Barclays Premier League player ratings: Manchester United 1 – 0 Arsenal FC (Part 2)
Arsenal FC
Wojciech Szczesny – 6.5
It was an impressive outing from the young Polish custodian who can keep his head high after the game. While some might blame Wojciech for the Park’s opener, he wasn’t really blamed and produced two good saves over Anderson and Rooney later in the second
half.
Bacary Sagna – 6.5
The best of the Gunners’ back-four was Sagna. The French wing back fought a fascinating duel with countryman Patrice Evra all night long and was his usual adventurous self going forward.
Laurent Koscielny – 5.5
The Polish defender was responsible for man-marking Wayne Rooney but his performance left a lot to be desired. While Rooney’s turn of pace always troubled the defender, Koscielny even had trouble winning aerial battles against the Red Devils’ number 10.
Sebastien Squillaci – 6
The French defender had a decent game. While he never truly struggled, Squillaci had trouble stamping his authority on the game and was troubled by United’s midfield whenever they ventured forward.
Gael Clichy – 5.5
Clichy has regressed in the last couple of years and was troubled by Nani throughout the 90 minutes. Clichy was to blame for the Manchester United goal as he left too much space for Nani to run into.
Samir Nasri – 6.5
Nasri had been in divine form coming into this game and a lot was expected from the prodigy. However, the Frenchman failed to live up to the expectations as Evra limited his impact to a great extent. To his credit, Nasri was one of the better Arsenal players
in the second half as he tried to level the scoring.
Alexandre Song – 5.5
Not a vintage performance by any means by the Cameroonian Internatioanl as he was on the peripheries of action for much of the first half and couldn’t stop a five man United midfield from dominating the proceedings.
Tomas Rosicky – 5.5
The Czech midfielder started the game brightly but his impact waned as the page progressed. United bossed the possession and that severely limited Rosicky’s impact as he was replaced by Fabregas in the 64th minute.
Jack Wilshere – 6
The English sensation was not his impressive self on the night as he struggled to find that killer ball we all know he is capable of producing. However, Wilshere will only improve with time for he is young.
Andrey Arshavin – 5
Arshavin has been a shadow of the player who took Euro 2008 by storm and the pattern continued on the night. The Russian tried his best to open the scoring with some speculative shots from distance but failed to trouble Van der Saar with his shooting.
Marouane Chamakh – 5.5
The Moroccan was disappointing on the night as he failed to get better of Ferdinand-Vidic partnership. Also, the striker was lucky with a handball inside the box that could have resulted in penalty.
Substitutes:
Cesc Fabregas – 5.5
The skipper was introduced midway through the second half but failed to inspire his troops.
Robin Van Persie – 5.5
Van Persie tried his best to make a comeback after coming on but he is still clearly lacking in match fitness.
Theo Walcott – 5.5
Had 13 minutes to make an impact but couldn’t conjure any magic in his cameo.
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