Football
James McNicholas, Arsenal blogger 5y

Arsenal boss Emery 5/10 for failure to to address awful away form at Leicester

Arsenal sunk to yet another defeat on the road as they were beaten 3-0 at Leicester City.

Brendan Rodgers' team already looked like the better side, before a harsh sending off for Ainsley Maitland-Niles effectively put the game beyond them. A glancing header from Youri Tielemans opened the scoring, before Jamie Vardy added a late double condemned Arsenal to a third straight defeat.

Positives

There really aren't any for Arsenal, who have let another opportunity to improve their league standing slip. Perhaps the only source of hope is that the Europa League could yet offer a route back into the Champions League.

Negatives

Arsenal continue to be utterly dreadful on the road, and Unai Emery seemingly has no idea how to fix it. Yet another new system failed to produce the desired results.

The bad defending is nothing new, but Arsenal's inability to create chances -- even before they were reduced to 10 men -- is now a real concern.

Manager rating out of 10

5 -- Four defeats out of five in the Premier League is a dreadful run for any team, let alone one with hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. It now looks like being Europa League or bust for Emery.

Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best. Players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)

GK Bernd Leno, 7 -- After a disastrous display against Wolves, Leno was somewhat better in this match. In the first half, he made two good saves in as many minutes, denying first James Maddison and then Wilfred Ndidi. He made another good second-half stop to deny Harvey Barnes, but his positioning was off when Vardy ran clear to score Leicester's second.

DF Ainsley Maitland-Niles, 5 -- One of Arsenal's frustrations in this game was that Leicester was largely allowed to get away with quite a physical approach. That frustration was compounded when Maitland-Niles was booked and subsequently sent off for two relatively innocuous challenges.

DF Shkodran Mustafi 7 -- Recalled to the team after his mistake against Crystal Palace, Mustafi deserves some credit for putting in a reasonable performance, both at centre-half and right-back. Arsenal fans may be ready to see the back of him, but Emery clearly isn't.

DF Sokratis Papastathopoulos, 6 -- Perhaps the most encouraging moment in this disappointing game was Sokratis charging through the midfield to try and take the game to Leicester. The Greek centre-half was clearly very frustrated in the second half, and there was a constant worry he might not keep his temper under control.

DF Sead Kolasinac, 5 -- It's unusual for Kolasinac to be selected an out-and-out left-back. Today we saw why, as he struggled to get to grips with Marc Albrighton on the Leicester wing. It's been a strange season for Bosnian in which he has vacillated between brilliance and disaster.

MF Granit Xhaka, 5 -- Since returning from injury, Xhaka has been poor. In this match he struggled to cope with the physicality of Ndidi and Hamza Choudhury. He was also the man who failed to follow Tieleman's run into the box for Leicester's opener.

MF Lucas Torreira, 6 -- Curiously, it was Torreira who spent the majority of the second half as Arsenal's most advanced midfielder. He had a decent shout for a penalty when he was caught by Jonny Evans' elbow on the edge of the six-yard box.

MF Henrikh Mkhitaryan, 4 -- Emery clearly has enormous faith in Mkhitaryan, but it's not easy to understand why. In his defence, this was an awkward match for the Armenien -- after starting on the right wing he was forced to fill in at right-back and central midfield before being substituted.

MF Alex Iwobi, 5 -- The Nigeria international had Arsenal's best chance of the first half, but played in by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang his left-footed shot was typically tame. His finishing simply isn't up to scratch.

FW Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 6 -- This was another game in which Aubameyang spent an unfortunate amount of time chasing back rather than running on to through balls. Once Arsenal went to 10 men he was restricted to filling in and making up the numbers.

FW Alexandre Lacazette, 5 -- The Frenchman had Arsenal's first decent chance when he screwed a volley wide after Iwobi's cross. In mishitting the shot he seemed to slightly injure himself, which appeared to diminish his impact on the game.

Substitutes

DF Laurent Koscielny 5 -- Introduced for Iwobi (45 minutes) to help cover for Maitland-Niles' sending off. He did not cover himself in glory when it came to Vardy's goal first goal.

MF Matteo Guendouzi, 6 -- Came on for Mkhitaryan (58 minutes) to add some fresh legs.

FW Eddie Nketiah, NR -- Introduced for Lacazette (79 minutes) for another Premier League appearance.

^ Back to Top ^