Arsenal: Mid-Season player rankings

1 of 21

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 22: Aaron Ramsey of Arsenal celebrates scoring his sides fourth goal during the Premier League match between Everton and Arsenal at Goodison Park on October 22, 2017 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) /

With the final international break of 2017 here, Pain in the Arsenal brings the 2017/18 mid-season player rankings for the Gunners.

Arsenal’s season may not quite be at the midway point, but with the break in the rear-view mirror, we decided it would be advantageous to review our player rankings thus far into the season.

The way we did this was both site experts, Andy and Josh, ranked all players who had made at least three appearances. Debuchy, Willock and Ospina were excluded in an effort to keep the rankings at 21. The rankings were then averaged. Josh wrote about the players rated 21-11 and Andy took the players rated 10-1. You can see their individual rankings at the end of each slide, and the contentious players that split opinions.

So, now that you know, let’s get into the rankings. We will start from the back, with the unanimous worst performer on the season.

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 24: Theo Walcott of Arsenal during the Carabao Cup fourth round match between Arsenal and Norwich City at Emirates Stadium on October 24, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) /

21. Theo Walcott

There aren’t many players that frustrate quite as effectively as Theo Walcott. Over a decade with the club, a couple seasons of overflowing potential, a couple with untarnished brilliance, and now this. How did it all come to this?

Perhaps it was Theo Walcott’s insistence to play striker. Maybe he lost something when he was never able to accomplish that dream. Or maybe the team just left him behind. Whatever the case, Walcott is not having the season that he needed to have to make any sort of case for himself. Not just that, but any hope that he had of finally impacting England’s World Cup squad is coming to a screeching half. Unless he leaves in January, there is no hope.

Walcott has been relegated to rotational squad duties. and to his credit, he does have three goals and an assist across the Europa League and League Cup fixtures, but as is always the case with Walcott, you just can’t help but think about how much more he could (and should) have.

Walcott is notorious for missing chances, getting flagged offside and being incapable of dribbling past defenders. Other than a few odd matches where he has looked solid, he hasn’t proven much of that notoriety wrong.

(Andy: 21st; Josh: 21st)

Moving on to No. 20.

Home/Arsenal News