After a slow and sub-par first half at The Emirates, Arsenal turned up in the second half and blitzed past Leicester 3-1. A game led by a sublime captains performance in star player Mesut Ozil.
A lacklustre display in the first half which saw Leicester as the team creating more chances and looking to be the team on top, went into the lead with an own goal by Hector Bellerin after his attempted block deflected a cross in. The goal seemed to wake us up a bit as Arsenal managed to look the more threatening side for the rest of the half, rounding off the end of the first half with a beautifully composed finish from our captain on the night Mesut Ozil. Giving Arsenal the equaliser to hold our heads just that little bit higher going into the dressing rooms at half time. The second half begins and out comes a different Arsenal as we have seen in the second halves of recent games, we looked fired up and began to create chances and dominate the game, Unai Emery made the substitutions we needed in Aubameyang and Guendouzi who both had instant and direct impact. The second goal then came, started by a sensational through ball from Ozil finding Bellerin, who crosses for a simple tap in by Aubameyang, 2-1. Not too long after, Arsenal start a brilliant team move from back to front, which had Ozil written all over it, finished off eventually by Aubameyang with Ozil 'dinking' it over the keeper to hand it to him on a silver platter. The game ended 3-1 and took our winning streak to 10 games, the best run we have had since 2007.
Ratings:
Bernd Leno - 8
Solid shot stopping and fantastic distribution, something we have been getting used to over the past few games. Made one fantastic save in the first half getting down low to palm away Harry Maguire's headed effort.
Hector Bellerin - 8
Unluckily put the ball in our own net to concede the first goal of the night, but showed good character to bounce back and provide the team with two all important assists. A very accomplished attacking performance from the full back.
Shkodran Mustafi - 7
A solid performance at the back, won a fair amount of headers and made some good clearances. General passing play was good and he never looked too out of position. Did not have much to do in the second half.
Rob Holding - 7
Similar to Mustafi as there was not much to do in the second half for Arsenal defensively. Looked comfortable on the ball and made some good challenges. However he got away with a very clear handball in the first half, which could have led to a penalty and even a second yellow for himself had the ref seen it, so a bit more discipline needed in that sort of situation.
Stephan Lichtsteiner - 5
A poor game from an experienced player, who looked out of place in the team. Understandable considering he his a right back covering at left back, but I still expect him to do better, lost the ball a few times and was not greatly involved in our attacking build up.
Lucas Torreira - 8.5
Looking like you could just copy and paste the same match rating for him every single week, does an extremely solid job consistently and perfectly. Again today he was all over the field winning interceptions and tackles, and being an overall nuisance for Leicester to deal with.
Granit Xhaka - 7
Had an average first half and looked shaky at times, but generally had a good outing and a solid performance, he actually looked at his best in this game when he was tactically shifted to left back, and he did a fine job there to help Arsenal win the game.
Alex Iwobi - 9
Wasn't my man of the match but he won the official premier league MOTM award, and he was not far off it for me. He was extremely direct and excited the fans by running at players and causing Leicester all sorts of problems. When he gets the ball in his current form, you get that bit of excitement as to what he will do next, great signs from the youngster and truly looks like a new signing this season.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan - 6
A decent game and he got him self about and pressed well, however didn't look too threatening in attack and lost the ball a few times. We looked better once he had been substituted off.
Mesut Ozil - 10
For me it has to be a 10, simply a world class performance. Had a key involvement in all three goals and claimed a goal and assist on the day. His vision and creativity was the core of everything we did going forward, and he had the end product to match, when we needed it most. He took the captains armband and made it his tonight.
Alexandre Lacazette - 7.5
In my opinion he had a good performance despite not getting on the scoresheet. He missed a few easy chances late in the second half unfortunately, but he managed to be involved in a lot of our buildup play and was key in our third goal. He also tracked back extremely well as always.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - 9
Came off the bench and was the scorer of the two goals that won us the game, cant say much more than that. Also now second top scorer in the league only behind Eden Hazard.
Matteo Guendouzi - 8
Added a lot offensively to the midfield when he came on, gave us more directness and pace in our attacks and spread the ball nicely. Helped to change the game for Arsenal.
Aaron Ramsey - 5
Came on and did not have a lot of time to impact the game much. But did not really change anything in the game and just kept things ticking over.
Jake Wren
@jakewren14
Comments
Post a Comment