Leicester vs Arsenal - Ratings

It's been a while, but FINALLY I've come away from an Arsenal game with a positive: The interlul has arrived and we don't have to suffer for 2 whole weeks!!!!!! Rejoice!

 

Besides that it was a predictably piss-poor away performance to be perfectly honest. A single shot on target, the one chance for Auba was offside, it was always going to be a matter of time until Leicester scored despite hope they were having 'one of those days', and Emery was probably again the man at fault for a lot of it.

The game plan seemed rather clear from the get go, a back 3/5 set to play as deep as possible to give Vardy no room to run behind, two protectors in front of them, move it to Ozil ASAP and hope he can find either Laca or Auba in the channels behind their forward thinking full backs. Did it make sense? In some ways yes I guess so. Do I agree it was the way we should play? Definitely not. It felt indicative of how far we have fallen in recent systems that it makes sense to set up against a Leicester side that are very good and are in better form than us. I also feel there is a balanced system that gets our best players in the 11: 4-2-3-1. Except it seems to be the only system Emery hasn't actually tried.

The first half saw a somewhat improved Arsenal display, though arguably for the wrong reasons. I mean, could it get much worse before? And we're set up against a team who likes the ball and coming at us, that seems the game plan every week, except not many teams will do what Leicester did to us and it almost plays into Emery's hands a little.
     Leicester looked dangerous with every opportunity they had to venture forward but they just couldn't quite that final ball or the killer moment right enough and Arsenal largely hung in there. There was some attacking foray going forward with a little more fluidity but it wasn't enough to ever trouble Schmeichel in the Leicester goal. It felt more important to get into half time unscathed than it did to take an opportunity and go into half time leading, something that probably summed up the whole match.

The second half was a bit more of the same, but with two very key differences: Arsenal rarely ventured forward and an ok but off-target Bellerin effort from distance on 53 minutes was the last Arsenal shot of any kind. On the other hand, Leicester found their range twice and ruthlessly put Arsenal to bed, showing us the kind of football we once heralded and adored about the club. A very well worked passing move involving Pereira, Tielemans, Barnes, Tielemans again sliced Arsenal open like butter and allowed for Jamie Vardy to lose Chambers at the back post and put the ball home.

     From there on it always seemed like a very uphill task, and Leicester compounded the inevitable through 7 minutes later through a really well struck Maddison goal. Ndidi picked up the ball near the halfway line and danced his way past 3 Arsenal players before feeding Pereira on the inside right. His ball found Vardy in a not too dissimilar position to his goal, but with Chambers better placed he instead laid the ball to Maddison, who's sweet strike was arrowed low into the bottom corner. Leno was helpless and the King Power stadium erupted.

It was only when it was too late that Emery decided to try and do much about it by bringing on our most expensive ever signing, but the damage was done and 15 minutes proved not long enough for him or Willock (introduced a few minutes after) to do anything about the result. Edu and Raul looked on, ad going by the story broken this morning, we're going to be in this for the long haul....

Ratings:

Emery - 4

For once I could understand the game plan and I could see some logic to it. But that's about as much praise I can give him. Whilst I'm not totally opposed to 3 at the back formations, there are better ones out there that get the most from our talent and also include all of our best players. We have the strength in our squad to compete and maybe even beat our top 4 rivals, even away from home, but it never looked likely in a very very negative system designed to try not to lose, not to try and win.

Leno - 6

Helpless for both goals, must be wondering what he's done to deserve the absolute onslaught that are shots on his own goal. Made one particularly good save during the game where he stood strong but with the number of chances and shots being conceded, eventually some will go beyond him.

Bellerin - 6

Was as close to a good attacking outlet as we had and provided a bit more natural width down the right hand side. Defensively was fine though hardly spectacular. Looks like he's getting closer to fitness but not quite there yet, that will take time.

Chambers - 5

Not his greatest day and didn't look comfortable in position a lot of the time, opting to go back to Leno rather too often instead of being progressive and looking to go forward. Lost Vardy too easily for the opening goal which gave him the space he needed to find the bottom corner.

Luiz - 6

Looks better at the centre of a back 3, looking to step into midfield and move the ball forward. Unfortunately we didn't have the ball often enough to be able to do that. Any long raking balls didn't come to anything.

Holding - 5

Not the same player before his injury, as simple as that. Looks as though he's really struggling on the return from his injury and was targeted by Leicester for most of the game. Needs to get back up to match sharpness, like Bellerin it'll take time.

Kolasinac - 5

Frankly still wondering what he does during games. His one cross all match was only met by Auba because he was offside, and contributes very little defensively. One moment of defensive awareness is never going to be enough over 90 minutes, together with Holding on that side, you can see why Leicester saw it as a weak point and took advantage in the end.

Torreira - 6.5

One of the better performers on the day but no-one can screen in front of 5 defenders and be expected to stop everything before the defence behind him find themselves exposed. Used the ball as well as he could but had little to play out to. Increasingly clear where his best position is.

Guendouzi - 4

Really poor performance from a guy who's earned such high praise recently. Clearly very capable but has to improve his mindset, he hasn't made it yet. Often caught dwelling on the ball and failed to move it on well enough when he did release the ball. Youngsters go through tough periods and he'll come back, but could do with his wings being clipped a little.

Ozil - 6.5 (MOTM)

Arguably the best performer of the day. Can tell this is a guy who understands the game and just has a football brain. But what much can he do when the players around him aren't providing much option? Especially when your two star strikers could have played for 24 hours and still not scored. Tracked back very well and made the most tackles of any Arsenal player in the first half.

Aubameyang - 3

Extremely poor performance, particularly considering his high expectations. Even when not given the chances his allround game is sound, but today his passing was off and gave the ball away on several occasions, struggled to beat his man when dribbling, and couldn't seem to get into any kind of gear. Even his usual happy knack for being in the right place at the right time wasn't there with the bigger opportunities instead falling to Lacazette.

Lacazette - 5

Also not his day, missing a glaringly good opportunity in the first half, struggling to even put it on target. Passing range was a little off but could at least hold the ball up and work very hard for the team's cause so does come out of this with some credit at least.

Pepe - N/A

Willock - N/A