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Arsenal player ratings: Aubameyang & Pepe guilty of misses galore as Gunners limp into Europa League quarter-finals
OLYMPIACOS took a 1-0 win at Arsenal on Thursday night but failed to truly punish the Gunners’ missed chances.
Mikel Arteta’s side did not sit back on their 3-1 first-leg lead and created more than enough to ease into the Europa League quarter-finals comfortably.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a number of chances to kill the last-16 tie[/caption]
Yet a Youssef El Arabi goal combined with misses from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe to make for a slightly nervy evening in North London.
Here, SunSport’s Marc Mayo rates and slates the individual performances at Emirates Stadium.
Bernd Leno – 6/10
Stood tall for El Arabi’s early effort and had no chance with the deflected goal.
Hector Bellerin – 6
Yes, the right-back was caught up the pitch for the goal but that’s the tactics Arteta wants to employ, so it’s hard to blame the player who was otherwise sound at both ends.
David Luiz – 5
Lazily caught out for that early El Arabi chance and then stood back and watched him for the goal.
Mikel Arteta stuck with the same central pairing as the derby although they played like the reserve crew.
David Luiz stood off Youssef El Arabi for Thursday’s only goal[/caption]
Gabriel Magalhaes – 6
Also lost for the route one warning sign that Leno saved and the question is whether the Brazilian has any working partnership with Luiz at all.
At least Gabriel stepped in well at other points.
Kieran Tierney – 6
One of the main creative threats, perhaps even under-used given his ability to stretch the game.
Mohamed Elneny – 5
It was a shame there were no fans in the Emirates to adoringly howl ‘shoot’ with every touch of the ball from the first-leg hero, instead it was a wholly quiet and limp showing that failed to reach the hour mark.
Arsenal lost 1-0 but claimed a 3-2 aggregate win over Olympiacos[/caption]
Granit Xhaka – 5
A fairly weak display, particularly in the second-half as he failed to show his authority during Olympiacos’ attacking tremors.
Nicolas Pepe – 5
It’s tough to judge players who get in the right positions and yet do nothing with it.
Pepe earned himself a number of good openings and was let down by his final execution every time. With Bukayo Saka good but not great right now, this was a missed opportunity.
Dani Ceballos – 7
The chief creative outlet as he supplied nice through balls to Pepe and Aubameyang in the first-half, but he didn’t last long into the second after a couple of loose moments.
Harsh to be subbed so early.
Dani Ceballos was Arsenal’s creator in chief during the first-half[/caption]
Emile Smith Rowe – 5
Painfully caught flush in the face with the ball early on and was just a bit mediocre throughout.
Taken off for Martinelli, who may now be ready to compete for his place.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – 5
Got into far better positions up front in this one than he found himself in 90 minutes before Sunday’s derby, but did just about as much with it.
Poked a great chance over in the first-half and saw two late openings go begging. Enough to get another start on the weekend, though.
Substitutes
Thomas Partey (on for Elneny, 56 mins) – 6
Was he really an improvement on Elneny?
Arsenal fans probably should expect more when the anchor man comes on and the game continues to drift away.
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Martin Odegaard (on for Ceballos, 56 mins) – 6
Bright and looked a mark above fellow Real Madrid loanee Ceballos in terms of his control and movement.
Added his name to the list of missers with his own great chance skied late on.
Gabriel Martinelli (On for Smith Rowe, 82 mins) – N/A
Calum Chambers (On for Bellerin, 82 mins) – N/A
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