Gunners’ strike ratings
Gabriel Martinelli – 9
Regularly made Timothy Castagne look silly throughout the match and get into dangerous positions by the byline.
But despite fashioning plenty of opportunities, the Brazilian was – as per usual – struggling with his end product in the first half.
It almost seemed as if every shot or final pass was rushed or snatched at for the opening 45 minutes.
That changed in the second half when his delightful flick perfectly teed up Bukayo Saka for a dream return to action.
Finally looked like he had the goal to top off a spectacular performance in the dying moments, but was deemed to be marginally offside when his effort found the back of the net.
Ethan Nwaneri – 7
Bright spark in the opening exchanges and volleyed one right down the throat of Bernd Leno in the 21st minute as he looked the most likely to find the back of the net at first.
Instead it was his cutback that helped open the scoring when he placed it on to the boot of Mikel Merino to poke home the first goal of the night.
Replaced by Saka in the second half in perhaps a foreshadowing of what might happen to his role in the squad for the remainder of the season.
Mikel Merino – 8
Merino has stepped up the role of of make-shift striker with the sort of professionalism you would want from any player in your team.
He might not make darting runs behind the back four, or curl delightful efforts round the keeper, but he’s certainly got a knack for goal.
His punt towards goal took a healthy deflection off Jorge Cuenca to send it into the corner, but he won’t care – now netting an impressive five goals in eight games as a centre-forward.
He almost made that six when he rifled another effort goalward from a corner in the 60th minute.
