Originally Posted by
HCZ_Reborn
Thought I’d hold off on this until I’d seen more of the game, than the two minute highlight reels produced by Sky Sports.
Raya 8 - Made a really good stop first half, and even with the close shots that were off target, he had his angles covered well
White 5.5 - Think he struggled against Son for pace, and was on too many occasions caught too far forward
Saliba 6.5 - Not one of his best games in an Arsenal shirt, but far from dreadful either
Gabriel 8.5 - Best player on the pitch, physical and made well timed interceptions. Worked his bollocks off, and deserved to score the winner even with the atrocious marking.
Timber 7.5 - Played the more traditional left back role, physically strong. I don’t think the yellow for the foul on Porro was even a foul, yellow probably deserved for grabbing Vicario’s shirt (understandable but not the smartest thing to do)
Jorginho 6 - Looked rusty and was not up to dealing with Spurs’ high press
Partey 7 - Did better slightly further forward but didn’t have that much influence on the game overall
Trossard 6 - Largely peripheral
Martinelli 6.5 - Still suffering from lack of confidence, if he’d actually looked up after being played in he would have surely had an assist, there was plenty of industry from him
Havertz 6.5 - Chances were few and far between for him
Saka 7.5 - Won the corner and took the corner from which Gabriel scored, probably would have been on the scoresheet if Martinelli had looked up and tracked back well and prepared to roll his sleeves up
Subs
Not worth giving a rating too as weren’t on the pitch long enough. There wasn’t really any attacking play to speak of to assess any of these subs
Given that I’d accepted at the beginning that the missing players meant might have to settle for a draw, this was a welcome result. It wasn’t the kind of performance to knock your socks off, but it wasn’t a poor one. What it lacked in star quality, it made up for in work rate and industry. I’m still concerned that it’s too easy to press us off the ball in our third but in this game at least, the space wasn’t there for spurs to capitalise on it.
Spurs did look dangerous at times in the first half, and I think there were two or three decent chances for them, but given their territorial dominance. Two or three chances isn’t a shed load, though we do have to assume that City will be both more aggressive and more ruthless next Sunday.
Having Rice will give us more control in the middle of the park though, it will be about using width better in the absence of Odegaard. But that’s to worry about in five-six days, it’s not even our next game.