Arsenal went head to head with Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium earlier tonight looking to progress into the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup. The Gunners began the contest a bit slow and conceded a goal in the 20th minute when Heung-min Son kept his composure to score from close range. However, Unai Emery’s side responded well but couldn’t make their late pressure count in the first half.
Spurs started brightly in the second half and scored their second goal of the encounter courtesy of Dele Alli’s chipped finish in the 59th minute. The visitors held on to their healthy two-goal lead to claim a comfortable 2-0 victory on the night.
Let’s take a look at how each Arsenal player fared during the contest against Spurs.
GK: Petr Cech – 5/10
The Arsenal keeper was beaten by two outstanding finishes from Son and Alli. He was largely untroubled otherwise as Spurs mustered up just three efforts on target.
RB: Ainsley Maitland-Niles – 4/10
The Gunners prospect played out of position as a makeshift right-back and was exploited by the Spurs attackers. He tried to make an impact going forward but lacked the cutting edge in the attacking third of the pitch.
CB: Sokratis Papastathopoulos – 6/10
The Greek centre-back commanded his box well and won a lot of headers. However, he was let down by other members around him who were playing out of position.
CB: Granit Xhaka – 5/10
The Swiss midfielder did enough to put in a solid shift in defence. However, the Gunners missed his presence in midfield.
LB: Nacho Monreal – 4/10
The Spaniard was caught ball-watching in the lead up to Son’s opening goal of the game. He looked a bit shaky defensively but provided a good outlet down the left flank.
CM: Matteo Guendouzi – 5/10
He was full of energy and running in midfield but lacked the creativity required to open up the Tottenham defence.
CM: Lucas Torreira – 5/10
It was a poor performance from the Uruguayan international. He lacked sharpness in midfield and struggled to deal with the threat of the Tottenham forwards.
RM: Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 5/10
The Armenian squandered a great early opportunity to score, and as a result, he was substituted at half-time.
CAM: Aaron Ramsey – 6.5/10
The Welshman hit the post with a beautiful volley in the first half and was unlucky not to register his name on the scoresheet. It was another solid display from Ramsey as he looked like Arsenal’s biggest threat in the final third.
LM: Alex Iwobi – 4/10
He was largely ineffective during the game and failed to help his team mount a comeback in the second half.
ST: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 4.5/10
The Tottenham defenders marked him closely and completely neutralised his threat during the match.
Substitutes:
CB: Laurent Koscielny – 4/10
He didn’t track Alli’s run in the second half and the English international punished him for it with a classy finish.
ST: Alexandre Lacazette – 5/10
He got a brilliant chance to score after coming on but failed to take it.
ST: Eddie Nketiah – 4/10
He made no impact in the game after coming off the bench.
