Player Ratings as Arsenal keep clean sheet Ozil MotM

By Boris & Matty
February 1 2015

It was a freezing cold day at the Emirates, but as we sat in the pub afterwards we all felt a warm glow, and that was before any serious drinking. Everyone agreed it had been a sheer pleasure to watch, and what a genius Ozil was. Yes Villa were pants, but they had a couple dangerous shots and Ospina snuffed them both out. It wasn't as if Arsenal had to put themselves out, and it could easily have been more than five, but all the goals were a joy to watch, even Akpom creating a penalty and Cazorla scoring it. Ozil's pass for the first goal was hopefully the death knell of crab football, it reminded me of Arsenal at their prime. Bellerin's goal was an added bonus. It was one delight after another. Enough of me, let's move on to Matty's player ratings:

Ospina - 7. Mint point blank save off Weimann in the first half, mint save off Westwood in the second half, claimed a number of crosses. Didn't have much to do but did it all well.

Bellerin - 8. Sound defensively and a mint finish for his first ever goal.
Mertesacker - 7. Didn't give Benteke a sniff.
Koscielny - 7. Too easy for him.
Monreal - 7. Sound defensively.

Coquelin - 7. Worked hard and defended well. Hope his contract is sorted soon.
Ramsey - 7. Worked hard and was always involved.

Walcott - 7. Still rusty, but always a threat. A top quality finish for his goal. Get his extension sorted soon!
Cazorla - 8. Got lucky with his penalty but otherwise quality throughout.
Ozil - 9. Brilliant flicked through ball for Giroud's goal, composed finish for his goal. Very good from him.

Giroud - 8. Mint finish for his goal, and a great through ball for Ozil's. Good performance from the big man.

Subs:

Rosicky - 6. Didn't do much but tried to get involved and keep the tempo up.
Akpom - 7. Fast, lively and his movement is very good. Did excellently to win the penalty. Unlucky not to score twice. Promising future ahead of him, hope he signs a new deal soon.

Flamini - N/A. Didn't see the point bringing him on at all, surely giving Gabriel 10-15 minutes would've been more beneficial?

We battered them and should've been at least 3 goals up at half time, but we came out in the second half and made up for it. I love the fact there were five different goalscorers. One man team my Arsenal! Four of our goals were very, very good quality as well. We looked deadly on the counter attack. Of course, all of this was helped by the fact Aston Villa were atrocious throughout.

More player ratings and discussion here