Arsenal 4-2 Leicester PLAYER RATINGS: Who was the Gunners’ ‘outstanding player’? Which star should have put the hosts ‘out of sight’? And who lacked quality with their distribution?
- Arsenal needed two late goals to get past Leicester City at the Emirates Stadium
- Join Mail+ for more exclusive scoops, in-depth reporting and analysis from inside the Arsenal camp
Arsenal struck twice in injury time and recorded a dramatic 4-2 win against Leicester City on Saturday afternoon.
After a dominant start to the match, Arsenal took the lead through Gabriel Martinelli and doubled the lead just before half time after a fine finish from Leandro Trossard.
But Leicester refused to lie down and James Justin struck twice in the opening 18 minutes of the second half to restore parity. Just as Arsenal looked to drop two valuable points, Trossard resurfaced to slot in a winner via a deflection off Wilfred Ndidi in the fourth minute of stoppage time, before Kai Havertz poked home from close range to seal the win rounds.
But who were the standout performers for the Gunners? And who had a game to forget?
Mail Sport’s IAN HERBERT was on hand to judge the Arsenal players at the Emirates.
Leandro Trossard (pictured) and Kai Havertz scored in stoppage time to give Arsenal a hard-earned victory
James Justin scored two second-half goals as Leicester threatened to grab an unlikely point
Gabriel Martinelli gave Arsenal the lead after the Gunners started the match strongly
Leandro Trossard made it 2-0 just before half time after patient build-up play
Arsenal
David Raya 6 – Barely involved. Powerless to prevent the deflected Leicester goal or James Justin’s brilliant second. Good distribution
David Raya had little to do but was beaten twice as Leicester came roaring back in the second half
Jurrien Hout 6.5 – Excellent partnership with Saka on the overlap to set up the first Arsenal goal and impressive overall
Willem Saliba 6.5 – None of the central defenders were concerned. A quiet afternoon for Saliba despite the tension building in front of him, which was unleashed by Arsenal’s winner
Gabriel Magalhaes 6 – Didn’t always dominate his own penalty area when Leicester threatened more in the second half, but was a deadly distraction in the opposition area as Arsenal launched their late hunt for a winner
Riccardo Calafiori 6 – Influential box to box, with Rice left in cover while influencing in the middle. Booked after losing a footrace with Buonanotte, at fault by giving Justin the freedom to score a brilliant equalizer and lucky to have escaped a second yellow after a second bad challenge on Buonanotte
Left back Riccardo Calafiori had a number of difficult moments in the second half
Thomas Partey 5.5 – Quiet central presence but unable to find quality distribution and had to go sideways too often as Leicester packed their box
Declan Rice 7 – Consistently influential and the architect of many of Arsenal’s investigations. Metronomic diagonal balls to Saka but couldn’t apply the can-opener pass to get past Leicester in a disappointing second half
Bukayo Saka 8 – Arsenal’s outstanding player. The stand-in captain made hay on the right and made life difficult all afternoon for Wilfred Ndidi (who should have been shown a yellow card after number 7 nutmegged him) and Victor Kristiansen
Bukayo Saka was Arsenal’s best player as they finally got their reward with two late goals
Leandro Trossard 7.5 – The expressionless look on his face as he tilted his body to drive home Arsenal’s second was that of a man with a point to prove following last weekend’s dismissal. Excellent in the small space in the Leicester area. Denied by a wonder-save but troubled home-deflected winner
Kai Havertz 5.5 – The lack of a killer finish could have put Arsenal out of sight. A rejected header in the first half typified a lack of clinical finishing. Half-hearted attempt to defend a free-kick before Justin’s header was deflected away from him for the Leicester goal.
Kai Havertz eventually got on the scoresheet but was wasteful with his finishing
Gabriel Martinelli 6.5 – Threatening in moments. Well taken opening goal for Arsenal, turning onto Timber’s cross. He might have scored earlier, but a heavy first touch on a diagonal from Saka preceded a shot that went over the crossbar
Substitutes
Sterling (for Martinelli 74) 6 – Late cameo on the left but couldn’t find the breakthrough
Ethan Nwaneri (for Martinelli 84) 7 – Immediately made a brilliant impression, making one of Hermansen’s many fantastic saves
Manager
Mikel Arteta8
Mikel Arteta will breathe a sigh of relief after his team struck late to secure three points
Leicester City (4-2-3-1) Hermansen9; Justin 6, Okoli 5, Faes 5.5, Kristiansen 6; Winks 5.5, Skipp 5 (El Khannouss 90); Ndidi 5.5 (Edouard 90), Buonanotte 7 (Ayew 84 5), Mavididi 5.5 (Cordova-Reid 91); Vardy 5.5, unused subtitles: Ward, Ricardo, Coady, Fatawu, Choudhury,
Manager
Steve Cooper7
Referee
SBarrott 6
