Arsenal faced off against Bournemouth earlier tonight looking to get a victory inside the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners began the match on the offensive and took the lead in the 4th minute courtesy of Mesut Ozil’s goal. Henrikh Mkhitaryan doubled the home team’s lead in the 27th minute, but the Cherries came up with a response when Lys Mousset scored with a tap-in from close range.
The second half was more of the same with Unai Emery’s side on the offensive. They added to their goal tally through goals from Laurent Koscielny, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette to secure an emphatic 5-1 victory on the night.
Let’s take a look at how each Arsenal player performed during the match against the Cherries.
GK: Bernd Leno – 6/10
The German pulled off a majestic save in the first half when he denied Ryan Fraser from scoring. However, his poor pass let Bournemouth in at the back which is why Arsenal failed to keep a clean sheet on the night.
CB: Sokratis Papastathopoulos – 6/10
The Greek defender struggled to cope with the pace of the Cherries attackers and also got cautioned for a dangerous challenge in the second half.
CB: Laurent Koscielny – 7.5/10
The French centre-back managed to block a goal-bound attempt in the first half. He also scored in the 47th minute to cap off an exceptional performance for Arsenal.
CB: Nacho Monreal – 6.5/10
The Spaniard did his defensive duties well but failed to make an impact going forward.
RM: Carl Jenkinson – 8/10
He worked his socks off down the right flank and was a brilliant outlet for the Gunners throughout the contest.
CM: Matteo Guendouzi – 7/10
The French youngster made a big mistake in the first half which led to Bournemouth scoring at the half-hour mark. However, he did well to recover and put in a solid display in the second half.
CM: Lucas Torreira – 7.5/10
The Uruguayan international put in another commanding shift in midfield for the Gunners. He did well to force the Bournemouth midfielders into making mistakes which gave rise to openings on the counter for Emery’s team to exploit.
LM: Sead Kolasinac – 7/10
The left-back was once again quite productive in the opposition half. Kolasinac was a constant menace for the Cherries defenders and got an assist to show for his efforts.
CAM: Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 9/10
The Armenian midfielder scored a goal in the first half and grabbed two assists in the second to complete a glorious display inside the Emirates Stadium.
CAM: Mesut Özil – 9/10
The German playmaker oozed class during the game as he managed to open the goal-scoring early on which gave his teammates an ideal platform to go on and secure a comfortable win tonight. He also set-up Mkhitaryan with a brilliant pass to earn an assist from the game.
ST: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 7/10
The Gabonese forward initially struggled to get into the game but came alive in the second half when he found the back of the net with a tidy finish in the 59th minute.
Substitutes:
LM: Alex Iwobi – 6/10
The Gunners speedster was full of running but lacked the cutting edge in the final third.
ST: Alexandre Lacazette – 7/10
The French striker came on to score a beautiful curling free-kick in the final quarter of the game.
CAM: Denis Suarez – 5/10
He looked very mediocre during his time on the pitch.
