Arsenal player ratings vs Watford: Smith Rowe secures 1-0 win

Midfielders

Bukayo Saka (RM) – 7/10 – Got the beat on Rose a few times and it was an area Arsenal didn’t exploit enough, even if Dennis often did well to cover. Saka looked like the host’s biggest threat whenever he was found and it was a lively outing for him whenever he wasn’t getting kicked to pieces.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles (CM) – 7/10 – Showed plenty of energy in place of Partey, who missed out from injury, and made a few key recovery challenges, interceptions and tackles that got the crowd going and halted Hornets transitions.

Started out covering the left-back area vacated by Nuno and when that stopped and he moved more infield there was greater carrying and line breaking potential in the team. Strong outing.

Albert Sambi Lokonga (CM) – 5/10 – Started well but struggled to progress the ball as he would have liked with Arsenal moving their other midfielder out into wide areas. Those early neat touches and passes faded and he drifted out of the game more as it went on, with some sloppiness creeping into his game.

Emile Smith Rowe (LM) – 7/10 – Wasn’t able to impact the game in the areas he would have liked. Arsenal struggled to create moving down the left and Smith Rowe was dropping deeper and deeper to try and progress through the thirds.

Looked distinctly more dangerous after the break with clever movement infield and took his goal very well from outside the box.

Continued…