the Express<\/a>.<\/p>\nWilliam Saliba, 6 –<\/strong> Seemed uncertain at times on the ball, but encountered minimal difficulties when required to defend against a rather blunt Sporting offensive.<\/p>\nGabriel, 6 – <\/strong>Like his reliable centre-back colleague, the Brazilian remained composed whenever duty called in defensive situations. Will face considerably tougher challenges ahead if Arsenal are to achieve their ambitions.<\/p>\nRiccardo Calafiori, 5 –<\/strong> Arguably the most pressured of Arsenal’s defensive line, with Suarez, Francisco Trincao and Geny Catamo combining effectively. Was given a torrid time for the opportunity that Suarez fashioned late on and would have felt fortunate to leave Lisbon without conceding.<\/p>\nMartin Zubimendi, 6 – <\/strong>Believed he had opened the scoring with an elegant strike from the box’s edge, but the jubilation was short-lived when an offside during the build-up was confirmed.<\/p>\nDeclan Rice, 6 –<\/strong> Kept the midfield engine running and was always ready to thwart Sporting’s counterattacks. He is vital to Arsenal’s game plan.<\/p>\nMartin Odegaard, 5 – <\/strong>Arsenal supporters must have been holding their breath when the captain appeared to suffer another injury during the second half. However, his influence on the match was minimal, and Arsenal missed Eberechi Eze’s creativity in the attacking third.<\/p>\nNoni Duke, 6 – <\/strong>With news that Bukayo Saka was out due to injury, he had an opportunity to make a mark and did find himself in some promising positions.<\/p>\nViktor Gyokeres, 5 – <\/strong>He was too slow to get back onside for what could have been Zubimendi’s opening goal, but he did make his presence felt at the front of the attack.<\/p>\nLeandro Trossard, 5 – <\/strong>Arteta stuck with the Belgian, and while his work ethic is unmatched in the Arsenal squad, the north London side needed more firepower upfront. The introduction of Gabriel Martinelli came too late.<\/p>\nKai Havertz, 8 – <\/strong>He didn’t contribute much before the goal, but his swift run and composed finish were all Arsenal needed to clinch the victory. One wonders what Arteta was thinking, given Gyokeres’ continued struggles.<\/p>\nMax Dowman, 6 –<\/strong> He was an eager substitute and would have undoubtedly relished the experience.<\/p>\nGabriel Martinelli, 7.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal secured a crucial 1-0 win over Sporting in Lisbon to put themselves in a strong position to progress to the Champions League semi-finals Kai Havertz was the saviour for Arsenal late on(Image: Getty) Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal will carry a narrow 1-0 lead back to north London following a laboured display against Portuguese side Sporting. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}