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[Player ratings] Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal: Leno the hero as Gunners win shoot-out

By on October 2, 2020

Bernd-Leno-arsenal

Bernd Leno was the hero as Arsenal reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup with a penalty shoot-out win over Liverpool following a 0-0 draw at Anfield on Thursday night.

The game was pretty poor in truth with few clear cut chances. Eddie Nketiah missed Arsenal’s best opening in the first half while Takumi Minamino hit the bar with the goal wide open just before the break.

Leno kept us in it in the second half with a number of top saves as Liverpool pushed for a winner while Rob Holding missed s great chance for us but it went to penalties and the Arsenal number one saved twice to book our place in the last-8.

Here are my ratings:

Leno  9/10 | Superb stop to deny Van Dijk early in the second half and made a string of top saves to maintain his clean sheet. Was the hero in the shoot-out too after saving twice to seal the victory.

Cedric  6/10 | A solid and unspectacular outing from Soares at right-back. Took his penalty well though.

Holding  6/10 | Missed a great headed chance to win it in the second half. Much better display than Monday night.

Gabriel  7/10 | Proved why he should have started the league game. Was solid as a rock and was very comfortable on the ball playing out from the back.

Kolasinac  5/10 | Another bang average performance. Showed why Arteta is ready to offload him.

Ceballos  5/10 | Disappointing display. A few nice touches but didn’t look 100% fit to me. Subbed in the second half.

Willock  6.5/10 | A decent outing from the youngster. Didn’t look too comfortable when he was played out wide and kept drifting in. Very lucky with the decisive penalty.

Xhaka  6.5/10 | Showed good positional sense to help break up play and kept things ticking over when we were in possession.

Pepe  7/10 | Was very lively early on when playing from the left wing. Created a good chance for Nketiah. Did his bit defensively but influence faded as the game went on.

Nketiah  6/10 | Will be disappointed to have fluffed a good chance to get on the score-sheet. Usually a killer in front of goal.

Saka  7/10 | Caused a few problems and most of our good play went through him. Still nowhere near his best but plenty to come from the kid.

Subs:

Elneny [5], Lacazette [6], Maitland-Niles [6] 

A very solid defensive display and good to win the shoot-out. Unfortunately Arsenal were drawn to face Manchester City at the Emirates in the quarter-finals.

2 Comments

  1. Gunnerpete

    October 2, 2020 at 10:30 am

    Hi, good game analysis but your ratings were very poor.Holding, Saka and Pepe were worthy of an 8 any day. I do not understand the Arteta view on Saliba either???? What better intro in to UK football would it have been to play him in the Kolasinac position so far. He would have been a big danger to most teams and unlike Koly he can pass and can head a ball. I just hope it is not because Emery signed him? Our future is in the three of them Gabby, Holdong and Saliba with Marni and Luiz as back up. Finally, what the bloody hell is Kroenke and his son doing by not giving the money to the buyers to get Partey and Ouar now and get money back by sales later? Do they want to win the league or just finish in the top four? It sickens an old Gunner like me to see teams like Chelski, Liverpool, Manure and City knocking out a few hundred million with ease and us going around with a begging bowl.

  2. Maurice Singer

    October 2, 2020 at 11:27 am

    Pepe gets a 5 from me. You know the saying”full gas in neutral” Pepe did a lot of “revving up” but didn’t actually get anywhere

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