It is never easy to rate the players when they deservedly get beaten and today is no different. I cannot be anything than honest, maybe some of the players will get a higher rating once I watch the game again but they also run the risk of being rated even lower such was the performance from the players today.
So here are my ratings……
Bernd Leno 6
Nothing he could do for Jagielka’s goal and he made some critical saves, most importantly against Bernard and one of the few players that can walk off the field with his head held high.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos 5
Sokratis was once again booked and now has a two-game ban to face, though in all honesty, I am not sure he will be all that missed.
Shkodran Mustafi 5
He basically got outmuscled for large parts of the game, got a deserved booking and while he never made any huge errors, he was hardly inspiring.
Nacho Monreal 5
The Spaniard did not look fit, he looked weak and like his fellow defenders was outmuscled, he was unable to stop Richarlison and was overall mediocre.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles 3
You could not be blamed for thinking he never played before such was his presence, hardly any runs down the flanks and for the most part was inconspicuous.
Sead Kolasinac 4
Also subbed at half time and he cannot have any complaints, he offered very little on the flanks and will not be too proud of his performance today.
Mohamed Elneny 3
Was deservedly substituted at half time, was absolutely ineffective and was simply outplayed and outfought. There is nothing positive to say about his contribution.
Matteo Guendouzi 6
Never commanded the middle of the park and for long periods was running around like a headless chicken, but at least he had a go unlike some of his team mates.
Mesut Özil 3
No surprise he was the final player to be subbed and should have been yanked earlier, he let himself and the team down once again, we deserve better from the German, he is too talented and paid too much to be putting in these sort of performances, he simply was not up for the game at any time and it showed.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan 5
He did try I will give him that but he was wandering about too much and when he did have the ball he did very little with it, his control was suspect and showed no vision or creativity.
Alexandre Lacazette 4
Never really offered anything in the game, it was not all his fault as he was offered little service, but when he had the opportunity he failed to hold the ball up, make any effective runs and was basically a bit part player.
Subs
Aaron Ramsey 5
If anyone could have turned the game around it was Ramsey but he made no difference and never looked like being the game changer we needed.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 4
When he came on he played like he was pissed off at not starting, he probably was not sulking but his contribution certainly looked like a player having a strop.
Alex Iwobi 5
Cannot really criticise Iwobi, he came on late and was surrounded by mediocrity and he fitted in just perfectly in the circumstances.
I’d bring Guendouzi down to a 5 because his passing was poor at times, and I’d make Iwobi our best outfield player, so maybe he should be up to a 6? Leno was our MOTM. I felt he deserved at least a 7. Other than that, I can’t argue with the rest of the ratings.
Agree on Guendouzi and Leno, but Iwobi was just a cameo
Our CAMs hid from the opponents’ shoulder charges and kicks as usual
Leno did all his best to help us Win but we couldn’t.He was my man of the match.
Apart from Leno they were all woeful.Sad to say but it is now time to move on Monreal who has lost what little pace he had.How about Gomez to replace Ramsay?Have Everton got the cash to buy him?
Andre Gomes looks improved at Everton, compared to his miserable time at Barcelona
He was the target of the fans’ anger, as what is happening to Ozil now. Because he was slow, tended to hide from the opponent’s challenges, lacklustre and often tripped
Maybe he looks good because the quality of his current teammates are not on a par with Barcelona players’ level. Prefer Rafinha over him
Thought Guendouzi was horrible. Reckless in the opening minutes and did nothing after that except chase the ball. He’s not experienced enough to dictate play in the midfield by himself which is why once we saw him partnered with Elneny, this game was over. Xhaka was missed, lets admit that. An Ozil no show was hardly surprising. They can basically be telegraphed at this point. Those three in midfield was just a horrible decision and I have no idea what Emery was thinking. I know we had injuries, but at least try Suarez. And I’d rather have Iwobi play in the middle away from Emirates than Ozil. He can’t be trusted and is incapable of putting in a good away performance.
Elneny just serves no purpose and Emery could’ve risked AMN in that position and Jenko in lineup to fill in. Nobody seemed to have the energy to fight in this game besides Sokratis and Leno, and Iwobi. When the going gets tough, Arsenal still buckle and that’s what stops us from being a top team. But Emery did himself no favors with who he chose.
Still waiting for that summer clearout to happen and for Kroenke to allow a spending spree to compete with our rivals. until that happens we will keep seeing squads that are barely good enough.
Iwobi could be a perfect CAM due to his physical attributes and skills
Still has trouble with his decision making though, which is crucial to being a good CAM. But he is capable of getting stuck in games much better than Ozil which is why I wouldn’t mind him being placed in the lineup over him. We were picking up results away from home earlier in the season with Iwobi in the squad and I think we should stick to something similar for our away games.
So get rid of ozil and make iwobi our cam ?is that what you two are suggesting .
I must be missing something here ,is this the same player who can’t even make a simple 5yard pass ?
A player with how many assists to his name ?
A player I’ve never seen make an eye of the needle pass through to another player?
We would be a laughing stock if he was deployed as a cam .
Why do you get all worked up over such crap.
Not sure how Guendozi gets this, really quiet in the first half and failed to assert himself in the second.
I thought Ramsey coming on in the second improved us and was probably our best outfield player, Leno being our best IMO.
Bad day at the office and I put this one down to Emery, completely got the tactics and line up wrong. I’m not sure what was the point in signing Suarez if he can not be trusted ahead of El Neny. Also, how many chances do we have to give Mustafi, the game slows down around him. He consistently misplaces passes or punts it long onto no one and on top of that isn’t really that great of a defender.
Slightly concerned about top 4 judging by the amount of away matches we have and how poor we are on the road.
You missed rating Emery. And I will give him a 1!
Emery committed two very detrimental tactical errors for this arguable most important game in this campaign!
1. He managed the team for almost a season now, and still can’t freaking confirm or close to confirm his best first team players and choice of formation! With the mid field and front line running so effectively in the New Castle game, what is in his fxcking mind to shuffle, again, almost the mid-field and frontline, by resting Ramsey, Auba, Iwobi and bringing in the rubbish Elneny! With Elneny in, we were playing 10 men against Everton’s 11.
2. Yet, even against a strong team as Everton, and in an away game, he didn’t border to strengthen our back line and keep the same formation with three defenders, where he should have strengthened to regular four players in the back.
Guendouzi has one bad game. Big deal.
Everyone has a bad match
Maybe he’s tired
He is a youngster who needs more experience.
He has been fantastic for us this season
I think Everton are the worst of the five teams we have to play away. They were poor and we were really terrible.
Playing Ozil and Mhiki together was the wrong decision but playing Elneny alongside Guendouzi was a disaster. AMN had an unusually poor game but Kolasinac was terrible. I don’t understand the criticism of Laca, he was kicked all over the park! People are saying we can’t be that bad if we are in 4th place but with the games left, unless we have a major turnaround, we will finish 6th.
Agree on Lacazette; should have had a penalty awarded in first 5 minutes.
Leno Arsenal’s MOTM by a country mile. The rest should return their wages.
I had nightmares about AMN’s throw in ? he’d been so good lately too….
I’m sorry but I’m not giving any ratings or MOTM as they were all terrible! Didn’t earn their money this week!
If I was UE I’d throw the book at them, oh and the pizza & the hairdryer too
How can Ozil who made complete passes be given 3 while mhiki who gave away passes, made terrible passes and was not helpful in any way get 5. I think we need to be honest with ourselves and stop castigating players because of what we thought as supposed to what happened.
It’s hard to read sometimes when the same people shout play ozil at home. Just give him Aubameyang and lacazette but away from home give us Iwobi. Confused.
I think Emery not to sort out his away tactics, our results might be down to him not very familiar with premier league. Teams are a different kettle of fish when ever they are at home, same with us, and I don’t care whatever player he choose but I think with a performance like yesterday, no player will come out shining. Everton were absolutely on the money. Maybe we should have gone defensive to deal with the long balls. If Ozil gets 3 mhiki should get 0.
Admin you said Ozil let his team down because of his salary, but he tried to open up the opposition, but mhiki get 5 because he doesn’t get as much salary as Ozil but gave the ball away at least twice that I can recall, made an absolute shamble of a pass when we looked like opening up Everton on a very good counter attack. Am sorry but you have really affected the respect I have for your site. The whole team was a joke and none of the attacking players did any good job because Everton were absolutely determined to fight for everything.
You lost me when you said u don’t think we will miss sokratis for the next two games…..dude z our best defender
Özil is a good 6, but not best in this game due to terrible Elneny 1 and Mikhitarian 3. Goundouzi gave also terrible wrong passes on critical areas, but he is better in the longer run. Iwobi is very good, fresh and lively change. Ubaymeang must be in the start and Ramsey as well. Emery is not a good choice as a tactical one. In this qame should have had more and flesh in the middle
Perhaps I didn’t watch the same game with most of you. In the game I watched, I saw an Everton team that didn’t come play football the way it should, but to wrestle, push, shove and kick urged on by their noisy fans and a refree that was for the most part biased against Arsenal. I was even surprised Arsenal was able to match their physicality, such that they were fortunate to score one goal.
I wasn’t happy Arsenal lost though but I became hopeful that with this much energy applied in the rest of our matches, Arsenal will be nowhere lower than the 4th place. Apart from the usual occasional mistakes which we make, and which all other teams make from time to time, each and every Arsenal player tried so much.
I find that a lot of people are biased in their judgement once we lose a match. But had Arsenal won that match, it would have been an entirely different story here. The manager is doing a nice work and the players are doing their own part.
Just support the team and stop apportioning blames. It is ony normal to win some and lose some.
I vehemently disagree with the ratings. Everyone should be having a 3 or below and Guendozi, Maitland Niles and El Neny should have zeros.
Guendouzi, the young lad maybe tired or maybe simply not worthy of a first team spot. Is he really better than our reserves/u18. Honestly no. Is he quicker and more technical? No. No way should he be our last defender at corners due to his speed, physicality and decision making. Very lucky to be around the first team. We could easily buy a more experienced player already playing in the EPL to do a job.
I strongly disagree with the ratings. All of them deserve nothing above 3 apart from Leno. AMN needs to take a hard look at himself. For a young guy, he needs to take his chances, else he’ll be another “would have been a great talent.”
I really hate it when our young players don’t take the chances they get.