Arsenal at Sheffield United: Community player ratings

Arsenal came back from the international break...still looking like they were on an international break. They’re disjointed, they’re still making a lot of dumb mistakes, and as a result, games against the likes of Sheffield United go this way, instead of going the way we all would love them to go, as relatively straightforward wins.

The frustrating thing is, there’s no one person to blame for games like this - Emery certainly has a lot to answer for, as he has for a while now, but on the day, at the time, the players have to execute. The players have to be able to understand what’s not working and make adjustments - even small ones - during the game to tighten things up. They have to not make dumb passes. They have to, if not overcome bad coaching, at least put themselves in position to play better despite bad coaching.

I guess what I’m saying is there’s no one point of failure here. It’s tempting to look for that smoking gun, to pour all your scorn on Unai Emery or on a single player who makes a glaringly obvious mistake that lets in a goal or whatever. But let’s face it - it’s not like a better manager than Emery is going to turn Granit Xhaka into an elite-level Premier League player, for example, or suddenly give Matteo Guendouzi the world’s best footballing brain.

Anyway, with all that in mind, go ahead and get to rating. If you can’t see the form below, click/tap here to get right to it, and as usual, let us know why you thought what you thought in the comments.