Our season is not over thanks to an impressive 7-3 aggregate win over Valencia and a date with Chelsea in the Europa League final is now confirmed.
The overall performance was efficient, however, two men, in particular, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were outstanding and without them, the outcome may well have been different.
No player had a nightmare game and in comparison, to recent performances, there was a definite improvement but even in victory there were some underwhelming displays and that cannot be ignored.
Player Ratings.
Petr Cech – 6
Cannot blame him for the goals and he did his job efficiently but nothing more than expected.
Nacho Monreal – 6
Average game really and while there was not much to criticise him about he did look ponderous on occasions.
Laurent Koscielny – 6
Starting to look his age but had an ok game.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos – 5
Could have done better, especially for the second goal and overall, did not fill me with confidence.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles – 7
I thought he had a decent game, made some mistakes but is still on a learning curve and overall, was satisfactory.
Sead Kolasinac – 6
He tried but often lacked an end product and was ineffective going forward.
Granit Xhaka – 5
Another disappointing game and under different circumstances against a better side would have been seriously exposed.
Lucas Torreira – 6
Starting to become an average player which is a shame and it cannot be denied that he had nothing more than an average game against Los Che.
Mesut Ozil – 7
I thought he did ok and was unfortunate to be subbed, he certainly played better against Valencia than he has done in recent games.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 10
Brilliant game and there is no way he gets less than a ten when he scores a hat-trick away from home in a European semi-final.
Alexandre Lacazette – 9
I was so close to giving him a 10 but Aubameyang does not deserve to share that honour and Lacazette gets a solid nine.
Subs
Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 4
Did nothing once he replaced Ozil and my head dropped when he came on, says it all really.
Shkodran Mustafi – 6
He has been consistently better for three games on the bounce now and there are signs that he will improve even more once his confidence is restored.
Matteo Guendouzi – 5
Not on long enough to get a fair rating and so the standard middle rating is about right.