[Player Ratings] Leicester City 3-0 Arsenal – Woeful Defence Hurts Gunners Again

Arsenal lost 3-0 to Leicester City on another woeful away day for the Gunners.

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Team News – Player Ratings – Match Highlights
Match: Leicester City v Arsenal
Stadium: King Power Stadium
Kick-Off (UK Time): 12:00 28/04/2019
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Arsenal fans will be forgiven for lacking in confidence as they prepared for another away match in the Premier League. Little in the opening exchanges would have convinced them otherwise as Leicester got off to a good start.

That good start lasted much of the first half as the home side forced a couple of big saves out of Bernd Leno. The German pulled off a string of good stops, the best of which to deny Wilfred Ndidi from a corner.

Alexandre Lacazette volleyed Arsenal’s only chance wide of the goal before a real key event in the match. Ainsley Maitland-Niles gifted possession on the halfway line and caught James Maddison with a late tackle to prevent the counter. The Arsenal right-back was shown his second yellow card of the match and was promptly dismissed.

Unai Emery made a halftime substitution with Laurent Koscielny entering the fray and Shkodran Mustafi stepping out wide. The change balanced the defence but lost another key option moving forward.

That shaped the second half. It was a case of ‘attack against defence’ with the home side with the Foxes flowing forward at every opportunity. Arsenal’s defence held out for the early period but could do little when Youri Tielemens ghosted into the box to head home from a cross.

With that, Arsenal’s gameplan was undone. The Gunners were a mess defensively after that opening goal as Jamie Vardy added two late goals to seal the win.

Here’s how we rate the Arsenal players:

Bernd Leno – 7.5

It’s rare for a keeper who conceded 3 goals to get such a high rating but Bernd Leno played well today. The scoreline would have been far greater had the German not been on form.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles – 2

He can feel a little hard done by but Ainsley Maitland-Niles must bear some of the burdens for this defeat. His decision to go to ground and make a tackle on the halfway line was a poor one and gave the referee little option but to send him off.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos – 3

Another player whose afternoon went to pieces with Leicester’s opening goal. Sokratis did reasonably well for the opening hour of the match but the last 30 minutes were embarrassing.

Shkodran Mustafi – 3.5

3.5/10 is an improvement for Shkodran Mustafi which says a lot about his recent performances. The German played relatively well for the opening hour of the match but his afternoon went to pieces with the opening goal.

Sead Kolasinac – 3

Poor. Sead Kolasinac didn’t defend well but look a little better moving forward. Still, his attacks were pretty hit or miss.

Granit Xhaka – 3

A really poor afternoon for Granit Xhaka. The Swiss international lost out in midfield but what was most disappointing was his distribution. Xhaka’s long passing was woeful.

Lucas Torreira – 5

It wasn’t Lucas Torreira’s best match in an Arsenal shirt. The Uruguayan midfielder was heavily involved in the action and received more than his fair share of rough tackles. Still, he wasn’t the worst player in the Gunners line-up.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan – 3

A poor performance from Henrikh Mkhitaryan. He started slowly but the Armenian’s day was made a little more difficult when he had to fill in at right-back. Still, he had a good 20 minutes after halftime to make an impression further up the field and offered next to nothing.

Sub: Matteo Guendouzi (73′) – 4

Barely involved.

Alex Iwobi – 3

He was anonymous for much of the first half. Alex Iwobi will be disappointed with his performance but specifically for that missed opportunity with the score at 0-0. The Nigerian international never looked confident in front of goal.

Sub: Laurent Koscielny (45′) – 5

Laurent Koscielny did well for the first ten minutes after halftime but his match fell to pieces with the opening goal.

Alexandre Lacazette – 4.5

Another disappointing performance from Alexandre Lacazette. The Frenchman missed Arsenal’s big opportunity in the first half and never seemed to really recover. He kept the ball reasonably well but just cut a frustrated figure all day long.

Sub: Eddie Nketiah (79′) – 5

He worked reasonably hard but it was a tough match for Eddie Nketiah.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 4

If Alexandre Lacazette cut a frustrated figure then Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang cut an indifferent one. The Gabon striker worked relatively hard but things just didn’t work out for him on the day.