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[Player Ratings] Stoke 1-0 Arsenal: Ozil & Xhaka woeful for Gunners

By mac14 on August 19, 2017

Arsenal were robbed by shocking officiating as we slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat away to Stoke City this evening.

We should have had at least one, if not two, penalties while Lacazette saw an excellent goal harshly ruled out for offside and we were punished by a mistake from Xhaka which led to the Stoke goal.

Here are my ratings:

Cech 6.5/10 | Could do nothing for the goal and made a decent save to deny Berahino.

Mustafi 6.5/10 | Could maybe have been positionally better for the goal but otherwise solid enough.

Monreal 5.5/10 | Failed to track Jese for their goal. No idea why he started in the middle of defence again. Bizarre decision by Wenger.

Kolasinac 6/10 | Played on the left of the back three but it’s not his best position. Should have been selected in the left wing-back role as he’d have had a field day against Diouf.

Bellerin 6/10 | Wasted on the left. His final ball is bad enough from the right but it was painful to watch from the left side. Still, he was an outlet for us.

Ramsey 7/10 | Arguably our best player. Made some great runs and forced Butland in to a couple of good saves. Needs a better more athletic partner next to him than Xhaka.

Xhaka 4/10 | Woeful display. His lack of athleticism in the middle cost us several times and it was his sloppy pass that led to their goal.

Oxlade-Chamberlain 6.5/10 | Another mixed game from The Ox. Had plenty of promising moments but once again his final ball was frustrating.

Ozil 5/10 | Another poor performance from Mesut. Didn’t look interested at all. Played a couple of nice passes but we needed a lot more.

Welbeck 6.5/10 | Worked hard and got in to some great positions but his finishing was frustratingly poor. Should have scored at least one.

Lacazette 6.5/10 | Starved of possession but an encouraging display. He buried the one chance he did get emphatically but he was controversially ruled offside.

Subs:

Giroud 6/10 | Missed a great header near the death to snatch a point.

Walcott N/A | Don’t think he touched the ball?

Iwobi N/A | He touched the ball once but passed it out of play.

WATCH THE GOAL AND HIGHLIGHTS HERE

We played reasonably well at times and on another day we’d have won the game comfortably if decisions went our way but we got punished by a sloppy mistake and dropped valuable points as a result.