Player Ratings: West Brom 3-1 Arsenal

We thought it couldn’t get worse for Arsenal. It just got worse. A half-decent first-half from Arsenal with a good 4-3-3 and a bit of movement, then it all turned to shambles in the second, especially defensively.
Arsenal have all but booked a place in the Europa League next season this afternoon, sending Arsenal fans further into depression. West Brom played dirty, played ugly but they did it well and deserved their win. Arsenal never really got going and the defending for all three goals was abhorrent.
So here are the ratings from a poor day for Arsenal.
Petr Cech: 4.5/10
Missed the ball on Dawson’s first goal, then made a very good save before going off injured. Ospina’s performance forces us to pray that he’ll be okay soon.
Hector Bellerin: 2/10
His worst performance in an already poor season for the Spaniard. His crossing was incredibly poor and totally at fault for West Brom’s third goal, leaving Dawson inexplicably alone. He also seems to have lost his spark going forward.
Shkodran Mustafi: 3/10
Awful in his defending, he made Robson-Kanu look world-class. His offensive contribution saves him from a 2/10, as he added numbers forward against the deep block.
Laurent Koscielny: 2.5/10
Awful performance from the Frenchman. He started well when we pressed high but got beaten way too easily by Dawson on the first goal, and struggled to get a grip on the game as he usually does.
Nacho Monreal: 3.5/10
The least poor of the back four, Monreal made some good offensive runs and a few good tackles but that was about it. One of, if not the only player to keep fighting after the third goal.
Granit Xhaka: 7/10
The best player on the pitch and therefore, the best Arsenal player by a mile. He distributed the game very well, everything went through him, albeit, the movement from the forwards didn’t help him at all. He even launched himself forward when needed, the sole positive from this game.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: 5/10
He probably has an awful win ratio as a midfielder, yet he put in a decent shift today, whether it was with his passes or with his movement, as he covered an awful lot of ground, especially for a player who was injured last week.
Aaron Ramsey: 4/10
Good first-half, with some good runs to open up spaces for Welbeck but he failed to have any real impact on the game.
Theo Walcott: 3/10
Lost his physical battle with Alan Nyom, arguably the Premier League’s worst player, that tells you all you need to know about his performance, even if his impact was expected to be diminished by West Brom’s deep block.
Danny Welbeck: 3/10
Chased his touch across the Hawthorns for 70 minutes before finally waking up, rattling the bar with a header and finally bringing something from the wing. But it was too late.
Alexis Sanchez: 4.5/10
El Nino Maravilla struck again, with a good equaliser in the box, but otherwise, it was a quiet game. He kept the ball for way too long and overhit a few key passes. He spent the second-half walking before being rightfully taken off, as he seemed to be carrying an ankle injury. An injury which Wenger termed as “serious”, let’s hope he’s wrong.
The Subs:
David Ospina: 4/10
Gave away the second goal, made one good save, nothing more.
Olivier Giroud: 3/10
Came on, added nothing.
Alex Iwobi: N/A
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