Arsenal v Sunderland: Player Ratings

Reliably excellent, he made one save on the line at 1-1 that very well could have saved the game. Worth every cent of his transfer fee.  

Had a good game down the right, but might have been lucky to escape a call for a shirt pull on Watmore. Was well-beaten for van Aanholt’s try late on, but had his hair raised for the rest of it.

A good day at the office from the giant German, he wasn’t exposed for pace and broke up a couple dangerous moments with his feet and his head.

Got turned a couple times with space behind him but nothing particularly alarming. The Arsenal defense can be pretty stable and flashes of that were seen for extended periods today.

His industry and vigor earned Arsenal’s second goal and you’d be hard pressed to find a better left back in England.

Listen, he’s not great. But against sides that are a couple tiers down, he’ll get the job done. Still gave the ball away unnecessarily a bit, but he’s the best we’ve got.

Doesn’t always come off for him and he has a bit of a tendency to dribble down dead-ends, but he offsets that nicely with his work rate and positioning. Spurned a couple chances but finally made on stick to kill the game.

Worrying performance for Oxlade-Chamberlain as he’ll almost certainly be called upon often in the coming matches. Hopefully he can play himself back into good form.

MAN OF THE MATCH — Notched another assist with a lovely ball for Campbell and could have had one or two more had the finishes been applied by his teammates. Drips quality.

Again, not an ideal starter, but it’s what we have. Had a very nice finish from Ozil’s pass, and he is a very hard worker who applies defensive pressure with some regularity.

Poor own goal, but he’s made of the tougher mental stuff and responded with a very nice near post header from a tremendous pass from Ramsey. Looked to enjoy that one a fair bit.

Arsenal gained some focus when he was introduced and had one sniff that a fully fit Walcott may have slotted home. But it’ll be interesting to see if he’s deployed on the right or used solely in the middle in place of Giroud when need be.

Came on and got involved on the left side but nothing great or poor from him.

Had the shot that won Ramsey his goal and looked like he was eager to shoot a couple more times. If you didn’t catch it on the broadcast, Wenger was screaming at him to deploy inside the formation in the later stages; fun fact in case there are any delusions Wenger doesn’t manage tactics later on in matches.