Player Ratings: Arsenal 2-0 Tottenham

Tim Sherwood’s honeymoon period ended at the hands of Spurs’ fiercest rivals, as goals from Santi Cazorla and Tomas Rosicky helped Arsenal to victory at the Emirates in the 3^rd round of the FA Cup. Suffering from 10 injuries manifesting themselves in the 1^st team squad, the Lilywhites could only produce a lethargic display, struggling to retain possession or create clear-cut chances. But credit to Arsenal – they played well and deserved their victory.

Hugo Lloris – 7 – Made a few very good saves, including 2 from Walcott, and couldn’t have done much for the goals.

Kyle Walker – 6 – Despite seeing a lot of the ball he offered little offensively, and he was caught out of position for Cazorla’s opener. Otherwise, he had an average game.

Michael Dawson – 6 – Initially struggled to cope with Arsenal attempting to play balls in-behind but did settle into the game and overall, didn’t defend too badly.

Vlad Chiriches – 6 – Stupidly gave the ball away on a couple of occasions but was solid enough after an initial onslaught, cutting out a lot of attempted through balls.

Danny Rose – 5 – Didn’t have a great game, which was compounded when he was dispossessed by Rosicky in the run up to the second goal when he tried a needless skill.

Aaron Lennon – 6 – Very quiet in the first half but saw more of the ball in the second half, but failed to deliver on his final ball – like most of the team.

Mousa Dembele – 6 – Didn’t do too much wrong individually but the Belgian and Bentaleb were simply outnumbered in midfield and couldn’t keep a leash on Cazorla, Gnabry, Rosicky and Wilshere at the same time.

Nabil Bentaleb – 6 – Tidy enough in possession and decent in defence, but there is a very strong argument that Etienne Capoue should have played, a more naturally-defensive midfielder, to protect the defence.

Christian Eriksen – 6 – Saw a lot of the ball all over the pitch, but Arsenal’s defence marshalled any attempted balls into Adebayor.

Roberto Soldado – 6 – Did well to turn Vermaelen in the first half on a couple of occasions, and ran the channels well, but faded away and a couple of snapshots went wide.

Emmanuel Adebayor – 6 – The Togolese frontman failed to reproduce the form of recent games, in part due to Arsenal’s excellent defensive performance, and in part due to simply having a bad day.

Substitutes

Nacer Chadli – 6 – Looked lively when he came on, seeing a fair bit of the ball on the left wing, but, like all Spurs players on the day, failed to deliver with his final ball.