Arsenals succumbed to their first loss in six games after they were beaten 2-1 by Tottenham in the north London derby today.
The Gunners had been in control after a slow start to the game and they took the lead, but their lead lasted just three minutes before a howler gifted Spurs their equaliser. Here are the Arsenal player ratings.
Emiliano Martinez – 8
Still a good backup. Was made to do more work than on previous match days and he made a fine save to tip a certain goal from Ben Davies and also got down well to make a fine save against Kane in the second half. Made other saves and couldn’t do anything about both goals.
Shkodran Mustafi – 6
He was our most composed centre back and threw his body on the line a few times. Made a mistake that almost cost us a goal but was solid for the most part.
David Luiz – 5
It was a poor pass from Kolasinac, but he had the time to make a tackle that may have saved the team and never did. Didn’t do much else in terms of helping the team bring the ball out from defence.
Sead Kolasinac – 2
Always the team’s weak link in the back three and he showed why he should be sold with a poor pass that led to the equaliser. He did nothing to help the team get forward.
Hector Bellerin – 6
Showed great willingness to run at the Tottenham defence and he even created a fine chance that Aubameyang should have scored.
Dani Ceballos – 8
Another solid display. Kept running and chasing every ball in midfield, forcing Spurs to avoid ground balls through the middle. He was also impressive with his passes long and short when he had the ball.
Granit Xhaka – 7
Another confident display from him as he helped Arsenal control the game from the middle. And he was crucial to the first goal, having made the tackle that gave Arsenal possession.
Kieran Tierney – 7
Continues to do well. Was available on the left all the time. Impressive with his crosses when he got forward, and he was still solid at the back providing support for Kolasinac.
Nicolas Pepe – 5
Not his best day in an Arsenal shirt. Willing to run at the Spurs defence, but there was no end product in his game.
Alexandre Lacazette – 7
Took his goal well and continue to drop back to link up play and seemed to press better than he did in other games. He will be disappointed that his goal didn’t win the match.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 5
Frustrating day for him. Missed a fine chance, hit the woodwork, and Hugo Lloris made a fine save to deny him a goal on another occasion. He should have scored.
Substitutes
Bukayo Saka – 6
Brought renewed energy to Arsenal’s attack, but he couldn’t exactly influence the game even though he nearly created a goal-scoring chance.
Joe Willock, Cedric Soares, Reiss Nelson: Spent too few minutes to be rated.
Let us know what you think of the Arsenal player ratings in the comments below
Ratings from Ime
Mustafi was very poor throwing himself to the ground with no hope of getting the ball. Several times! I think your rating is very generous.
Bonaroca:- I am very surprised that Mr Arteta
is atill sticking with his three back players In my opinion Luis & Koch should sidelined once and forever, as regards Mustafi one has to make a
question mark. Every one mentions Saliba and
why is Holden not given a decent chance to establish with Saliba, 2 young defenders for the future. Otherwise Arsenal have enough youngsters for future great Arsenal.
Saliba is not eligible to play this season.
As for Holding I wonder too.
Luize , Mustafi and Xhaka are the problem at Arsenal they are just not good enough. These guys will always give the opposing team chances. So until they are sold Arsenal will remain a mid table team.
yep throw in kolasinac and bellerin and that’s a regular group of 5 who will only drag us down further … guendhouzi is gone and possibly ozil … don’t want Europe its a distraction want to see a regular team playing week in week out and building understanding … kids can play the league cup and mixture for the fa … need to bring in 2 quality midfielders and a RB … a lot will depend on saliba as to whether we need a top notch CB … the the francophone attack just doesn’t gel don’t know why but arteta needs to think hard about what he wants there
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Did you watch the game? Where was Xhaka at fault?
He’s not at fault for being an utterly average footballer who can’t control the midfield or the ball for that matter and execute the basics of link up play … That’s what he is am sure norwhich would love to have him as they try to get back in to EPL from the championship which is his level … Arteta is at fault for playing him week in and out and not making it clear he is not the future of the club … Comeback Berlin we want whatever you can offer
Mustafi should be lower. Got destroyed 2nd half. Bellerin was also out of position several times on the right side, overall just fine from him ,but another position we can do better in. (wouldnt address it this summer tho). Xhaka and Ceballos acutally did decent this game. It’s a shocking shame that our front three seem to be on completely different wavelengths in most matches. They dont play as a unit and just play as individuals. Dont read each others movements well either. Auba such a disappointment today. Already said enough about our defense so I’ll let it be.
Kolasinac, Bellerin and Aubameyang were awful. They cost us the game.
1. Kolasinac with his wayward pass to Luiz
2. Bellerin leaving a huge gap behind each time and moura having a lot of joy down his end. It is not surprising the corner that led to the second goal came from that side of the pitch.
3. Aubameyang was wasteful. You have to take your chances in games like this if you hope to win.
4. Pepe has no business starting this game. Saka from that position contributed to a goal each game in our last two matches. Why bench him?
Why bench Holding; what has he done wrong? Why does Arteta select Bellerin over AMN or Cedric Soares?
Bournemouth beat Leicester 4-1! What!! And Solanke scored twice!! My oh my…. this really has been a high scoring, crazy weekend….. Vardy for the golden boot??
What is missing in our team is what I have been seeing in teams who are naturally below us in ratings and that is the will to win. How can Bournemouth beat Liechester by 4 goals to 1 and Sheffield beat Spurs by almost the same margin and we drew and lost to those two teams. I said to the guy I watched the match with after tot scored their first goal we are losing this game. I told him because of the sideways and back pass. I don’t know why we passes sideways or back as I have seen this under Wenger in his last few years, under Emery, Freddy and now Arteta. Can some please help me to understand why. If you don’t play forward you won’t score goals and you can’t win a match without goals. Arteta should know you don’t need to control a match to win it. Just out score your opponent through attacking play. That is what Spurs just did. That is what make Liverpool a champion, that is what city usually does and that is what manu is doing now.
@Mobella
Unfortunately the team is full of cowards. When they receive the ball and an opponent is even 5 metres away, the default reaction is to just pass the ball back where it came from and rid themselves off of any pressure. Xhaka, and Bellerin are 2 very big culprits of that tiresome and needless backpassing.
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“Cowards” is the right terms for these players. And what coaching has Mikel done in these six months? Nothing. The back passes are the same, we lost to Brighton (a bottom team), Chelsea (a top 4 team) lost to Tots ( a mid table team). We won the Wolves game due to the brilliance of Emi. In all we are stagnant due to the stupidity of the coach to play his favored few – Luiz, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Mustafi. Several times I did mention that there will be a horror show on display if Mustafi, Luiz or Socrates play. Just replace Socrates with his tag team wrestling partner Kolasinac and the show continues. Belerin has a competition with a Southampton cast off , this implies that Mikel is happy to be mid table team, so who are we to bother? Just a bunch of ticket buyers.
Mobella I’ve found my self on many a day asking that same question…How comes this “smaller” teams get to beat some of the teams we dread to play…
Infact I think the arsenal players are already defeated psychologically anytime we go up against a team that is considered better than us..it’s the only way I can explain why we constantly our up disgraceful showings against Liverpool and Man city…The older players need to go and the younger ones infused with a winning mentality and self belief before they begin to see loses like the norm…It’s very important if we ever hope to dominate England again…
I know the derby defeat is hard to take, however the boys didn’t play badly, it was a derby, and to be fair, spurs has more chance at goal than us, their game plan worked better for them and eventually our defenders lack of concentration led to the awful mistake.
If we have been showing this kind of willingness and commitment all season, we wouldn’t have been where we are now.
I agree with your ratings, though generous but we’ll deserved. Spurs were more willing than us, and were lucky with the gift and AUBA hitting the post.
This is the kind of loss that am proud of as a fan.
Me too.
Gee. Proud to be a loser with a loast team, we are 9th, may just manage to finish 10th. Midtable.
For sceptic ones, wake up, we are really a midtable team today.
its not bad lucky when it happens consistenly. Auba often cannot finish his dinner against the better sides, and how many times have you watched a big game where we give away cheap goals? C’mon now. We’re big time bottlers, and deserve to be midtable.
The boys played well but tot played better.
Those ratings are wrong, when you lose a game, can have players most players rated over 6. The best player on the pitch and hugger note should be Laca who scored almost assist goal to put us ahead. Could have taken shit but delivered a pass for Auba hitting the bar. He was great with and without the ball opening spaces for wingers, had a good game. He deserve best rating, 7.
Everyone. Knows Arteta would play 5 in the back and Spurs were on Luiz and Mustafi, knowing their lack of speed,..
.
We have no coach but an assistant who can’t put team together.
Indeed we have a CB and central defensive issue but we can do better by lining up right players.
Luiz can’t play as CB, he can’t cover keeper but have us conceid. Too slow on both goals.. Chelsea got rid of him for that, Arteta makes him our main CB and extends him…
He is our best option as a DM and all we need is a back 4..
Bellerin – Mustafi Holding Tierny
…………………………….Luiz
………………Niles ……………Willock
…….Auba…………Laca……………….Saka
We are way more solid and fast going forward… Arteta doesn’t know what is doing…..Why is he reversing and have Saka as RB ? That is crazy, every player is not Henry….
Guessing and experimenting as he should be doing with a midtable or championship team before to get in a top club. City was straight to him; even after Guardiola they won’t appoint him as first coach, common sense. He must experiment elsewhere first, not at Arsenal.
Kroenke boomerang tricks of getting Pepe in instalment plan to make believe he spent 75M, came back all season, Pepe a total flop
Arteta was a vicious move as well, aware we are attached to him as a Captain, got us a damn assistant coach who can’t do the job, Boomerang again!
I meant Saka as a RW….We do love Arteta and sad he is going to look like a loser and probably won’t get a team to take a chance after that
You don’t know ball.
Take a rest.
You’re just angry and frustrated
What do you know about football beside .making comments? I played from 7 to 14 years in a club, no booze talk.
When you have a comment to make, put some substance, explain what you mean and how it makes me innacurate as 99%, I read that we did well actually, sounds like you.
Of course I’m not happy, how can we be in such debacle?
What do you disagree with?
Aint we a midtable team? 9th spot is what? 12th is what? We been there for months and will remain there.
We have a coach who was still an assistant few months ago.
We can do better with another line up in the back.
Luiz got his hair extended instead to go. That’s real facts not just talking trash after 5 beers…
Yeah, your anger is justified as that showing was not exactly worth something, was it? But still I think Arteta should be given time, one season away from Europe is not bad in hindsight. Maybe we will get the winning mentality working a full season under Arteta because, let’s face it, he has improved us hasn’t he?
Time and tide wait for no one; Give Mikel time, how much time? We know the man is not good in his player selections, selects dull players, wrong tactics and will forever remain as Pep’s assistant. He left City as he was not guaranteed the head coach job when it became vacant. Now we want to give up on Europe, typical loser mentality of the fans and the coach and the players and the board and the ownership. Out of Europe will means less of sponsorship, which means less income which means basement player transfers, which means we go to the bottom half of the table. Next what, happy to be in the championship? Or League one after that?
I feel sorry for players who must be so confused, lost and sad.
That same line up issue they have no control over.
We need Allegri, Koulibaly, Partey & Havertz all available. But we extend Luiz instead to use that money, raise some more by selling players and swap in order to land our targets.
Need a brain, no money!
Moguna
Spot on we need to do way with Arteta,bring Allegri and send packing Luiz,Kolasinac,Xhaka,Mustafi,Sokratos,loan this Pepe,Ozil because they are all useless,
Am afraid Arsenal will soon be called sideways and backwards FC.
Bellarin-2
Mustafi-3
Kolasinac-0
Auba-1
Pepe-1
Luiz-2
Xhaka-3
Cebalos-2
Laca-5
Tieney-4
Matinez-6
Am been generous cos most of the players to deserve to wear the Arsenal shirt.
Agree with your ratings Sir. The coach gets a fat Zero.He needs to stop this back/side passing and move to a quick tempo. He just cannot break the ice. 17 matches, 6 draws, 4 losses. Is this good enough for Arsenal? #Artetaout
Most of the players don’t deserve the arsenal shirt.
I think the thought of a start of a new era are a bit premature, 11 points dropped since the restart is pretty poor. We are probably out of Europe and out of the elite. Hello Crystal Palace and West ham, you have a new rival for midtable supremacy. AWFUL with a capital AWFUL.
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Arteta – 1. He’s just a wannabe. A middle aged guy with no merits. And with no distance to the players. He want to be nice and talking about keeping players with no future. Giving Clown Luiz a new contract shows that he’s the wrong guy for the job of leading Asn’l. A new contract for Mustafi, Hekuba, Kola etc. is probably on it’s way. We will end up with the same trash team for next season just because this wannabe isn’t man enough to fire inadequate players. We need to sell and replace at least a dozen misfits. BE A MAN, ARTETA SELL THEM! DAMMIT, SELL THEM!
its my main criticism of him so far too. As foolish as wenger when it comes to trusting certain players. Luiz and Mari decisions shows he is not willing to be ruthless enough. What he is doing when guendouzi and ozil is the right thing to do but he wont extend this to the rest of the squad. You also shouldn’t be here if you are not GOOD ENOUGH! Even if you have a great attitude you also need the skills. Awful, awful decisions to give those two deals and it’s nothing but money down the drain. if we re-sign mustafi we are officially a banter club.
👍 Extensions to these players are a concern.
I don’t think it was Arteta that extend Luiz or whatever contract but the recruitment department. The main problem we are having in the club is not the coach or the players. But the board, the recruitment dept, and THE FANS.
We all are shouting praise of Arteta a couple of weeks ago but now I don’t know why all fans are criticizing him now.
If you want to support the team get behind them fully or you don’t support at all.
This is exactly why I preferred to see Teirney in the back 3 with Holding and Mustafi rather than Kolasinac and Luiz.
So happy with Ceballos’s performance and Laca’s goal with ofc Martinez.
Martinez made some very good saves including a very crazy one of ben davies.
The back 3,all 3 of them made mistakes but kolas one cost 3 and mustafi made some big errors(not just one)but he also made some good interceptions and blocks and his aerialability is not bad.Kolasinac cant defend….luiz positioning is a problem and he is not a very good defender and the whole back 3 is damn slow…
The wingbacks were not bad and they made some good crosses,bellerin was the better yesterday.
The midfield is the area i think the problem comes….if we can have a good dm then MA can revert to a flat back 4 which will give more control to the midfield.Ceballos was very good so was xhaka but are not very good to counter attack fast and cleverly and having the possession doesnt mean that we are in control.
The front 3 or the PAL,Auba had chances to bury the game but couldnt actually do it (and i see stupid idiots talking about how he never performs in big games but what they dont understand is he needs better service and please dont make him an “ozil”)
Lacazette goal was a goal of the season winner probably and he is very good in his linkups,one twos and even in hold ups.The only problem he had yesterday was that he was in a mood to finish spurs off but others were not.
Pepe,his touches has always been a problem but him and saka are the only ones i trust in a 1v1 situation as an attacker.Give him the ball near the box and he will do his magic.I trust him.
About MA,i dont think he got anything wrong but i feel like he should have gone with more fire power because a bus was parking on one half!
This is the point in the season when we – break the glass, pull the emergency hatch- experience the sinking titanic feeling …and finally realize that our dearly loved AFC is not good enough to play in European competitions for the next few years. A club on the edge of a cliff, a precarious position, in the midst of a pandemic. How will we finance this transition. North London is truly in the RED.
I concur with most comments on Kolasinac. The fellow is a misfit in defence because he can’t defend. Luiz is always mistake prone but in all honesty Mustafi has improved as has Granit Xhaka. Bellerin is simply average now. Arteta’s main weakness is being slow to respond to danger signals. He should have replaced Kolasinac with Holding and Bellerin with Soares. We also needed AMN when the game slowed down. Since it is his first assignment as head coach let us give him the chance and see how he improves the team. So far he is trying. Let us not forget that he came mid season and then he had the corona scare personally. That must also have caused him a psychological fear. I believe next season will be better. All the good managers like Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola didn’t start of as instant achievers. They had their blip periods but we can all see what they have done. Let us be optimistic as there are good signs that all will be fine.
Correction: start off not of.
When are the players going to be held accountable, or are Arsenal going to sack another head coach because he can’t win with these players. Arteta has now lost more games than Emery this season, plus losing to Olympiakos in the last 32 of the Europa League and these players got Emery sacked.
Arteta selections I can’t understand are his preference for Bellerin over AMN or Cedric Soares, the failure to select Saka given his form, the non selection of Holding after his strong game at Southampton and his continuing faith in Luis. Bellerin with Pepe has continually failed as a combination.
Arsenal has now lost 15 games this season from winning positions.
Major clean out required.
Emery was sacked because he was poor ,Arteta is having to use the players that Emery bought in ,until Arteta gets his own players then we can’t and should not judge him .
Dan, please compare the players that Emery asked the Arsenal management and Board to buy for him and the players he actually got.
He was expected to coach the players provided to him, both inherited from Wenger and bought by management.
Mikel Arteta, result wise has performed no better than Emery and if not supported in the transfer market, the only way will be slipping further down the table.
Under performing players must be moved on, not rewarded with extended contracts and funds spent on addressing the areas of obvious deficiencies C B and DM. It’s not that Arsenal hasn’t spent money, but that it has not been spent wisely.
The board of this Arsenal, does not like Truth.
Arteta can not give us the desired result. Before arteta was given the nord, Anceloti, just left Italian club, what stops them to get him if they have in mind to give the fans some thing to Cheer about? Instead they keep us, especially in Africa. heart breaks, n Weeping.
We would have won the m$atch against Leicester, and Tottenham, but because of wrong footing, the player in the club are average players. Clubs have started buying players, we’ve not seen our club negotiating or buying. How can we take our plays next season?
Seeing MA say “sorry we couldn’t do it” I can’t help but think why couldn’t you do it?? What I saw was a poor performance against our fiercest rivals, who had 2 days less to prepare… were in poor form going into the game.. and besides that beauty from Laca and some crucial saves from Martinez (again) I didn’t see much else to write home about. Backwards, sideways passing…. I said before the game what I’d give for that Tony Adams mindset of “we can’t lose this game” but I never saw it….
Is this the new norm now? Do we have to just accept this? Am I being too harsh on the team? Because all I can see right now is – if we’re not up for that game, then lord help us in every other!!
And fair enough if I’m called a ‘so called gooner’…. I just expected so much more from my team in what was a game you want to win at all costs… just a shame they didn’t see it like that.
And Sue our top transfer buy loses the ball and instead of trying to win it back, wanders down field. The attitude is all wrong.
Very wrong, Ozzie….
I think in the first 70-75 mins, we were relatively solid, afterwards we were out of stamina, and that is when Mustafi started to do mistakes. I put it on Arteta, he should have made his subs early enough, team obviously needed fresh legs.
I would add, yes replace Kolasinac, put Auba in the center, whatever MA is trying to do with him on the left, it is not working.
On reflection the performance was good possession wise for an away game but individual errors and tiredness cost us. Mustafi tired second half which is why he was consistently exposed and went to ground. Bellerin and Arteta should realise this and help him. On the other flank if you pay 25mill for a left back his priority role should be to defend. He should play in the three and Saka should be left midfield. Don’t mess Saka around on grounds of seniority. That was Wenger’s mistake. We need to sign Ceballos as his contribution has been excellent and maybe the better use of substitutes could have changed the course of the game. AMN introduction for Bellerin earlier perhaps. Shame NKetiah was suspended as his pressing later in 2nd half would have been great. Overall despite loss the passing was good but we need more aerial ability in the side as Alderweireld v KT was a joke. The other results mean Europe is unlikely next season. I think we have to accept it. Build from defence with the excellent Martinez Saliba and Partey and a forward with aerial ability to supplement the forwards. Move on a couple e.g Bellerin, Sokratis and Guendouzi and of course Ozil.
Yeah sorry admin, you were pretty generous with your ratings today,Mustafi was back to his old self although he didn’t lack effort,Luis should not be anywhere near this team nor kolasinac,and bellerin cannot defend and never has been able to and Pepe just does not look up to the physical challenge of this league, I thought we would turn this lot over today and we had a great chance to do so,they are far from the team they were under Pochettino and were there for the taking,very disappointed tonight.
That’s arsenal these days.
Winning unimportant matches and thinking the next new dawn is on.
Then losing the next few in a row and getting itchy trigger fingers.
Being the only club in the world that you can get away with insulting the fanbase in a professional capacity no matter which division the club ends up in.
Mustaffi, xhaka and bellerin have all improved, i hear and read. Really have they? From what level to what level? Why are they and the team making the same mistakes? Why is Arsenal not improving if these players have improved? I really think people sometimes lose perspective and reality. We are where we are because wether you think these players and others have improved or not, Arsenal has improved and the same old problems exist. Reality is, yes if we want to improve to mid table obscurity, then yes these players have got us there and are keeping us there. NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Apart from Martinez nobody deserves an 8. Ceballos flatters to deceive, plenty of possession in his own half loads of sideways and back passes but not a single successful through pass all game. I am assuming he’s the playmaker or attacking midfielder now that Ozil is sidelined? I honestly do not think he is the answer in that position but saying that, he will probably have his loan extended. Laca had one of his best games and is a great striker of the ball, if only he can be more consistent. Arteta is probably getting the best out of what he has got but unfortunately not good enough to compete for the whole 90 minutes. I just hope that MA gets the support he needs to reinvent the team or we will remain a mid table team.