The Gunners endured a torrid game against Dortmund in midweek and they had to put up a better performance against an Aston Villa side riding high in the league. Just like last season at Villa Park where the Gunners scored two goals in 66 seconds, it had a deja vu like feeling as the Gunners banged in three goals in three minutes. Gooner Daily rates the performances of the players on the day.
DEFENSE
Wojciech Szczesny was relatively untroubled all game long but he made himself big to superbly stop header from Ciaran Clark to keep the hosts at bay. 7/10
Calum Chambers returned to the side following his bout with tonsillitis but he put up a sturdy performance in the back. He can also consider himself lucky not to get a red card for his innocuous challenge. 7/10
Kieran Gibbs marauded the left flank with freedom and he made his first telling contribution of the game as his tame shot that was guided into the net by Aly Cissokho. 7/10
Per Mertesacker struggled in Germany in midweek but he had an untroubled evening, making good passes and doing his thing at the back. 7/10
Laurent Koscielny is a colossus. He made a couple of tackles in the course of the game but his moment of glory arrived when he raced to make a great clearance when his goalie was caught in No Man’s Land. 7/10
MIDFIELD
Mikel Arteta was run ragged in the Signal Iduna Park but he had a good day at the office in Villa Park. He made a couple of good passes and made some interceptions as well. 7/10
To Aaron Ramsey, it’s as if we are in the 2011/12 season all over again. Rambo tried really hard to score and he had a couple of half-chances that went wide. However, his passing was ridiculously shocking for a player of his high standards. 4/10
Mesut Ozil has some under some heavy criticism from the fans and media alike but when he played in his favored No. 10 position, he had a stormer. The German schemer received a pass from Danny Welbeck and placed the ball past Brad Guzan in goal. He even turned from scorer to provider in his typical Mesut Ozil fashion. Wunderbar!!! 9/10
Santi Cazorla had his neat touches as usual and swung in a couple of corner kicks. He didn’t influence the attacking play as much as he’d have liked though. 6/10
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was very direct in his attacking play and he made a superb defensive block for a Clark goal-bound shot. 6/10
ATTACK
It might have taken him two games, but Danny Welbeck has finally opened his Arsenal account in typical fashion – latching unto a Mesut Ozil pass before side-footing the ball past a hapless Guzan. He also created a neat assist for the match opener. 8/10
SUBSTITUTES
Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere and Lukas Podolski came in and had couples of neat touches without having any real impact in Arsenal’s attacking play. 6/10 each.
Do you agree with these ratings? Feel free to share yours with your comments.
Sayonara.
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