Match Ratings: Leicester City vs Arsenal

Leicester City 0 Arsenal 2

The Foxes time in their most victorious cup tournament has come to an early end. Brendan Rodgers decided to rotate all starting 11 from the previous match against Burnley and it really showed the divide between the two sides. It’s not all doom and gloom though, as our next opponents would have been Liverpool in a fixture that probably would’ve been played 3 days after our match against Manchester City on Sunday, so while historically it is a loss, I’ll call it a win against fixture congestion!

Danny Ward -10,000 / 10

My first celebrity rate-em comes from our very own Michael Franca, who enthusiastically submitted this score. Frankly, I’m inclined to agree. After making a stellar save from a great shot outside the box, he didn’t do much of anything. Their first goal he got the save with the entirely wrong hand, placing it back at Pepe’s feet, and allowing him to shoot it spectacularly off the post and into Christian Fuchs’ shins and into the net. His second mirrored a sloth on the run from a jaguar, which I should note is a main predator and not what I’d akin Eddie Nketiah to.

Daniel Amartey 5/10

The man has played twice since being injured for almost two years, I can’t be critical of that. He played a role the team needed him to, and earned some match fitness. He was incredible on the right just before tho injury, defensively I’ll add, and will be a nice utility player for any depth/injuries that may occur.

Wes Morgan 7/10

Possibly fouled in the build up of the second goal, but the skipper did everything he could winning 5 aerials and 2 interceptions, clearances, and blocked shots. He even made a goal-line clearance that would have beaten Danny.

Christian Fuchs 3/10

My lowest rating yet this season. He was poor before the own goal, and was worse after. He seems to be getting very streaky in form in his veteran years, and I’m inclined to think not getting many starts or playing in his correct position is to partially blame.

Luke Thomas 6/10

While he did not have his usual offensive output we saw at the end of last season, he did a good job defending Arsenal’s most expensive and often benched player Pepe. It’s a damn good thing Pepe isn’t English, otherwise he’d be getting wrung out to dry every week like Harry Maguire.

Hamza Choudhury 5/10

He is in the squad to win the ball back and pass it to a creator, unfortunately, James Maddison was always halfway up the pitch, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall isn’t remotely as good a passer as Youri Tielemans. Not a criticism, because who really is, but that is where everything slowed down today.

Kiernan Dewsbury- Hall 5/10

Not the dream debut he probably wanted to for the club, but Arsenal basically played their starting defense and he struggled to beat that and their press. He did make 4 key passes, but blasted a shot well wide.

James Maddison 6/10

Hard to impress when you get little ball service and are sent out wide AGAIN. He is not a winger and Brendan shan’t use him there in a match that matters now we’ve got two actual wingers. Glad he got some match minutes and should be back with us soon in the starting 11.

Marc Albrighton 6/10

Not a game well suited for him either, although his best pass of the match was met by a terribly inaccurate header from Ayoze Perez. That pass and his 5 total tackles earned him his rating, outside of that, I don’t think he made much of an impact on the right.

Demarai Gray 3/10

Trying to do too much and getting dispossessed is the name of his game these days. He was robbed of the ball 4 times and made little impact on the left or right side of the pitch. He seemed to have free roam to try and spark some offense, but of his 3 shots only 1 was on target and a relatively easy save for Bernd Leno. It’s hard to see what talent that is/was there ever coming to fruition for him in a Foxes shirt.

Kelechi Iheanacho 4/10

There were some really “Nacho” moments in this one, with my favorite being him missing an easy chance from an offside position, but mainly summed up into what whoscored.com calls UnsTouches or “bad touch” of which he had 5.

Dennis Praet and Ayoze Perez came off the bench and didn’t do much to help the cause. We might have made it into a shootout had Perez managed to put his header on target, but it wasn’t meant to be. Pre-match I would’ve settled for a loss, but I wish it would’ve been more of a struggle for Arsenal, who did very little to deserve the scoreline they got.