Leicester City 3 - 1 Arsenal: Player Ratings

Wenger lost his first game to Leicester City in the 3-1 defeat

Arsenal are still without a single point away from The Emirates, on the road in 2018. Arsenal suffered a 3-1 defeat to Leicester City in Arsene Wenger’s penultimate match as their manager.

Kelechi Iheanacho gave the Foxes the lead after firing in from inside the box, before just a minute later, Konstantinos Mavrapanos was awarded a red card for pulling down the goalscorer, in what was deemed by the ref as a ‘last man’ situation.

Arsenal were able to get themselves back in the game in the second half as Pierre Emerick Aubameyang slotted into the roof of the net to give the visitors an equaliser.

However, a penalty from Jamie Vardy and a Riyad Mahrez goal sealed the win for the hosts.

Here are the player ratings from yesterday’s game:

Leicester City

Jakupovic was delighted with his team's victory

Eldin Jakupovic – (6/10)

The Leicester shot-stopper had little to do but, made a few good stops. He denied Mikhitaryan a goal in the first half with a save low down to his right and nearly stopped Aubameyang from scoring with a good save, but unfortunately, the striker struck home the rebound, denying him a clean sheet.

Danny Simpson – (5/10)

Simpson’s job was made significantly easier by the Mavropanos sending off, with the only threat down the left-hand side coming mainly from Kolasinac. However, he still looked rather unconvincing, picked up a booking and was eventually taken off due to injury.

Wes Morgan – (7/10)

Before kick-off, Morgan was not a welcomed name on the team-sheet as the majority of Foxes fans would have preferred to have seen Dragovic start. However, he put in a solid shift. Although Arsenal were mainly on the back foot due to having 10 men, he still did his job well in the center of defence.

Harry Maguire – (8/10)

Maguire, like the majority of this season, barely put a foot wrong. The Englishman was effective bringing the ball out from defence and did a great job of keeping Aubameyang quiet, for most of the night anyway.

Maguire put in another fantastic performance for the Foxes

Christian Fuchs – (6/10)

The bulk of Arsenal's threat was through midfield, meaning it was a night where Fuchs had more freedom to attack, with little worry of being caught in behind. However, he was beaten easily as Maitland-Niles who set up Aubameyang for Arsenal's equaliser.

Hamza Choudhury – (7/10)

The midfielder seems to be a fan favourite at the King Power, and you can see why. Choudhury was comfortable in possession and never panicked, helping his side dominate the ball against 10 man Arsenal.

Adrien Silva – (7/10)

Silva has had an extremely difficult first season in England, failing to make an impact in most of the games he’s played. But tonight, he looked back to his best. He worked extremely hard in midfield and dictated the play and most Leicester attacks.

Riyad Mahrez – (8/10)

Mahrez caused the Arsenal defence havoc all night and finally got the breakthrough with a goal right at the end. The Algerian has magnificent feet, and it left the Arsenal defender’s clueless on a number of occasions.

Mahrez patted the Leicester badge as he thanked the fans for their support

Fousseni Diabate – (6/10)

Diabate did extremely well to nod the ball down for Iheanacho in Leicester's opening goal, giving him an assist, but he wasn’t one of the Foxes’ better players in an attacking sense. He failed to get in the game as much as his fellow winger Mahrez and was taken off for Gray.

Kelechi Iheanacho – (8/10)

Iheanacho stayed calm and collected to finish when the ball fell to him in the box after 14 minutes, and his determination to shut down Mavrapanos led to his sending off. He made some mistakes sometimes on the counter-attack and was rather greedy at times, but overall it was a very good night for the Nigerian international.

Jamie Vardy – (8/10)

As he usually does against Arsenal, Vardy looked threatening all evening. And unsurprisingly, he picked up his sixth goal in seven matches against the Gunners, scoring from the penalty spot.

The Englishman slotted home the penalty to give Leicester a 2-1 lead after 76 minutes

Substitutes:

Demarai Gray – (7/10)

Off the bench, the substitute made an immediate impact as he won the penalty for Leicester, which turned out to be a crucial point in the match, helping his team go on to win the match.

Aleksander Dragovic – (N/A)

The center back was brought on for the injured Danny Simpson but had very little time to have either a positive or negative impact.

Harvey Barnes – (N/A)

The youngster was gifted his Premier League debut from the bench with just two minutes plus stoppage time to play.

Arsenal

Petr Cech – (6/10)

The Arsenal goalkeeper pulled off a number of stops in the first half, but could not keep out Iheanacho's opening goal for the Foxes, and did nothing wrong for neither the penalty or Mahrez’s goal.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles – (7/10)

Maitland-Niles was probably Arsenal’s best defender on the night. He did well filling in at full-back, especially with the onslaught from Leicester after the Mavropanos sending off. And even more, he did well to cross for Aubameyang as he scored Arsenal’s equaliser.

Rob Holding – (5/10)

Like the rest of the season when the Englishman has been given a chance in the Arsenal line-up, Holding looked very unconvincing and a shadow of the man who played so brilliantly in the FA Cup final just under a year ago.

Konstantinos Mavropanos – (3/10)

The young defender has been a fan favourite in his first two games for the Gunners, but the defender saw red after just 15 minutes, somewhat harshly, for pulling down Iheanacho. It was a night to forget for the young Greek center back.

Sead Kolasinac – (6/10)

Kolasinac struck the post early in the second half and has great feet for such a big guy, but defensively he does leave Arsenal exposed, which is always going to be a problem in an Arsenal defence which is already so expansive.

Granit Xhaka – (5/10)

In the second half of the season, Xhaka has been one of Arsenal's best players. But tonight, with the Mavropanos sending off, the Swiss international struggled to get going and could not dictate the tempo.

Aaron Ramsey – (5/10)

Similar to Xhaka, Ramsey has been fantastic for the Gunners in the second half of the season, but tonight he was well below par and rather disappointing, even with the sending off.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan – (5/10)

The Armenian was one of the main sources of chances for the Gunners in the first half. As the game wore on though, his impact petered out and he seemed to tire, making poor choices with the ball in attack. And even more, he made a silly mistake of lunging in to gift Leicester a penalty for their winner.

Alex Iwobi – (7/10)

Occupying a role much deeper than usual, similarly to how he did against Burnley, Iwobi was by far Arsenal's most influential player in attack, which is good to see after what has been a very difficult season for the Nigerian youngster.

Danny Welbeck – (N/A)

Unfortunately for a man who is desperate for a World Cup place in the England squad, Welbeck was forced off extremely early due to the Mavropanos sending off.

Pierre Emerick Aubameyang – (7/10)

Arsenal's record signing was clearly struggling to get involved, unsurprisingly with his team most of the defending and being down to 10 men. But as usual, he was still able to pop up with a goal for the Gunners, firing in a rebound from his own shot.

Substitutes:

Shkodran Mustafi – (5/10)

Mustafi did not always look comfortable and as the clock wound down it looked like a matter of time before the Arsenal defence would buckle, which it did.

Eddie Nketiah – N/A

The young Arsenal striker was given just six minutes to make an impact, and as much as he tried, could not affect the score-line.

Edited by Akhilesh Tirumala