Gervinho's Premier League Debut for Arsenal: An Analysis

The initial incident.

Gervinho endured a Premier League debut to forget; getting manhandled by Joey Barton, provoked into slapping him and getting a red card while Barton escaped with a yellow, along with Arsenal gaining a point from probably their most boring opening day match.

Other than that incident, how did Gervinho do?

Gervinho sprints away.

1. Pace

We got to see a glimpse of Gervinho’s pace, he took on players, passed them with ease and proved a threat everytime he went forward. – 8/10

2. Skill

Gervinho showed that he had good footwork as well as ball control and dribbling. – 7/10

Positioning

3. Positioning

The Ivorian got into good positions, his participation levels were good and he made a few runs. As his confidence grows, maybe we’ll eventually see goals from him soon. – 6/10

Lacked the killer final touch.

4. Passing

Besides the red card, Gervinho had a pretty solid debut but he lacked only one thing; the killer pass/final touch. He got into so many good positions, had chances to feed Arshavin and Van Persie, but all his passes were either deflected, hit to no one, or passed the goal line. He also had a chance early on to shoot inside the box, but he took an extra touch and the opportunity went begging. If he could correct this, he could be the complete player. – 3/10

Overall: 6/10

Thumbs Up!

Not bad for a debut against a tough team in Newcastle. He could have gone to St. James Park at first, instead of the Emirates Stadium…wonder if he and Barton would be friends there?