Arsenal 2 – 1 Crystal Palace, Player Ratings by KJ
Szczesny – 6
Wasn’t at his best today. Wasn’t commanding enough during free kicks and almost cost us late on with a poor claim for a Palace corner.
Debuchy – 6
He was similarly poor. Was good offensively but struggled massively defensively. He was easily turned by Bolasie/Puncheon throughout the game and always seemed to come out poorly in the one on one duels.
Chambers – 8 (MOTM)
An absolutely quality performance by our young English defender. He was as composed as you like and was never flustered by the pressure put on him by Palace when they broke. He is a consummate professional.
Koscielny – 7
Did score the goal today to rectify his mistake but it was a mistake he shouldn’t have made. He seems to struggle at defending zonally from set plays.
Gibbs – 6
He struggled like Debuchy to really impact the game and wasn’t good enough defensively.
Arteta – 6
He didn’t really affect the game. He was okay defensively but he slowed down play a bit too much and didn’t really lead by example as he’d done previously when we went down a goal.
Ramsey – 6.5
He had an absolute shocker today and I would’ve happily given him a 5 had he not saved us in the dying moments. It’s the sign of a world class player. To have such a poor performance only to then go on and win it for your team is what wins titles.
Wilshere – 6.5
He was slightly better than Ramsey. Wenger has said he was ill leading up to this game so it is understandable why he wasn’t as explosive as usual.
Sanchez – 6
He struggled quite a bit today. Held onto the ball for far too long and didn’t really get his head up enough. He’s adjusting and is figuring out that he hasn’t got the time he had in La Liga. But he still managed to assist Koscielny for the equaliser.
Cazorla – 5
A shocking performance by him. Constantly lost the ball and rarely made a meaningful pass.
Sanogo – 5
Never got any real service but didn’t really go out of his way to get on the ball.
Subs:
Monreal – 7
Very good when he came on. Drove the team forward on the left-hand side and combined well with Sanchez and Cazorla.
Chamberlain – 6
He sped up the game when he came on but eventually ran out of ideas and constantly lost the ball in silly positions.
Giroud – 7
Came on and made a meaningful contribution for our goal. He will probably start against Besiktas.
Final comments: All in all, it was a good win considering how poor we were. It’s clear to see what Özil offers us, especially against teams that just sit back. But we’ll most likely improve against the Turkish side on Tuesday and with more space, I expect us to be hurting them.