Sporting CP v Arsenal - Player Ratings

A tedious match was played out in a 1-0 win to Arsenal tonight. After a fairly uneventful first half, Danny Welbeck managed to slot home the winner in an improved second half, to give Arsenal the win. The win takes us to 11 wins on the bounce and top of the group with 9 points from 9.

Yet again another slow start for Arsenal, playing away at Sporting Lisbon tonight. Not much happened in the first half bar a lot of corners for both sides and a few half-chances and attempted long shots for each side, nothing to trouble either keeper. The standout moment of the half was Sokratis escaping a potential red card for what looked like a last-man foul on the Sporting attacker. The second half brought a much improved performance from Arsenal and we asserted dominance on the game. The breakthrough coming when Danny Welbeck latched onto a flick on from Aubameyang, to thump home the finish between the keepers legs. This gave Arsenal the deserved 1-0 victory on the day.

Player Ratings:

Bernd Leno - 7

Was not really tested in the game at all by the Sporting attack. Distributed well and made a few good catches from set pieces and crosses. Comfortable night.

Stephan Lichtsteiner - 6

Again not a whole lot to do, defended when he needed to and held the shape well. Definitely evident that he does not offer us as much offensively as Hector.

Sokratis - 6

A decent performance, as with the theme of the defence tonight, not a lot to do. He could have however cost us with an unpunished last man tug of the shirt in the first half.

Rob Holding - 7

Probably the best of the defence tonight, won a number of headers and made a few crunching tackles, however almost cost us with one very sloppy pass in the first half.

Granit Xhaka - 6

Granit the newfound left back. Hopefully this doesn't continue, put in a decent defensive shift but was very limited offensively. Offers a lot more in his natural position obviously, but did well to get the job done in his un-preferred position.

Mohamed Elneny - 5.5

A very safe performance, the likes of which we are used to from Elneny. For me he just had no impact on the game and did not offer us anything offensively. No glaring mistakes but a relatively non-existent performance.

Matteo Guendouzi - 8

My Man of the Match personally. He looked lively and was one of the only players to show a lot of intent while on the ball. Got up and down the pitch and tried to drive us forward many times, also offered some incisive passes.

Aaron Ramsey - 6

I wanted to see him try and stake a claim for his starting spot in the team that has recently been taken from him. He did not really show any intent of doing so, a rather subdued performance and did not do much to stand out. Looked a bit better after the introduction of Torreira however.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan - 5
A pretty poor showing, did not show much creativity and he largely just floated around. Fizzed a few decent balls into the box but they had no real target or idea behind them.

Danny Welbeck - 7.5

Did not offer a lot aside from his always solid work-rate throughout the game, until the all important moment where he gave us the lead. Did his job by taking his opportunity for the game winning goal, and nicely headed in a finish earlier on in the half which was unfortunately rightly disallowed.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - 6

Not a great game by his standards, looked a threat at times and troubled them with his pace in behind. He missed a good one on one opportunity which could have given us the lead early in the second half.

Substitutes:

Lucas Torreira - 7 

Had a good impact off the bench, tightening us up defensively and changing the tempo of the game. Offered us a bit more direct passing offensively than Elneny who came off for him. 

Alex Lacazette / Alex Iwobi 

Not really enough time on the field to rate them, had little impact on the game and end result.

Jake Wren

@jakewren14