Player Ratings: West Ham 1-5 Arsenal

West Ham hosted Arsenal for the first time in the Olympic Stadium in the hope of breaking their 5-games winless run, both teams made a lot of changes from their respective league cup defeats to Southampton and Manchester United in the hunt to secure the three points.

Arsenal started the game very brightly,  hammering the Hammers down the left flank with Nacho and Oxlade-Chamberlain runing behind the defence, pressing high up the pitch, causing West Ham to lose a huge number of balls in dangerous areas. Arsenal’s dominance became concrete in the 24th minute after Coquelin intercepted a bad pass from Ogbonna, and Alexis passing to Ozil for a simple tap-in.

However West Ham came into the 2nd half with better intentions, but a quick hat-trick from a wonderful Alexis Sanchez (72″ 80″ 86″) and a wonderful goal from The Ox made Carroll’s header irrelevant in the end with a very solid 5-1 away win for Arsène Wenger’s men. So here are the ratings…

Petr Cech: 5.5/10

Had very little to do during the game, stayed static on his line on Carroll’s goal, not much more to say.

Gabriel: 6.5/10

Playing in an unusual right-back position, he closed down Payet really well, even after going off the pitch a few times for some knocks. A decent backup for the injured Debuchy and Bellerin, much better than Jenkinson, and a surprisingly good offensive contribution.

Shkodran Mustafi: 6.5/10

Another game and still no loss for the German international, a solid performance albeit mixed with a few blips of concentration – also contributed to the scoreline with an assist, his quality on the ball is a real bonus. 

Laurent Koscielny: 7/10

A solid game for our captain, cleared the ball away from Lanzini when it could have been 1-1 and looked solid and composed with the ball all game. 

 

Nacho Monreal: 7.5/10

It looks like the 2015/16 Nacho is back, a very solid game on both ends of the pitch, especially in the first-half where he was absolutely unstoppable down the left channel, and imperial defensively. He could have grabbed a few assists as well, but overall it was his best performance this season by far.

Francis Coquelin: 7/10

Big game from the Frenchman, his work rate was brilliant and his timing to intercept key passes was exceptional. Moreover, he was calmer on the ball than in recent games and never looked like a liability with it. He deflected Ogbonna’s pass that led to the opening goal, a much better performance from Coquelin. 

 

Granit Xhaka: 7.5/10

He provided Arsenal with some amazing passes through the lines,  nicked a few balls from the opponent, showed his composure and strength to keep the ball – he dictated the play, Arsenal are so much more fluent with him, he should be one of the first names on the teamsheet in Santi’s absence.

 

Theo Walcott: 5.5/10

Probably the quietest of all the front four today, he had little space to run into but managed still to get into good positions, once misplacing his lob and the other winning a corner after a good comeback. His improved defensive work is a joy to watch, it’s really added a new dimension to his game. 

Mesut Ozil: 7/10

Scored an easy tap-in and got the easiest of assists for Ox’s goal, he looked very sharp -always available and made a few passes that could or should have resulted in goals.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: 6.5/10

He scored a wonderful goal from outside of the box, he’s got a real talent to get himself into good positions, but poor decision making stops him from having a better rating, as he misplaced a few passes that could have proven decisive. His goal adds a bit of gloss to his frustrating performance.

Alexis Sanchez: 9.5/10

We are starting to run out of superlatives for El Nino Maravilla, another incredible performance in this false nine role for Arsenal, wth three goals and an assist to his name, Reid, Arbeloa and Ogbonna were torchered by Sanchez the whole game.

A well deserved hat-trick for the Chilean, who is now joint-top scorer in the Premier League with 11 goals, same as Diego Costa. He’s slowly but surely adding his name to the list of wide players that Arsène Wenger turned into world class strikers, with the likes of Robin Van Persie and Thierry Henry.

Substitutes:

Aaron Ramsey: 6/10

Came on for the last 20 minutes, went close to scoring his goal, did a good job of harassing the holder of the ball, decent cameo

Mohamed Elneny: N/A

Came on late but didn’t do much. 

Alex Iwobi: N/A

Both came on very late in the game and had very little time to make any impact.