MIKEL ARTETA rolled the dice with a five-man defence that matched Chelsea’s setup in Wednesday night’s London derby.
While Kieran Tierney showed his class with a stonking performance on the left flank, Bukayo Saka looked unsuited to the role on the right.
The 1-0 win for the Gunners against a poor Chelsea side came courtesy of an early Emile Smith Rowe finish.
Here, SunSport’s Marc Mayo delivers his verdict on the Arsenal players.
Bernd Leno – 8
Made himself big to help put off Kai Havertz with the German clean through early on.
Later tipped a goalbound Kurt Zouma header onto the bar at the death.
Rob Holding – 7
Stood up to Mason Mount and came out on top in a key battle.
Gabriel Magalhaes – 6
In the right place to deal with Chelsea’s crosses, albeit with no striker to worry about for much of the game.
Guilty of the odd dodgy pass in his own final third.
Pablo Mari – 6
An unenforced error that gifted Havertz’s sitter at 0-0 gave a sense of the all too familiar for Gunners fans. Settled down afterwards.
Bukayo Saka – 5
Started in an unfamiliar right-wing-back role and naturally lacked that experience in dealing with tight defensive situations. Often left isolated which didn’t help.
Mohamed Elneny – 6
Pushed higher than Thomas Partey on the press and his energy was an asset, yet he could have done more to help defend out wide.
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Thomas Partey – 5
Took an age to get into the game and was guilty of cumbersome touches and wayward passes. Dug deep and improved in the latter third.
Kieran Tierney – 8
Can play left-back, left-wing-back, almost certainly left-midfield and probably even as a left-striker too.
Asked by Mikel Arteta to do all of the above against Chelsea and matched his gusto with guile and composure.
Emile Smith Rowe – 7
Scored the only goal with basically his first touch of the game, even if his winner looked to have trickled in off his standing foot.
Arsenal’s lack of counter potential meant it was not really his game until space opened up late on.
Martin Odegaard – 6
Busy on and off the ball, but like Smith Rowe didn’t do enough to create counter opportunities and ease the pressure off the backline.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 6
Looked sharper than in recent weeks and showed his intelligence by rolling back the ball for Smith Rowe to score the opener. That was about it.
Substitutes
Hector Bellerin – 7
Bombed up and down the right flank to be a big help at both ends. Injured himself with a fine stretching diversion to prevent a Chelsea chance.
Alexandre Lacazette – N/A
Came on for Aubameyang after 80 minutes.
Calum Chambers – N/A
Late replacement for Bellerin.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
