[Player ratings] Arsenal 1-0 Newcastle - Koscielny goal sees Gunners through by skin of their teeth

No question we were absolutely shocking today, and we were arguably lucky to get the win against Newcastle. Steve McClaren’s side weren’t particularly great, but we were reminiscent of our 4-0 loss against Southampton. Koscielny saved us with a goal in the second half, but we really only just scraped through the game.

Here’s how we rate the players from our 1-0 win over Newcastle:

GK) Petr Cech – 7.5 (MotM)

Absolutely key for us, keeping us in the game at 0-0. He made some massive saves, and we were able to push on and get the win thanks to him.

RB) Hector Bellerin – 6.0

Caught out of position defensively and his crossing was absolutely woeful. He may be getting complacent with no competition.

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LB) Nacho Monreal – 6.0

The Spaniard was absolutely manhandled by Moussa Sissoko, and was given the run around regularly. He also stood off the attackers far too often, simply allowing the crosses to fly into the box.

CB) Per Mertesacker – 7.0

A fairly average game from the German, but he didn’t do anything noticeably shocking. Hard to see why he was picked ahead of Gabriel Paulista though.

CB) Laurent Koscielny – 7.5

The Frenchman was solid at the back for the most part – a couple of sloppy mistakes crept into his game – but his goal was obviously the game changer.

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