Worst case he’s a *quality* box to box midfielder to back up Rice, which we’ve needed for a while. I do agree with the others though that he’ll likely replace partey in the starting lineup, at least initially, and we’ll see how the team plays with that system. I am optimistic that the team will adapt well to this but think there’s a chance it won’t work and we’ll have to go back to partey again.
I thought Saka, Saliba were good but not on their best. I can’t figure out what Merino will bring that will make him leapfrog Rice, Partey Ordegaard and even Havertz when assigned to take care of the midfield. Maybe aerial dominance.