The month of February was bloody unbelievable for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who shrugged off considerations over their goalscoring skill by discovering the again of the online a whopping 18 instances.
All of these objectives got here within the Premier League, main the Gunners to a most 12-point return, although they did draw a clean away at Porto within the Champions League after a quite weird change of method.
They had been so unhealthy in Portugal that they did not register a shot in goal – a statistic all of the extra bewildering contemplating they did nothing however assault in opposition to Liverpool, West Ham United, Burnley and Newcastle United.
Arsenal are entrance and centre of the Premier League title race consequently, and had a lot of standout performers in February who helped take them to the subsequent stage.
Honourable mentions
It was a very respectable month for Leandro Trossard and Jorginho, who exterior of nameless showings in opposition to Porto, confirmed simply how precious they’re to Arsenal.
The latter even scooped 90min’s participant of the match awards in opposition to Liverpool and Newcastle, along with his common ranking for the month solely introduced down by a brief cameo away at Burnley.
Appearances: 5
Common ranking: 7.2 (6,9,9,5,7)
Participant of the Match: 0
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard hasn’t hit the goalscoring heights of final season (15 Premier League objectives with no penalties) however he put in a few excellent shows in February.
Particularly, the Norwegian was at his good finest as Arsenal dismantled West Ham at London Stadium, earlier than repeating the trick six days later as Burnley had been terrorised at Turf Moor.
Appearances: 5
Common ranking: 7.2 (7,9,8,5,9)
Participant of the Match: 0
William Saliba has been labelled the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of Arsenal’s defence, however it’s associate Gabriel who actually stood out in February.
Minus an ineffectual show in opposition to Porto – the place each Gunners participant bar one struggled – the Brazilian was excellent, significantly impressing in opposition to West Ham and Newcastle.
Appearances: 5
Common ranking: 7.4 (7,7,8,6,9)
Participant of the Match: 0
The longstanding criticism of Kai Havertz is that he does not rating sufficient objectives and does not supply Arsenal sufficient in midfield.
Importantly, the German has the backing of Arteta, and judging by his February shows he is more likely to have an important position to play between now and the top of the season.
Havertz scored twice in February, in opposition to Burnley and Newcastle, and was additionally very efficient in opposition to Liverpool.
Appearances: 5
Common ranking: 7.8 (7, 9, 9, 5, 9)
Participant of the Match: 1
It is true Kurt Angle is the one Olympic gold medalist (with a damaged freakin’ neck, anyway) in WWE historical past and it is true Bukayo Saka is within the type of his life proper now.
The 22-year-old has scored seven objectives in his 5 Premier League video games, and he turned in three 9/10 performances in a superb February. In another month, Saka would positively have been Arsenal’s standout performer, however on this event…
Appearances: 5
Common ranking: 8.4 (8,10,8,7,9)
Participant of the Match: 2
…he is been outshone by the sensational Declan Rice.
Signed for £105m, a report payment for a British participant, Rice had so much to show on the Emirates Stadium (with many saying he wasn’t as much as it as a result of he hadn’t performed Champions League soccer), but he is in some way now trying like a little bit of a discount.
Rice was colossal in all 5 of Arsenal’s video games in February – he was the one participant to stamp any sort of authority on Porto – and deservedly picked up two of 90min’s participant of the match awards.
His actual standout show was at West Ham, the place he scored a stupendous long-range aim to rub extreme quantities of salt into some very open East Finish wounds.
