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[Player ratings & goals] Rapid 1-2 Arsenal: Partey & Gabriel superb but Leno woeful

By on October 22, 2020

Arsenal came from behind to beat Rapid Vienna 2-1 in Austria to get our Europa League group stage campaign off to a winning start.

We were poor for much of the opening 60 minutes as we struggled to find any fluency going forward and fell behind when Bernd Leno’s pass out from the back was intercepted and Taxiarchis Fountas opened the scoring in the 51st minute.

Leno almost made the same mistake minutes later but manage to save the resulting shot and Arsenal eventually grabbed an equaliser when David Luiz headed home from a 70th minute Nicolas Pepe free-kick.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came off the bench to win it for Arsenal as he tapped home four minutes later from a Hector Bellerin cross to make it 2-1 to the Gunners and ensure we start Group B with an away win.

Here are my ratings:

Leno  4/10 | Awful distribution all night. Gifted Rapid their goal and almost gave them another minutes later. Made a couple of decent saves with his hands but his kicking really let him down tonight.

Luiz  7/10 | Grabbed the vital equaliser with a brave header and defended pretty well overall. His pass led to Leno’s mistake but the goalkeeper has to own that one.

Gabriel  8.5/10 | Another hugely impressive performance. So calm and assured on the ball and was solid throughout. Didn’t put a foot wrong and looks like he’s going to be a terrific signing for Arsenal.

Kolasinac  6/10 | Fairly average display. Was troubled a few times but worked hard and did his best in the back three.

Cedric  6/10 | Another largely uneventful performance. Just doesn’t do enough to justify a regular place. Going forward he’s been very poor and no surprise to see him subbed tonight.

Partey  8.5/10 | A very impressive full debut. Dominant in midfield and was everything I hoped he’d be. Showed excellent positional sense defensively, broke up play, drove forward when needed and was excellent in the air. The Squawka stats speak for themselves:

Elneny  7/10 | Solid outing from the Egyptian. Kept things simple in the middle of the park and broke up play when he could.

Saka  7/10 | Great in the first half but faded away after the break. Did well defensively but struggled to impose himself at times against a physical Rapid Vienna side.

Pepe  6.5/10 | A fairly frustrating night. Showed glimpses of his quality and decent free-kick led to the equaliser but always looked like he could do more against an average defence.

Nketiah  5/10 | Disappointing from the youngster. Lucky to escape a red card and offered very little going forward before being replaced by Aubameyang in the 60th minute.

Lacazette  5/10 | No real impact up front. Hold up play was poor and he looked knackered. Just doesn’t seem fully fit yet.

Subs:

Aubameyang   8/10 | Great impact off the bench. Arsenal finally looked a threat when he came on and he made the difference after scoring the winner.

Bellerin   7/10 | Played a vital role in setting up Auba for the winner. Big upgrade on Cedric down the right flank.

Willock, Tierney, Nelson   N/A | On too late.

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