- DB
Blog | Arsenal Power Rankings | 27th November 2017
Reminder: these scores are based on end product and what a player actually does to help their team win a game. Individual contributions do count, but players only receive the highest marks if the efforts help the team.
This is a list of the top 11 players who have appeared in at least half of the team’s games this season. The minimum number of games played will slowly be increased over the course of the season, but with so much rotation due to the Europa League and Carabao Cup, there are very few players who have played in more than 50% of the matches played.
First, an apology – ratings were promised for after the Cologne game, but it didn’t really make sense with none of the first team actually being involved. As a result, there will be a slight change and these rankings will now only be published after games in which a majority of the first team actually participate.
Saying that, the display in Cologne was one of the worst of the season so far and came very close to actually being in the bottom 3 performances so far. By contrast, the Burnley game resulted in a pretty good average rating of 7.4 for the team after winning with a clean sheet.
Player Rankings
As usual, the players are listed in reverse order counting down to the best player so far this season – and there’s a new name at the top of the pile!
11. Alex Iwobi (new entry) – 11 games – average rating: 6.2
On the list solely thanks to Mesut Ozil missing out due to illness. As can be seen from his average rating, Iwobi hasn’t been too great so far this season.
10. Olivier Giroud (+1) – 17 games – average rating: 6.2
Like Iwobi, rising due to Ozil’s absence, and still providing Wenger with very little reason to give him more first team football outside of cup games.
9. Mohamed Elneny (-2) – 12 games – average rating: 6.5
The Egyptian drops a couple of places this time thanks to the defeat in Germany. Unfortunately for him, it doesn’t seem like he’s going to get any league football to try and make things up.
8. Hector Bellerin (+2) – 14 games – average rating: 6.5
Simply being part of the defensive unit that kept a clean sheet in the win over Burnley is enough to see the Spaniard rise two places.
7. Granit Xhaka (+1) – 13 games – average rating: 6.7
Not doing much in the final third of the pitch at the moment, but helping the defence to a second clean sheet sees the Swiss move up one spot.
6. Petr Cech (+3) – 14 games – average rating: 6.7
Another clean sheet and some vital saves boost the big man’s score and make him the biggest climber this time out.
5. Nacho Monreal (no change) – 14 games – average rating: 6.8
Yet another defender prospering from two consecutive clean sheets and he definitely seems to be flourishing as part of the central defensive unit with Koscielny and Mustafi.
4. Sead Kolasinac (no change) – 13 games – average rating: 7.0
The Bosnian stays in the top four with an average rating still owing much to his attacking contributions earlier in the season – has he plateaued?
3. Alexandre Lacazette (-2) – 13 games – average rating: 7.2
The smallest change in his rating is enough to knock the Frenchman off the top, which is to be expected having not scored for a couple of games now.
2. Alexis Sanchez (+1) – 12 games – average rating: 7.3
Similar to what I said last time, he’s putting in some excellent work so far this season for someone who supposedly doesn’t care about the club.
1. Aaron Ramsey (+1) – 12 games – average rating: 7.4
A man of the match performance against Burnley help to deservedly boost the Welshman to the top of the pile, having helped the team to vital points throughout the season so far.
In closing
Again, it's still concerning that there are only four players who have played in over half of Arsenal's games so far to earn a rating of 7.0 or higher. Also, the highest-rated player to have not played enough games is Shkodran Mustafi – still riding high on an incredible 7.8 rating – although that might change if he keeps getting picked and the team keeps winning while keeping clean sheets when he plays.
Whatever you might think about him, the defence and the team seem to do a lot better when he's on the pitch compared to when he isn't.
