Five lessons learned from Arsenal’s abysmal loss to Manchester City

4. Would be worse without Leno

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I dread to think where we would be without Bernd Leno between the sticks. Last night he was exceptional yet again, and he was by far and away the best player we had out there. This only speaks volumes of our sloppy defence that he managed to concede three in the process.

His starting position was exceptional and throughout the majority of the first half, it didn’t look like City would ever score due to his heroics. He is a keeper that we should feel incredibly grateful to have as, without him, the scoreline would have easily been six or even seven.

 3. Where was Aubameyang?

I mean, I know we’re supposed to be social distancing but, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could have touched the ball. It seemed like he was scared to get involved, which is completely unlike him.

In fairness, Aubameyang was playing in a youthful attack which he is not accustomed to, and he was playing out wide, but this doesn’t excuse him going missing. He should have taken authority in that frontline as it would have given the two young players around him more confidence.

Arsenal paid the big bucks so that Aubameyang would show up in matches like this, but it wasn’t the case. He did have a chance to score a consolation goal late on, but he didn’t strike with any real conviction. Let’s hope he’s better at the weekend.