Man City – Arsenal: in-depth player ratings

What a great team performance by Arsenal on Sunday!

Here are my individual player ratings:

Mannone:

He was at fault for the goal, although if he had stayed on his line, he would not have been able to save Lescott’s header anyway. He did, however, misjudge the flight of the ball. Fine saves from Aguero’s and Dzeko’s shots on target. He acted calm and professional with all that was thrown at him throughout the game, which is very impressive for someone with so little PL experience: 7.5.

Jenkinson:

I must admit I had my doubts whether he would be ready for the first team at the start of the season, but boy has he been good until now! At the start of the game he was not tight enough on Aguero, allowing the Argentinean to have an unchallenged shot on goal (which Mannone saved well). After that, he had a solid, energetic, fighting performance, both in defence and upfront; including a fine ball in for Podolski at the halfway point of the first half. 8.

Koscielny:

He started rusty, with a couple of wayward balls from defence into the midfield. However, as the game went on we saw gradually the return of the Koscielny we rated so highly last season. Towards the end of the second half, he had simply become unbeatable with a fighting performance and desire to win of the highest order. He took his chance to score our only goal as a proper striker, and his strike could easily turn out to be vital towards the end of the season. Absolute phenomenal second half: 8.5.

Mertesacker – Man of the Match:

Unbelievably good performance: his positioning is just so good. He sniffs out the danger before anybody else and was so many times at the right place at the right time. He brings calmness to the team I have not seen since the departure of Sol Campbell: an absolute rock in every aspect: 9.

Gibbs:

Once again, a committed and energetic performance by Gibbs. Especially during the start of the game, we saw again that the most important area for him to work on is putting in accurate crosses and passes, once he has done all the hard work to get himself in a promising position on the left wing. But his defensive work was very good today and he made a very fine and crucial block on Aguero at the start of the second half: 7.5.

Arteta:

A very fine, yet often less visible performance by our Basque Beast. He does the simple things so well and reads the game with great expertise. Just like Mertesacker did in defence, Arteta brought calm and shape to our midfield. He also made a few fine passes today, notably the one to Gibbs in 13^th minute with which the young Englishman should have done better: 8.

Cazorla:

Cazorla simply conducted our attacking efforts during most of the game today. He plays with such ease and composure and always with a smile on his face. His vision/ability to see attacking pictures/options in front of him is fantastic, and this combined with his technical ability, makes him a joy to watch. He made David Silva look pedestrian in comparison at times. He had a number of shots on target, and the one in the 82^nd minute could/should have been a goal but Hart saved brilliantly: 8.5.

Diaby:

Abou had a good game, especially in the first half. His added physical strength and impressive timing were a necessity in this game, and he helped out our defence many times. He did not contribute as much going forward this time, but there was less need for it, as Ramsey was effectively an extra midfielder in our team. I thought he collaborated really well with Arteta: 7.5.

Ramsey:

Aaron had a fantastic first half and second part of the second half. At the start of the second half he lost the ball a few times unnecessarily, and he did seem a bit tired. However, his general performance was fantastic. His through-ball to Gervinho in the 16^th minute was exquisite, and he made many positive runs and passes. He oozed confidence and was calm and full of desire, and he worked his socks off. His energy, drive and composure in the last 25 minutes of the game was vital for us in terms of turning the game round: 8.

Podolski:

In this game, Lukas was less dominant and ‘present’ compared to previous ones. He worked hard enough and helped out our defence a lot, but there was not the usual goal-threat coming from him this time: 7.

Gervinho:

I thought he worked unbelievably hard today but lacked a bit of composure to end up on the score-sheet once again. Including today’s game, he scored three goals in his last three games and that is very impressive. Today, he could and possibly should have added another goal to his tally, but it was not to be. At the end of the game, he showed some fine footwork with his undoubtedly very tired legs at the edge of the MC box, which got him in a prime shooting position. Unfortunately, he misplaced his shot horribly, and he also did not see that Giroud was in a perfect position to score the winner. But, at least he made the runs and got himself in dangerous positions regularly, and his all-over contribution to the team was immense: 7.5

Please note:

As a general rule, I don’t score substitutes unless they have had at least 30 minutes on the pitch. If it’s less than that, I don’t believe it is possible to judge a player’s performance fairly/accurately.

 

What do you make of my ratings, and would you like to add some of your own observation? …. Be my guest!

 

Total Arsenal.