Arsenal 0-3 Aston Villa Player Ratings: Absolutely Diabolical

Arsenal were deservedly thumped Aston Villa in Sunday’s Premier League clash.

Having secured their most morale-boosting victory of the season against Manchester United last time out, Arsenal hosted Dean Smith’s side looking to secure a fourth win on the bounce in all competitions.

Forget that Old Trafford win. Crumble it up and throw it in the bin. It counts for nothing now.

With all our top four rivals winning this weekend, it was vital that Arsenal didn’t lose ground when Aston Villa came to the Emirates on Sunday.

What actually happened was that a magnificent Aston Villa humiliated a shambolic Arsenal. Good luck finding something positive from that 3-0 loss. An own goal from Bukayo Saka opened the scoring for the visitors, then Ollie Watkins netted twice after the break to condemn Arsenal to their darkest night under Mikel Arteta’s tenure.

Here, reluctantly, are your player ratings.

Goalkeeper & Defenders

Bernd Leno (GK) – 4/10 – Kept Arsenal ‘in’ the game with a wonderful reflex save from Jack Grealish‘s effort in the second half, but still, you can’t score highly after conceding three goals

Hector Bellerin (RB) – 3/10 – Had some decent moments going forward, but was caught out of position far too often which handed Grealish all the space he needed to cause harm. Ignored his defensive duties throughout.

Rob Holding (CB) – 4/10 – One of every player on the pitch who was at fault somehow for the goal. It’s hard to be critical of any one player in the defence since they were all woeful.

Gabriel Magalhaes (CB) – 4/10 – On a positive note, we’ve now seen Gabriel’s worst performance in an Arsenal shirt, so it’s only up from here, right? He wasn’t atrocious, but was part of a team performance that was just diabolical.

Kieran Tierney (LB) – 4/10 – Made some great deliveries but was horribly caught out by the diverse, interchangeable Villa front three and lost his markers on so many occasions.

Midfielders

Thomas Partey (CM) – 5/10 – The best((?)not a compliment) player for Arsenal in the first half but even he wasn’t infallible. However, there were delicate touches in the central third and some effective breaking of play. He was just too deep, though. One of the few players in the team who can break through lines with the ball, it’s no good when he’s sat in front of the backline. Brought off at half time for injury.

Mohamed Elneny (CM) – 4/10 – Was this the game for him? It’s easy to argue a case otherwise after the performance, but it wasn’t the same Elneny we saw at Old Trafford. Distribution wasn’t as accurate and nowhere near as progressive.

Bukayo Saka (CM) – 4/10 – For a player of his age, there will be games such as Sunday. Nothing came off for him and he took his eye off the ball for the opener. At just 19 years old we have to understand he won’t be firing every week.

Forwards

Willian (RW) – 2/10 – It wasn’t a case of losing his focus, as that implies to he had some to begin with. Was at fault for the opener and appeared jaded throughout. Lost the ball repeatedly and was late to every pass or run. Not good.

Alexandre Lacazette (ST) – 3/10 – Missed a glorious chance in the first half where he should have kept his header down and gave away possession painfully often. If he’s going to play as an improper centre-forward then he needs a change of role. The runs he made were not inventive enough for Arsenal to create anything.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (LW) – 4/10 – Was nullified down the left hand side by the defensive work of Trezeguet, who covered Matty Cash to effectively body-block Aubameyang. When he had time on the ball he played some neat passes, but they incoherent dabbles in a match he rarely saw action.

Substitutes

Dani Ceballos – 5/10 – Saw plenty of the ball but was unable to impact the game in a positive manner when he played so deep.

Eddie Nketiah – 6/10 – Made runs in behind that Lacazette didn’t.

Nicolas Pepe – 7/10 – In 30 seconds did more than Willian did all match. Brought some diversity to the attack and looked dangerous on the ball with a few efforts at goal. Came on too late.