Atletico Madrid hosted Arsenal on a dramatic evening in the Spanish capital. Read on for Layth Yousif’s PLAYER RATIMGS
Arsenal:
David Ospina: 6.5 - Went down far too early when Costa blasted the ball into the net.
Hector Bellerin: 6.5 - Continued his duel with Lucas Hernandez from the first leg. Showed pace and intelligence when breaking forward, knowing there would be space to exploit behind. Still needs to work on delivering his final ball effectively as he has a tendency to overhit, Also has a tendency to be sucked out of position as witnessed by Diego Costa’s goal moments before the break
Shkodran Mustafi: 6.5 - Headed over when well placed on the hour mark. Alarming to see him turned by Costa moments later. If he had powered past him at least you could attribute it to his strength but when the former Chelsea man’s finesse bamboozles you as a centre-half you know it’s not good enough. Booked
Laurent Koscielny: N/A - Awful to see this loyal Arsenal servant stretched off with what could be a ruptured achilles. With such an injury you fear for his long term future let alone his World Cup hopes.
Nacho Monreal: 7 - Too pinned back at times to provide support going forward Jack Wilshere ahead of him
Granit Xhaka: 7 - Patrolled the lines ahead of the defence as a deep lying midfield shield and delivered dead balls as efficiently as he could.
Jack Wilshere: 7 - Battled gamely. Booked for a clumsy and unnecessary challenge. Subbed for Henrikh Mkhitaryan with 22 minutes reamaining
Aaron Ramsey: 6.5 - Not as effective as he would have liked in the heat of battle.
Danny Welbeck: 7 - Put in a shift after Wenger opted to start with the former Manchester United forward ahead of Henrikh Mkhitaryan but lacked a presence in the box in which to threaten the Atleti backline
Mesut Ozil: 7 - For a short spell he was magnificent, spraying inch perfect balls to colleagues in the final third. But as he has so often done in the past he faded when he was required to step up, allow his undoubted talent to shine and grab the game by the scruff of the neck.
Alexandre Lacazette: 7 - Willing runner but in a match of fine margins a heavy touch in the box when well placed let him down.
Substitutes:
Calum Chambers; 7 - On for the unfortunate Koscielny early on. Poor header was the catalyst for Costa’s opening goal
Henrikh Mkhitaryan: 6.5 - On for Wilshere as a last throw of the dice from Wenger. Nearly brought the house down with a volley moments later which narrowly flew over Jan Oblak’s bar
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