Arsenal vs. Manchester United Player Ratings

Arsenal’s title challenge was dealt a huge blow by Manchester United in a thrilling 3-2 loss at Old Trafford – here are Pain In the Arsenal’s Player Ratings.

Arsenal came up against injury-ridden Manchester United on Sunday, a huge game for both teams if they hope to reach their aspirations for this season in the last third of their campaigns.

Prior to the match, the Red Devils found themselves six points adrift of their cross-town rivals in fourth place. Arsenal were five points behind Leicester City and level with Tottenham, who were playing Swansea City at the same time.

United’s young striker Marcus Rashford put two past Petr Cech in quick succession in the first half, and it forced Arsenal to chase the game for the majority of the match. They managed to reduce the deficit to one twice, but it was not enough to earn them a single point and their age-old rivals from the North claimed a memorable 3-2 victory.

Arsenal looked confident on the ball for a lot of the game, but their possession was extremely inconclusive and they failed to create many goalscoring chances. This type of play will have to be eliminated from the team’s game going forward, especially with a huge game against Spurs, next game week.

Here are the player ratings.

6.3. Petr Cech made no outstanding saves against the United, as it was only Marcus Rashford who put shots in places where it was tough for the Czech giant to save them. However, he wasn’t able to stop either of those, and Ander Herrera also scored a second half goal to make it 3-1. Overall, not an especially good performance.. GK. Arsenal FC. PETR CECH

6.8. Hector Bellerin wasn’t especially proficient with his passing or his running on the offensive end, but he kept Memphis Depay relatively quiet throughout the game. Not enough attacking threat compared to what we’ve seen from the Spaniard, though. Needs some more end product and conversions between defense and attack.. RB. Arsenal FC. HECTOR BELLERIN

6.4. Arsenal’s commanding center back Laurent Koscielny was very accurate with his distribution, but his defensive contribution and aerial strength was absent from the match. Koscielny won zero <a href=. CB. Arsenal FC. LAURENT KOSCIELNY

6.0. Gabriel Paulista made a <em>huge</em> error that led to Marcus Rashford’s second goal, and it was not a good game on the whole for the Brazilian. His communication with Koscielny was very poor, and he wasn’t able to approach any of the Manchester United with confidence. Arsenal are beginning to show signs of distractedness at center half.. CB. Arsenal FC. GABRIEL PAULISTA

Aaron Ramsey was stymied by Morgan Schniederlin and Ander Herrera in central midfield, both of whom won five tackles for their team in the game. Ramsey won the ball back zero times, and was dispossessed twice in addition to not making any successful tackles. The Welshman must contribute more on paper to Arsenal’s game if he wants to stake his claim as a world-class central midfielder.. MID. Arsenal FC. AARON RAMSEY. 6.5

Arsenal FC. FRANCIS COQUELIN. 6.8. Francis Coquelin was very economical with the ball at his feet, but he isn’t a player who often changes the scoreline of a game. On the contrary, he’s a piece in a bigger system that did his job for his team today – his teammates just came up very, very short.. MID

8.0. MAN OF THE MATCH. Full credit to German playmaker Mesut Ozil for both Arsenal goals today. It was a delivery from him that led to the first goal and a volley from him that went in for goal number two. His dribbling was not so effective and his passing could have been more accurate, but overall a performance worthy of our team’s best player this season.. MID. Arsenal FC. MESUT OZIL

MID. Arsenal FC. ALEXIS SANCHEZ. 6.0. Alexis Sanchez had a totally different game from his first one against Manchester United this season. The Chilean was totally out of form and was unable to create anything on the offensive end. He was dispossessed the most of any Arsenal player, four times, and only made one successful dribble. Sanchez needs to rediscover his touch, or Arsenal will tumble out of the title race.

MID. Arsenal FC. DANNY WELBECK. 6.9. Dat Guy was on target again today against his former club, but overall he did not make a huge splash on the game. Welbeck made a lot of movements in the center, normally the position of Ozil, and it made for a wonky team shape that sent Theo Walcott into oblivion. Once again, a good touch off the head of the Englishman to give his team a route back into the game. However, not good enough on the whole.

5.5. Theo Walcott had zero shots as the starting frontman for Arsenal, which is testament to how utterly <em>dismal</em> he was in this game. Looked completely disinterested, made very few runs off the ball and did not do a thing with the ball at his feet. Olivier Giroud could have been substituted on after five minutes, it was so obvious that Walcott was out of the game. The future is uncertain for the Englishman.. ST. Arsenal FC. THEO WALCOTT

6.3. Olivier Giroud also had little impact as a striker for Arsenal, primarily because once again the service to him was inadequate. He has not scored in over ten hours of football now, and his last goal came in January in a 3-3 draw with Liverpool. Not good signs for the Gunners.. ST. Arsenal FC. OLIVIER GIROUD

5.9. Alex Iwobi was subbed on to generate a goal during the final Arsenal push in the second half. The young Nigerian was not up to the task, and he did virtually nothing while on the field.. MID. Arsenal FC. ALEX IWOBI

Mohamed El Neny looked like he was substituted on just to get some game time. He didn’t have any visible impact – he made some decent passes and got outplayed, like the rest of his team.. MID. Arsenal FC. MOHAMED EL NENY. 6.0