Written by : Jonathan Lee

[Fabianski – sadly enforced substitution after 15 mins so no mark given]

Martin – 5 responsible for a second half howler that sealed our defeat, but a good second half stop that kept us in it;

Zabaleta – 6 rarely got forward but for the main part fairly steady at the back;

Cresswell – 6 got forward regularly first half but never really got any decent crosses in;

Balbuena – 6.5 good in the air and one vital block first half but contributed to second half mix up for the goal conceded when turning like an oil tanker, as usual every long ball out of defence went straight to the opposition;

Ogbonna – 7 again had a decent match and went about his work with little fuss, never looked like getting on the end of any of our set pieces and long balls out of defence were poor;

Rice – 7 worked his socks off and desperately unlucky to see the ball hit his arm with the late disallowed goal, the rule simply has to change;

Noble – 5 not one to remember for the skipper, visibly tired over last 15 minutes;

Arthur – 6 looked lively first half and got forward well but quickly faded in the second half;

Lanzini – 5.5 another vanilla performance bar a decent second half free kick, should have done better from a defensive slip having been put in clean through;

Anderson – 7 always tried to make things happen but wasted a glorious chance first half when put through, injured late on;

Haller – 6 good energy first half although wasted a decent opening when shooting way over, unlucky with disallowed goal (rightly for offside) second half, performance faded last 20 minutes;

Subs:

Snodgrass (on for Arthur 69 mins) – 6.5 a couple of decent free kicks and unlucky to see his late strike ruled out;

Fornals (on for Lanzini 84 mins) – 5.5 not enough time to make an impact, was hard to know why he wasn’t started given decent recent form.