Player Ratings: Crystal Palace 3-0 Arsenal
Arsenal headed into the game sat firmly in sixth place with two games in hand looking to gain some momentum following the draw against Manchester City. Wenger named an unchanged side with the young Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez in goal again, Arsenal were hoping to better the recent run of form which saw two wins in seven games.
The Gunners dominated the first-half in terms of possession but only managed to have one shot on target. The second-half faired no better and Arsenal failed to register a shot on target in the entire second half. The 3-0 scoreline flattered Arsenal on the night, it could have easily been a higher score.
As painful as it may be, let’s have a look at the ratings for that poor showing tonight.
Emiliano Martinez: 3/10
The young goalkeeper pulled off a couple of decent saves, it was unfortunate that the defenders didn’t protect him as much as they could have. He conceded a harsh penalty but that, unfortunately, encapsulated the overall poor performance.
Hector Bellerin: 1/10
The pacy Spaniard was caught out numerous times and managed to continue his poor run of form recently. Bellerin needs to rediscover his form and quick.
Shkodran Mustafi: 2/10
The German picked up a yellow card and was dominated in the air by Benteke. He contributed to a poor defensive showing alongside his centre-back partner for the night. A poor night for the German.
Gabriel: 2/10
The young defender lost the battle against Benteke which took him out of the game and led to the first Crystal Palace goal. He barely recovered throughout the game.
Nacho Monreal: 4/10
Tried his best to keep up with the electrifying Zaha and was the best of a bad bunch at the back for Arsenal. The fullback even managed to get forward a few times. Probably the best of Arsenal’s defenders but that’s not really saying much.
Granit Xhaka: 3/10
A generally poor performance, he constantly misplaced passes and failed to track back Palace players. Xhaka was bought to dictate play from deep but never got close to doing that against palace. On the plus side, he didn’t get sent off, for once.
Mohamed Elneny: 4/10
The midfielder registered the only shot on target for Arsenal in the first-half and was overrun in the middle of the park by the Palace midfielders. He tried hard but produced nothing. Arsenal’s midfield was poor tonight and Elneny did nothing to change that.
Theo Walcott: 2/10
Largely missing for the duration of the game, he failed to track back which put the already poor defence under further pressure. A poor performance from the winger tonight.
Mesut Ozil: 3/10
Unable to affect the game further up the field and had to drop deeper and deeper to get a hold of the ball. Against West Ham Ozil had a brilliant game but tonight, Wenger seemed to switch back to a 4-2-3-1 formation, which led to Ozil being almost invisible for most of the game.
Alexis Sanchez: 3/10
The fiery Chilean was unable to make a real difference tonight. Palace closed him down in numbers and the frustrated winger didn’t really put up a fight. Is he set to leave in the summer?
Danny Welbeck: 4/10
Had the fewest touches for Arsenal in this game and sadly had few real opportunities laid on for him. He worked hard but alas didn’t have a true effect on the game.
Subs:
Aaron Ramsey: 4/10
Finished the game as captain but was unimpressive for his cameo appearance.
Oliver Giroud: N/A
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: N/A
