Arsenal secured a narrow victory over Ipswich Town this evening. Here are our player ratings:
David Raya – 6.5
Made one costly error that could have led to a goal but otherwise had a relatively quiet night.
Jurrien Timber – 7.5
Another good performance from Timber, who is giving Ben White serious competition for the starting spot.
William Saliba – 7.5
Handled Liam Delap well, ensuring the striker had no real opportunities to threaten Arsenal’s goal.
Gabriel Magalhaes – 7.5
Missed at least one good chance from a set-piece but was solid in his defensive duties throughout.
Myles Lewis-Skelly – 8.0
Continued to grow in confidence, standing up impressively to Kalvin Phillips and earning the fans’ admiration.
Declan Rice – 7.0
A solid all-around display, effectively shielding the defence and breaking up Ipswich’s attacks.
Martin Odegaard – 7.0
Had a decent outing, though he didn’t contribute much to put Ipswich under pressure.
Kai Havertz – 7.0
Played just behind Gabriel Jesus and scored the all-important goal to secure the win.
Gabriel Martinelli – 6.5
Struggled to replicate the productivity Arsenal usually enjoys from Bukayo Saka on the right wing.
Gabriel Jesus – 6.5
Couldn’t continue his impressive goal-scoring form and will hope to get back on track in the next match.
Leandro Trossard – 7.0
Delivered a fantastic assist for the game’s only goal and performed well on the left wing.
Substitutes
Mikel Merino – 6.0
Came on to help maintain control but didn’t make a significant impact.
Thomas Partey – N/A
Wasn’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a rating.
Did Ødegaard perform any better than a single player on the turf?
@Thrill,
I’d say that our least effective players were Jesus & Martinelli. They weren’t bad, just not productive enough.
@Jax:
Anyone expecting to find standout bad players in the premier league will need to have quite an intense look – and finding them at Arsenal is forbiddenly odd.
Jesus tired out, got exhausted, got taken off. Perfect call for me.
Martinelli persistent with his eyes on the ground run into ambush . . .
I think we are about saying the same thing or at least close.
What did Ødegaard “produce enough” to be at par with
Trossard
Rice
Havertz.
I think his ratings are too generous for reality.
I’m trying to remember Raya’s “costly error”. His only mistake that I can think of was being out of position at the start of the second half when Ipswich almost caught us cold again.
I suppose when he was stranded off his line and luckily the Ipswich player didn’t look for an easy shot at goal and missed his chance completely.
Being out of position by a goal keeper should be considered as a mistake.
True, but was it costly?😄.
Lewis skelly got tired by 70th minute and I think Riccardo Calafiori could have came to the pitch replacing him
Lewis was not an 8, no overlapping runs, no crosses, just backwards and sideways passes that were no more than a few meters.
But better than timber.
How are these ratings so high
Inflated ratings for what was an unconvincing team performance which did however dig out 3 points.The adulation for young MS is perhaps understandable but for him to confront Delap and Phillips is not something to rejoice about.He could have been sent off .As for his performance ,neat and tidy in possession, but lacks pace and little in the way of energetic running off the ball which is the vital difference between us and the current Liverpool side.
I thought it was a test for Lewis-Skelly and it will be a great learning experience for him. Imo he’s a playmaker, not a runner – we need both types of player in the side. The problem I think you identify is that we have a lot of “playmakers” (odegaard, trossard, saka, partey, jorginho, skelly, havertz, Jesus – i.e. players who like to play the through passes rather than receive them), but not enough who make good runs without the ball – martinelli may be the only one who’s playing style lends itself to that, but timber has shown he can be a good option at times. It means our passers don’t have enough good options and we end up slowing things down and recycling too often (maybe that’s also why we struggle so much with thrown ins?!). Fullbacks are commonly employed to make those runs and provide options for dangerous passes – it’s not the only way, though (Trent doesn’t really do that too much for Liverpool – he’s clearly more of a playmaker). I think xhaka was making those kinds of runs in his final season for us from midfield, for example, and that’s maybe something we’ve missed. I do agree that we need at least one of the fullbacks to make those overlapping runs, though – there’s just not enough positions in the side where you can fit more of those controlling midfield-playmaker types.
I actually think rice is a problem because he’s not brilliant at either of these playing styles – he’s brilliant at winning the ball back and finding space in deep positions to help us beat a press but doesn’t see passes like partey and jorginho, and doesn’t make forward runs like xhaka, so he makes us more solid but less dynamic.
Rice has had to relearn how to to play the 6 role and is also learning how to play the number 8 role in a new system. So I would cut him some slack as overall he has added to our midfield strength and options. He is still young enough to develop and he himself is aware of some limitations in his game.
I agree with you that he’s young enough to learn and I think his attitude is first rate, but to say he has had to relearn the 6 role is a bit much (some people say he’s the best in the world in that position). This is a 100m signing in his second year – he did great for us last season but I think his limitations have always affected us, and it’s showing more this year. He’s won us points with his corners, though – he’s capable of fantastic crosses.
Rice’s corners really are special. I still remember on JA last season making a comment about a corner being taken by him and someone being surprised that he was the one doing the deed as I believe it was his first game doing so. The comment btw was commending Trossard as being the smallest on the pitch yet effectively blocking Joachim Andersen and freeing up Gabriel for the goal.
Grandad, we don’t run off the ball. Thats the problem.
The attack was dysfunctional, yet we have a youngster on the bench who could have replaced Martinelli who is simply not himself.
Why is Nwaneri who is very attack-minded left on the bench for 90 minutes? This guy could play in Saka’s role or even as a 9 where he has proven his skills before.
I don’t understand this manager.