Arsenal, Nicolas Pepe (Photo by IAN KINGTON/AFP via Getty Images)

Arsenal, Nicolas Pepe (Photo by IAN KINGTON/AFP via Getty Images)

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Arsenal vs Newcastle player ratings: Last summer’s dream

by Josh Sippie
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Arsenal played host to Newcastle desperate to find three whole points and claw their way back up the table. Here are the player ratings from the match.

Arsenal (Photo by IAN KINGTON/AFP via Getty Images)

Arsenal looked even more different coming out against Newcastle than they did against Burnley. Mikel Arteta made some wholesale changes, though he kept some of the habits that have become… questionable.

Most noticeably, Nicolas Pepe finally returned to the starting XI, as did Dani Ceballos. Both players had to understand what a rarity this was, given how little they’ve been allowed to play as of late. Especially Pepe, who was completely left out against Burnely.

Ceballos slid in next to Xhaka, which left a bit of a defensive void in midfield, but there was a lot of innovation in there as well.

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Elsewhere, Shkodran Mustafi kept his place next to David Luiz, with Sokratis staying on the bench.

Up front is where things really got interesting. Mikel Arteta did at last bench Alexandre Lacazette, but the resulting changes are far from what we might have expected. Rather than letting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang slip into the striker role, he was still out wide left, opposite Nicolas Pepe, with Eddie Nketiah starting up front.

That’s right, Gabriel Martinelli was benched. Meanwhile, Mesut Ozil kept his place as the No. 10. Color me skeptical, and in the early going, I was still skeptical. Newcastle had the most threats, they had the better attacking sharpness, the better defensive shape. Arsenal just couldn’t do much more than circulate the ball in a half-circle around the box and zing ambitious crosses in to no one in particular.

But hey, strong defense, right?

That started to turn around as the first half wound down. The Gunners started mounting some dangerous attacks after the half hour mark. That carried over into the second half. Averaging just nine attempts per match, they had 11 by the 50 minute mark. The big breakthrough was a missed sitter by Eddie Nketiah after a fantastic Pepe set-up, but the next opportunity, mere minutes later, was not missed, as a floated Pepe cross was nodded home by Aubameyang.

I’ll let the player ratings take it away form there or we’ll be here all day. What a tremendous second half. Now let’s get into those player ratings:

Goalkeeper

BERND LENO

GK, Arsenal

7.5

Tremendous save in the 13th off a deflection. Continued to anchor from the back and eliminate any potential stress before it could get started. His attack finally did for him what he’s been asking for so long. They produced.
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