Arsenal earned a huge three points yesterday following some late drama at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal managed to beat Manchester United, after falling behind in the 27th minute. Marcus Rashford opened the scoring to put the Red Devils 1-0 up, however a goal from Martin Odegaard just a minute later made the game 1-1 at halftime.
Then after some late drama, with a disallowed goal for Manchester United substitute Alejandro Garnacho, Arsenal followed it up with two late goals to snatch the victory and all three points, with the goals coming from Declan Rice in the 96th minute, and Gabriel Jesus in the 101st minute.
Read on for our Arsenal player ratings as we take a look at what went right and what could be better for Arsenal…
Aaron Ramsdale – 6 – Ramsdale only managed the one save in this game, and didn’t have too much to do. However for Rashford’s goal the England shot-stopper managed to get a glove to the shot, but didn’t keep the ball out, and probably should have done better considering Rashford’s shot wasn’t in the corner.
Ben White – 7.5 – Back in a similar role he played last year, Ben White put in a strong performance defending Rashford and forming the back three in build up for Arsenal. He managed to keep Rashford relatively quiet apart from his goal on a counter attack, and also played two key passes from advanced areas on the right, one of which should have resulted in a goal.
William Saliba – 7 – Saliba looked comfortable throughout dealing with Anthony Martial, until the introduction of Rasmus Hojlund which gave the defender something different to think about, which saw the Arsenal defender start to be dragged into unwanted areas, nearly resulting in a goal for United. Overall, though, a solid performance.
Gabriel Magalhaes – 7 – Similar to the performance of Saliba, Gabriel was comfortable dealing with Martial and United in central areas, up until the introduction of Hojlund late in the game. The Brazilian was defensively solid and Arsenal fans will be happy with his re-introduction to the team, though many will be divided as to whether he really caught Garnacho offside for that disallowed goal or just got a bit lucky!
Oleksandr Zinchenko – 6.5 – The Ukrainian made his return to the starting XI, adopting his familiar inverted fullback role. In possession Zinchenko is an important piece of the puzzle for Arteta as he inverts into midfield for their build up patterns, and he did this against United. The only negative of this was at times United could exploit that space left on the right, finding Antony in space out wide, which left Arsenal slightly exposed on that side.
Declan Rice – 9 – A man of the match performance from Declan Rice that included everything, controlling the midfield, breaking up play and of course scoring the important goal in the 96th minute to give the Gunners a 2-1 lead. Rice allowed Arsenal to trap United in their half and sustain pressure late in the game, which led to the corner and subsequent goal from the England international.
Martin Odegaard – 7.5 – Scored the important equaliser in the first half for Arsenal, as well as taking up dangerous positions throughout in the half spaces, making himself difficult for United to pick up.
Kai Havertz – 5 – The German has come under harsh criticism as of late, and a scuffed shot inside the the 18 yard box won’t help his case amongst the Arsenal fans. Made a few nice runs from that left central midfield area into the box, but wasn’t found on those occasions, and nearly won a penalty before VAR overturned the decision.
Bukayo Saka – 6.5 – Got an important assist for the Declan Rice goal, however was defended quite well on the right flank by Diogo Dalot throughout. Arsenal found more of their joy from the left hand side, and Saka was more important in the way of drawing markers away with him to isolate more space on the left for the likes of Martinelli.
Eddie Nketiah – 6 – Probably his worst performance this season for the Gunners, despite linking up nicely for Arsenal’s opener. Multiple counter attacks broke down due to a poor final ball from Nketiah, and he didn’t cause the United defence too much trouble throughout the game.
Gabriel Martinelli – 8 – This looked to be where Arsenal were causing the most problems, isolating Martinelli 1v1 with Wan-Bissaka and putting balls into the box. Martinelli got the assist for Arsenal’s opener, and was the clear danger throughout for the Gunners, attempting nine dribbles, and completing 14 crosses in the game.
Subs: Takehiro Tomiyasu 6, Gabriel Jesus 7, Fabio Vieira 6, Jorginho N/A, Reiss Nelson N/A.
Why will Havertz get up to 5.
One journalist describe him as a passenger obstructing play for Arsenal.
He put United in the game with a careless pas.
the PL is not for him. This is his 4th year and he’s still looking confused.
The best thing is for him is to play from the bench until he gets used to the system and his team mates.
Why can’t the manager understand this?
We start playing better each time he goes off. So let him come in much later to help him adapt. He’s still too nervous because of too much pressure to succeed.