Goals: Arsenal: Lacazette (2), Welbeck (45+2), Ramsey (83), Giroud (85). Leicester: Okazaki (5), Vardy (29, 56)
Referee Rating: Mike Dean 7. It was actually a pretty good game from Mike Dean, surprise, surprise. He did ignore a Leicester handball in the area in the first half and he ignored an Ozil handball late in the second half. Leicester fans were annoyed, but the two cancelled themselves out.
Manager Rating: Wenger 7. Why he chose Monreal to patrol the center I’ll never know, but he had a tough time. Better to have started Mustafi. Wenger did make key substitutions and two of them delivered goals for him.
Arsenal performance: Offensively, Arsenal looked good, generated 27 shots, ten on target and had 70% possession. Defensively, the team looked shaky, gave the ball away and never looked comfortable.
Conclusion: A lucky escape and a positive start to the season. Arsenal’s better conditioning payed off in the end as Leicester sagged at the end. Now Arsenal need to play against Stoke the way they did at the tail end of last season.
Player Ratings:
Cech 5: He made a key interception off a late Vardy breakaway, but he will feel he could’ve done better on all three goals. The first saw him leave the goal to chase the ball. On the second he could’ve attacked the cross and on the third he could’ve had someone guard the goal line.
Holding 5: He had a couple of giveaways which affected his confidence. He also had to deal with Vardy on a number of occasions.
Monreal 6: A tough day for Nacho, who had to deal with Vardy a number of times. He could’ve done better on the third Leicester goal.
Kolasinac 6: There were some rough moments and there were some good ones as well. A Zidane type pirouette was one of the highlights, as was the assist on the second goal.
Elneny 6: A nice assist on the first goal. He was efficient but not spectacular for most of the evening.
Xhaka 7: A poor pass set up Leicester’s second goal, but Granit helped spur the comeback. He assisted on the two last goals.
Bellerin 6: Often left Holding isolated. Offensively he played well and he had a great chance to score, but couldn’t beat Schmeichel.
Oxlade-Chamberlain 6: A typical game from the Ox. He had some poor moments and he had some great moments. He had some shots on goal, but for the most part they missed.
Ozil 6: Struggled to impose himself. He had a couple of shots at goal, but they both missed.
Lacazette 7: Scored on practically his first touch, a nice header into the corner. He looked dangerous a couple of other times, but his shots didn’t find their mark.
Welbeck 7: He had a glorious chance to score early, but the shot was deflected. On another occasion, he waltzed into the penalty area, couldn’t pull the trigger and was forced wide. He did score just before halftime, when he scrambled the ball home.
Substitutes:
Ramsey 7: He struck Xhaka’s cross home after a great first touch.
Giroud 7: He fought hard to get to the cross from the corner and his header just crossed the line. Terrific.
Walcott n/a: Not on long enough to make an impact.