Aaron Ramsdale – 8/10
41 games, 0 goals
Aaron Ramsdale has had a fantastic season and he continues to grow. Only Ederson and Alisson are probably ahead of him in the league – he is in a group including Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope and David Raya fighting to be “best of the rest”.
Ramsdale saved us with fantastic saves on many occassions this season, and his errors are lapses of concentration have been almost eradicated. His distribution has been excellent.
Matt Turner – 5/10
7 games, 0 goals
A tough first season for Matt Turner and at times he looked shakey. Reluctant to mark him down too much as he just did not play much, and when he did it was infront of a defence that did not play together much. Many of the problems were down to communication.
Teams are moving away from the “two top keepers” model, with one playing the league and the other in the cups. The return to a single keeper playing in almost every game (when fit) makes it that bit harder to recruit a quality number 2. Turner does a job.
Karl Hein – unranked
1 game played, 0 goals
Played once, slipped, gave away a penalty, conceded 3. Only 21 and home grown (I think). Would be unfair to mark him out of 10 based on a single performance.
Ben White – 8/10
46 games played, 2 goals
Was expected to play a duel role of back-up right back and back-up centre back. Ended up as first choice central defender.
Solid in defence, he also built up a great relationship going forward with Bukayo Saka. Lack of pace very rarely exposed. Tired towards the end of the season. But everyone did.
Takehiro Tomiyasu – 4/10
31 games played, 0 goals
Was suprised how many games Tomi ended up playing. But over half were off the bench – he only played 19% of the total minutes. Some might consider the 4 to be unfair, but I have factored in the injuries.
Missed half of the season injured, and that on the back of him missed much of last season. Clearly a talent and will be back up right back and left back next season. But needs to get fit and stay fit.
Cedric Soares – 2/10
4 games played, 0 goals scored
Forgot he played for us. And I think Fulham forgot he played for them. Has one-year left on his deal. Expect a season long loan to be on the cards.
Gabriel Magalhães – 9/10
48 games played, 3 goals
Has to be in the discussion for Arsenal player of the season.
Started every Premier League game and missed just 9 Premier League minutes in total. Is a consistent performer and provides some steel at the back. Always up for the physical battle. Claims that he is “error prone” is just lazy punditry. One of the best in the league.
William Saliba – 8/10
33 games played, 3 goals
Built a fantastic partnership with Gabriel. If he stayed fit, we would have won the league. Back injury is a concern is they potentially never go away. Only reason he is marked 1 down from Gabriel is due to the injury. Need to get him signed up to a new deal.
Jakub Kiwior – 6/10
8 games played, 1 goal
Signed in January. Looks a player. Strong, quick with an eye for a pass, he will provide great cover for Gabriel in gthe coming seasons. Will also be interesting to watch him develop in that inverted full back role. He is not too disimilar to Nathan Ake.
Rob Holding – 5/10
24 games played, 2 goals
Love Rob Holding. But if we are to consistently challenge for the league, we need to be looking for someone better.
Replaced Saliba and the class difference showed. Kiwior ended up coming in for him and the Pole looked a better proposition. 7 seasons and 162 games for The Arsenal. I wish him well in the future.
Oleksandr Zinchenko – 7/10
33 games, 1 goal
Key to our form, we are a better team with him in it. Defensive lapses were due to how he was being asked to play rather than a sign of his own ability. Injury worries were raised early in the season. He has never played more games then he did this season. Needs to build on his fitness to enable himself to keep playing at a high level.
Kieran Tierney – 6/10
36 games played, 1 goal
Tough season for the Scotsman who found himself 2nd choice to Olexsander Zinchenko, and then demoted to 3rd choice as Tomiyasu got selected ahead of him. He also sat on the bench and watched whilst Jakub Kiwior was played at left back in the closing games of the season.
Tierney is a fantastic left back, but he can not play in the inverted role that Mikel Arteta demands.
Arteta refused to change the tactics when Tierney came in, which exposed him in those more central positions. This summer is possibly the right time to move him on.
Thomas Partey – 8/10
40 games played, 3 goals
Was one of our best players, and arguably the best defensive midfielder, then he ran out of steam. Huge difference between us and Manchester City is Rodri remained at the high level whilst Partey dropped off. We were clearly managing his injury issues throughout the season. Next year we need some quality alongside him who can share the minutes a bit better. One of those you want fit and firing in the business end of the season.
Granit Xhaka – 8/10
47 games, 9 goals
Easily his best season for Arsenal. Showed that many we have been playing him in the wrong position for 7 seasons. Was pushed further forward by Arteta this season – playing in a role he has excelled in for Switzerland. Shows leadership. Will be missed. But feels like it is the right time to leave.
Jorginho – 6/10
16 games, 0 goals
Questions were asked when he was signed. Claims that he was washed up and his legs were gone. Showed he has the ability to control a game at will, and gets around the pitch more than you would think.
Reminds me a little of Pirlo and Alonso. There clubs dumped them at 32, and they both continued to play at a very high level, driving their sides to league titles, for another 3-4 seasons. Luka Modric more recently shows that being an excellent reader of the game can make up for any physical decline. Will have a part to play at Arsenal next season.
Mohamed Elneny – 2/10
8 games played, 1 goal
Two long term injuries resulted in Elneny starting just 1 Premier League game. Like Holding, we now need to move on from him. Jorginho is already a step up. As will others. Got a new 1-year deal to enable us to help him get back to full fitness. Also doing his coaching badges at the club.
Albert Sambi Lokonga – 3/10
15 games, 0 goals
Suffered at Arsenal due to lack of game time. Not really a 6 but was asked to play there when Elneny got injured. Went on-loan to Crystal Palace where he looked to have found his level before finding himself out of the team. I think there is a good player in him, Arsenal just do not have the time to polish a rough diamond right now. Expect him to move on in the summer and be a consistent mid-table Premier League performer.
Ethan Nwaneri – unranked
1 game played, 0 goals
Given his debut by Arteta at just 15. Highly rated by the club but contract dispute led him to not feature again. Will leave this summer. Probably end up as quiz question.
Martin Odegaard – 9/10
45 games played, 15 goals
This is the year that Martin Odeggard fullfilled the potential that led to Real Madrid signing him as a 16 year old. The goals, the assists, the work rate, the leadership. Baffles me some still criticise him. Only Kevin de Bruyne is better in this league. Fantastic season, now needs to back it up next year.
Fábio Vieira – 4/10
33 games played, 2 goals
I am not going to go down the route of some and write him off. He certainly has not lived up to the big price tag, but Arsenal can not just keep buying £45million players just ebcause one does not settle straight away.
He has plenty of technique, but needs to add a bit more physicality. Form and fitness of Odegaard means he rarely got a sniff, and was never able to put a run of games together to gain confidence. Will need to work hard this summer to stay in Arteta’s plans. beyond next season.
Bukayo Saka – 10/10
48 games, 15 goals
No longer should we be talking about Bukayo Saka’s potential. He is World Class now. Arguably the only right winger on his level in world football is Mo Salah. The only Arsenal player that would walk into the Manchester City team. There is nothing he can not do and just gets better and better.
Gabriel Martinelli – 9/10
46 games played, 15 goals
Where Saka leads, Gabriel Martinelli follows.
With 15 goals this season, the conversation is over as to whether we need a new left winger. He is the number one and not many are better in the Premier League. Still has a level or two to go to bre on par with Saka, but the ability is there. Adds a bit of direct play to our team.
Leandro Trossard – 7/10
22 games, 1 goal
Surprised he only got a single goal. He seemed a lot more invovled than that. Although he did get 10 assists. A solid option on both the left and right hand side and should allow Arteta to give Saka and Martinelli more regular breaks next season. Also a great asset to come off the bench and try and make something happened.
Emile Smith Rowe – 2/10
14 games played, 0 goals
After being so good last season, Smith Rowe’s injuries returned. I do not think he will ever stay fit for an entire season. To challenge consistently for the title, we can not have anyone with a history of injuries. Time to cash in before that “injury prone” label sees his transfer value plummet.
Reiss Nelson – 5/10
18 games played, 3 goals
Gave us the moment of the season with that 10 seconds of greatness against Bournemouth. But that does not change the fact that he is not good enough and Mikel Arteta does not rate him. Rarely bought on by Arteta, Nelson failed to make a single Premier League start.
Trossard was signed in January and the difference between the pair was obvious. Nelson will never be the quality needed to compete for a 1st team place.
Marquinhos – unranked
6 games, 1 goal
Only just turned 20, Marquinhos was loaned out to Norwich City in January. Was in and out of their team. Probably needs another Championship loan deal. Somewhere where he can play regularly.
Gabriel Jesus – 7/10
33 games played, 11 goals
Like Zinchenko, we raised concerns over his season long fitness having been part of the Pep Guardiola rotation policy for so long. Unlucky to pick up a long term injury whilst at the World Cup.
Not the out and out goal scorer that some demand, but his fluidity across the front 3 makes us very unpredictable. We scored 88 league goals (club record), and he was a big part of that. An out and out goal scorer would not necessarily see the team score more.
Just 3 goals against the top 8 is a concern. If we want to kick on, he needs to become a bit more clinical in those bigger games.
Eddie Nketiah – 6/10
39 games played, 9 goals
Came in for Jesus when injured and did a solid job. Problem is he only plays down the middle which made us more predictable. The other concern is that he failed to score a single goal when coming off the bench (bought on 21 times). If Arsenal are behind, Eddie just is not the man to sling on and say “get us a goal”.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 