Arsenal suffered a 1-0 defeat against Nottingham Forest this evening, and here are our player ratings.
Mikel Arteta decided to majorly tweak his formation for the first time this season, deploying a back three and a diamond in midfield. That just didn’t work and cost us the game.
Arsenal‘s defeat today means it’s impossible now for us to catch Manchester City. Arteta’s young Gunners finish the season as runners-up.
Why Pele Is Overrated.
Arsenal player ratings vs Nottingham Forest
Aaron Ramsdale: 6/10
The Englishman couldn’t do anything about Taiwo Awoniyi’s goal in the first half and didn’t have much else to do in the remainder of the game either.
Ben White: 6/10
It was a poor decision from Arteta to deploy White at centre-half today. His usual overlapping runs around Bukayo Saka were missing, and that made life even more difficult for us.
Gabriel Magalhaes: 5/10
Gabriel was unlucky to have played the part that he did in Awoniyi’s goal, but sadly, he was responsible for it. He got into a needless altercation with Morgan Gibbs-White in the end as well, and that resulted in a yellow card.
Jakub Kiwior: 5/10
We really thought Kiwior would do fine on the left side, where he played as a centre-back without possession and a left-back when we had the ball. However, he just didn’t get forward enough and was eventually replaced by Kieran Tierney.
Jorginho: 6/10
The Italian tried very hard to get his side going from the middle of the park, but there was just no space for him to pick a pass. It was all sideways and as we know, that leads to nothing.
Thomas Partey: 5/10
Partey saw a lot of the ball today despite starting in an unorthodox right-wing-back/wide-central-midfield role, but like Jorginho, he couldn’t do much because of Forest’s defending.
Granit Xhaka: 5/10
Xhaka just couldn’t get into the game in the first half, mostly because all of Arsenal’s attacks came from the right side. That again, sadly, is on Arteta. The Gunners boss took the Swiss international off in the second half.
Leandro Trossard: 5/10
Torssard tried hard to get into the game, but starting on the left flank meant he didn’t get much of the ball. He tried to get involved by moving inside and probably came the closest to scoring. He was withdrawn after the break.
Martin Odegaard: 3/10
Odegaard has been Arsenal’s best player this season, but it was our captain’s misplaced place that led to Forest’s goal. He couldn’t do much at the other end of the pitch to rectify his mistake either. A day he’d like to forget.
Bukayo Saka: 5/10
Saka saw a lot of the ball on the right side, but every time he received possession, there were two Forest players on him. No overlapping meant he couldn’t do anything on his own either.
Gabriel Jesus: 3/10
Jesus started the season on fire and he was brilliant right after he returned from his injury too. However, over the last few weeks, his performances have been shocking, and he was really poor again today. The Brazilian worked hard as usual, but his touch was off, he tried to take silly shots and his slip at the very end of the game just summed up his evening.
Mikel Arteta: 2/10
Arteta is the reason why Arsenal were even in contention for the Premier League title, and he deserves as much praise as possible from every supporter on the planet. However, he will be the first one to admit that he got it wrong today. Sadly, the dream is now over.
