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[Player ratings] Arsenal 0-1 Leicester: Lacazette struggles again, Mustafi woeful

By on October 26, 2020

Arsenal crashed to a hugely frustrating 1-0 defeat to Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday night.

We had the ball in the net in the opening minutes when Alexandre Lacazette glanced home a header from a corner but the goal was immediately ruled out for an apparent offside. The VAR barely spent 30 seconds looking at the supposed infringement – which was that Granit Xhaka was impeding Kasper Schmeichel. However, replays clearly showed Xhaka was far enough away from the Leicester keeper and wasn’t interfering at all, but the goal was harshly ruled out.

Lacazette then missed a glorious chance to score from just yards out following a superb Kieran Tierney cross and it was somehow 0-0 at half-time despite Arsenal’s total dominance.

Predictably, we faded in the second half and Jamie Vardy came off the bench to score the winner following some poor defending from Shkodran Mustafi – who had come on to replace the injured David Luiz. Arsenal had no response and could barely muster a shot on goal [just 1 in the second half] so we slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat.

Here are my ratings:

Leno  6/10 | Could do nothing for the goal and made a smart save with his head to deny Vardy a second goal late on.

Bellerin  6/10 | Lucky not to be sent of for a second yellow but forced a good save with a volley midway through the second half. Was a threat in the first half.

Gabriel  7/10 | Another impressive outing from the Brazilian. Calm and composed on the ball and snuffed out most danger from Leicester.

Luiz  6.5/10 | Played some lovely long passes in the first half to stretch Leicester. Was missed after he was forced off shortly after the break with a knock.

Tierney  7/10 | Lovely cross should have led to a goal by Lacazette. Looked much more comfortable as a conventional left-back.

Partey  6/10 | Much quieter than he was against Vienna. Didn’t see as much of the ball with Xhaka on the pitch. Still broke up play nicely and pushed the team on but wasn’t the all-action performance we hoped for.

Xhaka  6/10 | Dropped into defence at times – which was a concern due to his lack of pace – but he did OK. Kept things ticking over but lacked any real dynamism to make things happen.

pierre-emerick aubameyang arsenal 2020

Ceballos  5/10 | Disappointing. No significant influence on the game and looked a little lost at times with Arteta wanting him to play higher up the pitch.

Saka  7/10 | Heavily involved in the first half but snatched at a couple of chances. Faded after the break as he struggled with a knock to his ankle before being subbed.

Aubameyang  6/10 | His goal drought continued and he didn’t really look like breaking it against Leicester. A couple of semi-chances but didn’t look comfortable playing on the right wing.

Lacazette  5/10 | Unlucky to see an early header ruled out for ‘offside’ but missed a sitter to put Arsenal ahead when he somehow failed to connect with a Tierney cross. Woefully out of form right now.

Subs:

Mustafi   5/10 | Completely lost Vardy for the goal despite Gabriel instructing him several times to cover the striker. No idea why he’s being given game-time ahead of Saliba.

Pepe   5/10 | A couple of nice touches but no real impact.

Nketiah   N/A | On too late.

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