[Player Ratings] Stoke 3-2 Arsenal: Gunners Made To Pay For Shambolic First Half

Arsenal slumped to a hugely disappointing 3-2 loss to Stoke City on Saturday afternoon thanks largely to some shocking defending during the opening 45 minutes that gifted the hosts a 3-0 half time lead.

Goals from Santi Cazorla (pen) and Aaron Ramsey got us back in the game at 3-2 with 20 minutes to play but Calum Chambers sending off knocked the stuffing out of us and we couldn’t force the equaliser with 10-men.

Here are my ratings from the game:

Martinez 5/10 | Perhaps not directly at fault for any of the goals but looked far less assured than in previous games. Probably because of the shaky defence in front of him.

Bellerin  4/10 | Disappointing. Played his part in the opening goal and looked out his depth to be honest. Subbed at the break.

Chambers  4/10 | Back in central defence but failed to fill Koscielny’s boots. At fault for the first got sent off for a needless second yellow.

Mertesacker  4/10 | Looks a shadow of a player without Koscielny next to him. Nowhere to be seen for the second goal.

Gibbs  5/10 | Failed to cut out the crosses for the first two goals and was given a real tough time all afternoon.

Flamini  5/10 | Failed to offer any sort of protection to the defence during the entire first half. Won the penalty though.

Ramsey  6/10 | Passing was still suspect but he ended his scoring drought with a wonderful volley.

Oxlade-Chamberlain  5/10 | In and out the game but tried his best to make things happen.

Alexis  6/10 | Worked hard and battled against some rough treatment, particularly form Charlie Adam, but just wasn’t his day. Missed a sitter early in the second half.

Cazorla  6/10 | Scored the penalty and was neat on the ball in the second half, without really creating too much.

Giroud  4/10 | Missed a glorious chance to head us level at 1-0 but fluffed it. Got roughed up by Shawcross too easily too.

Subs:

Welbeck 5/10 | On at half time but failed to make any real impact.

Podolski 4/10 | Barely touched the ball in the half hour he was on.

Campbell N/A

The pressure is back on the manager following today’s disastrous performance and Wenger, as well as the players, need to take a long hard look at themselves for that first half display. Thankfully, we got away with it to some extent as Liverpool and Tottenham both dropped points at home but we need to bounce back with a positive result at Galatasaray on Tuesday.

You can watch highlights and the goals from the game here

What were your ratings from the game?