Brentford will play the second of their back-to-back league games against us on Friday evening, albeit the two games will be 74 years apart. Our 1-0 victory at Griffen Park in May 1947 was the Bee’s last game before being relegated from the top flight to which they only now return. In between, they sank to the fourth tier more than once, most recently in 2008-09.
That 1947 victory was memorable. It featured the only Arsenal goal by the first Irishman to play in Serie A, You get a bonus point if you knew that was Paddy Sloan, later of Milan, Torino, Udinese and Brescia.
It was — and at point of writing still is — only our second win in ten league games against Brentford, with the first not coming until the eighth encounter. The Bees had the hex on the great Arsenal sides of the 1930s which failed to beat them in the three seasons from 1935-36. Having lost the away game in the 1938-39 season, we finally secured the elusive first league victory, at Highbury in May 1939. Alf Kirchen scored one of the goals. Another bonus point if you knew he is the only Arsenal player to be a double England international in football and clay-pigeon shooting.
Our only encounter with Brentford during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II was a League Cup Third Round tie at the Emirates in September 2018. A Danny Welbeck brace and a late goal from Laca provided the 3-1 win in which a barely 18-year old Emile Smith Rowe made his first senior start and second senior appearance.
Griffens
ESR wore 55 on his shirt that day; he will sport 10 in the new and compact Brentford Community Stadium on Friday evening. The innovative, hexagonal stadium, shoehorned into a 7.7-acre site bounded by three railway lines, holds just 17,250 spectators, the fewest in the Premier League. Our ticket allocation is 10%. The club is saying that Gunnersbury, appropriately enough, is the most convenient tube station for away fans.
Brentford left Griffen Park a mile away last year after 115 seasons. The ground took its name from the emblem of Fuller, Smith and Turner, the Chiswick brewer that once owned the orchard where the stadium was built. It was famously the only English league football ground to have a pub on every corner.
Some ‘holics may remember the mini-media frenzy in the Spring of 1985 around reports of sightings of the Brentford Griffen, allegedly a descendent of the mythical beast that folklore says King Charles II gave to his mistress Nell Gwyn, but which escaped and ended up living on the Brentford Ait. All fake news, of course, when fake news was just hoaxes.
Benhamball
Owner Matthew Benham is a numbers man. The banker turned sports betting mogul read Physics at Oxford in the late-1980s and has supported Brentford since childhood. He acquired the club in 2012 in return for writing off a £500,000 loan that had enabled fan ownership in 2007. Benham also owns Danish club FC Midtjylland where he honed the statistically-based modelling and sabermetrics approach pioneered in baseball (‘moneyball’) that are cornerstones of his football philosophy.
At Brentford, he scrapped the club’s Academy and U-23 team in favour of a ‘B’ side as a part of a player development strategy that involves identifying underappreciated but physically strong young talent that fits a position profile, then developing it and selling it on to larger clubs at a significant profit. This approach let him shop on ascending rungs of the quality ladder, improving the team in the interim, a virtuous circle that lifted Brentford into the Premiership.
Ollie Watkins, for example, was bought from Exeter City as a 21-year old for £6 million and sold three years later to Aston Villa for £20 million. Saïd Benrahma was acquired from Nice at 22 for £1.5 million and sold to West Ham two and a half years later for £20 million, plus a £3.5 million loan fee in the interim. Their much-admired successor, not least by many in this establishment, Ivan Toney, was brought in at the start of last season from Peterborough for less than £5 million and is now valued at approaching £25 million.
Toney missed the Bee’s final pre-season match, a win over Valencia, with a ‘minor, minor’ injury. He will line up on Friday evening along with the latest recruits to the production line, 23-year old Norwegian international centre half, Kristoffer Ajer, bought from Celtic in the summer for a club-record £13.5 million, and similarly aged Nigerian central midfielder Frank Onyeka, signed from sister club FC Midtjylland for £8.5 million. A late recruit, 24-year-old winger Yoane Wissa from Lorient, may make the bench.
Manager Thomas Frank likes to field an attacking 4-3-3 formation. Yet he deployed a back three at the tail end of last season to consolidate a top-four position, sticking with it to the successful conclusion of the play-offs. Brentford lined up in a 3-4-3 against Valencia, but Frank switched to 3-5-2 after halftime, with Oneyeka coming on to boss the midfield and score the winner. That is likely how Frank will set out his team on Friday evening. It will be one full of attacking intent for its big day back in the big time.
Arsenal
An attacking 4-3-3 is where Mikel Arteta reportedly wants his still-far-from-new-look side to end up, but will start the season continuing with 4-2-3-1. In his pre-match press conference, Arteta was realistic about how long reconstructing the team might take but still hoped for additions and departures by the close of the transfer window at the end of the month.
Partey (ankle), Gabriel (knee) and Nketiah (ankle) are off-games. Holding seemingly faces a late fitness test. Martinelli is a late returnee from the Olympic Games. Our other golden boy, Saka, may be too recently returned from his post-Euros holidays to start. Xhaka, also, is back from his Roman holiday, and only too likely to start.
The big decisions for Arteta are who partners Xhaka in Partey’s absence, whether White starts and which of Bellerin or Chambers will play at right-back. That might be determined by Holding’s availability, with Chambers starting if Rob is fit for the bench, and Bellerin starting if Chambers has to be the back-up centre back.
Arteta may have other ideas, including starting Saka, moving Auba up top and dropping Laca to the bench, but my punt on the starting lineup is:
Leno
Bellerin, White, Mari, Tierney
Lokonga, Xhaka
Pepe, Smith Rowe, Aubameyang
Lacazette
Bench
Runarsson, Tavares, Holding/Chambers, Elneny, Saka, Maitland-Niles, Balogun.
The ‘holics pound
The bookmakers have us as favourites. The odds are skinny, and if anything getting skinnier. A 3-1 away win at 16/1 looks the most appealing value, with a more realistic 2-1 at eights and a repeat of the 1947 scoreline at sevens.
Brentford will be up for their big day, but with Chelsea and City up next for us, we need to spoil it and take all three points. A defining season starts here.
Enjoy the game, ‘holics.
A terrific preview Ned . My old Dad used to talk admiringly of Brentford from his experience watching them in the thirties . To all of us on this blog it is a fixture we’ve never experienced . As you point out we’ve only played them in the cup competitions once. Amazing !
We have to start well and that means a win . We mustn’t be winless after three games and tomorrow will be tough . I am one of the admirers of Toney. He would represent money much better spent than on Tammy Abraham . I’d rather go with Balogun than buy Abraham for a hugely inflated price . Toney requires careful watching .
I was very optimistic in my review of Arteta’s performance a few weeks ago. Several people close to the club assured me we were going to spend big and I suppose we might still but I also thought we were going to ditch the players that have held us back. Regular readers know who I mean ! I’m not at all clear what the transfer strategy is, I think your team will be right Ned save that Chambers will start at right back . I’d play Lokonga to give us legs in midfield . Hopefully we will manage a 2-1 victory but it won’t be easy .
Thanks Ned, and a fine preview it is. I’ve a feeling Brentford and their fans will be 8 miles high for this one so we had best be on our toes to stymie a first half onslaught. Their first top flight match in many decades, and that on top of it being their first home match with fans allowed in many months. Lots of buzzing needed to combat that buzz saw so we need to start buzzing tout de suite. COYG rip ‘em a new one and crumple their stingers into little balls of lint.
Thanks, TTG. I know you are a Toney admirer. If he replicates his Championship form, he will be a handful in the Premiership.
Anything less than three points after our first three games will be concerning. Five points or more and we can start to dream.
I should clarify that Woolwich Arsenal did play Brentford, then in the Southern League, in the intermediate round (between the qualifying rounds and the first round proper) of the 1902-03 FA Cup, winning a replay at the Manor Ground 5-0 after a 1-1 draw at York Road (Griffen Park did not open until 1904). We bought Tommy Shanks, who scored the Brentford goal, at the turn of the year with Joe Connor and £200 going the other way. Brentford finished bottom of the Southern League First Division by a country mile that season but beat Second Division champions Fulham 7-2 in a play-off ‘test match’ to retain their First Division status. Connor scored four. Shanks was our top scorer in the league the following season with a then-record 24 goals.
Thanks Ned, great preview to start the season.
Team looks about right but like TTG, I think Calum will start. And I suspect Willian will be on that bench. As for the rest – I hope Leno stays fit and we buy a back-up keeper.
Also that Mari stays fit on the left at least till Gabriel is ready. And we get some more quality into central and attacking midfield.
Personally, I have a fairly low bar for this season, I would like us to continue to progress. The defence was better last season, maintain that and improve our attack. If we do that, the league position will take of itself. A lot will depend on Auba’s form again.
For the the Brentford game – 3-0 to The Arsenal.
COYGS!!
1-0 will be enough for us.
UTA.
In case someone out there finds this encouraging about Martin Odegaard. This pre-season he has been wearing #21, but according to the twitter link below, it (#21) has been registered under Rodrygo. Raises questions.
For the twitter link below – you don’t need an account to read people’s tweets, you just need their handle & input into your favorite browser as listed below & you are off to the races so to speak.
Tweets by RMadridistaReal
Oops, is there a way to edit my post?
A wonderful start to the Goonerholics season with a magnificent preview! Thanks Ned!
(I have a question for the monks, would Brentford now be the team to appear in the top division of English football after the longest gap in between? Or would that unenviable record continue to be held by some other team?)
I like your team, but I agree with others that given recent form Chambers probably will start ahead of Hector. Gabi should be fit enough to be on the bench. He has been back training and his golden time in Tokyo wasn’t particularly exhausting, with less than 100 minutes of football I think.
Let me go for a bold prediction of 4-1. A brace from Nico. Auba and ESR one each. 🙂
With no European football to distract, and a complete pre-season, with ample time to complete all transfer dealings…Mikel and his coaching team have no excuses this season. Every league match should be seen as a must-win and every point dropped should be felt by the squad as an opportunity lost. Thirty eight finals. First one on Friday.
Great write-up, Ned, and cheers, ‘Holics!
Once again, hope springs eternal, and I was thinking of you lot. Enjoy the game, and here’s to taking all the points.
See you on the high ground!
BMBD (it is eventually happening, eh?!?!😂)
Cheers Ned. An interesting read. As I head off to Lords for the second day of the test it seems strange to be talking about the opening premier league fixture. We should be home just in time for kick off.
Personally, I have no idea who Arteta will go with. Like many, I still think there is quite a bit of business to be done which clearly does not result in a settled side. I guess we are now very much in a position where we have to wait for others to spend before we see what is left. If we are to loose one of Laca or PEA then I’d take Tammy Abraham in a heartbeat. At 23 with buckets loads of potential and even more to prove, he could be ideal for us.
A must win game in mid August? Who would have thought it? But, with two incredibly tough games to follow I fear that anything less than 3 points will already start to put a lot of pressure on a manager that will be under the closest of scrutiny.
3 nil to the mighty Gunners. Bring it on.
Entertaining preview for the first ‘must win’ game of the season, Ned.
Great stuff Ned.
We don’t seem to have gone in for making predictions/publishing our targets for the season this year – a shame, as it is something that I would like to become a tradition in this bar.
Like OM@4, mine is a low bar this season – distressingly so, which I suspect is an attempt to shield myself from disappointment. (For reference my hopes for last season are here.)
In decreasing order of priority, I would like the Arsenal to:
o Celebrate St Totteringham’s day;
o Qualify for (preferably) the Champions’ League or the Europa League; and
o Achieve a deep run (i.e. quarter final or beyond) in one cup competition.
While I think about it, I’m as disappointed as everyone else in this bar about the failure to move on our Swiss/Albanian and Brazilian contingents (partially in my case because it denies me the opportunity to see who is next on the hit list).
May I commend the following interpretation of events to my fellow drinkers?
1) Xhaka would like to leave the club;
2) The club would like to part with Xhaka’s registration;
3) Roma were interested in a transfer, but the parties could not agree terms;
4) At this stage, Arsenal’s options were to allow Xhaka to run down his contract or to renew that contract.
We have been massively critical of the decision to renew Xhaka’s contract. How would we have reacted had they opted not to renew and he left on a free when his contract expired?
Judging by last season, the decision to offer Willian the contract that we did was a massive error. I entirely agree that those who made the decision to offer that contract should be held to account. (I suspect that it’s extremely hard to judge how a player is likely to perform in future and that these judgments are frequently mistaken but probably not as badly mistaken as this one.) It’s probably naive to hope that Willian’s performances return to a level comparable with those he put in before his transfer (it would certainly be naive to expect them to), but surely some improvement is possible? If the reports that he’s on £200k/week are correct then he needn’t be too concerned about his next contract (if any) as the £2 million he’ll get from the Arse before the current one expires will probably be enough to see him through retirement. I’ll have to hope that Arteta is able to make some persuasive arguments, on the other hand, in the context of Premier League transfers, £2M feels like the sort of amount that a club could almost afford to write off.
How will we respond when Bellerin ultimately leaves the club?
COYG
Oops. Arithmetic error – Willian stands to earn £20 million over the next couple of years (not a “mere” £2 million) that’s not a figure the club should consider writing off.
What an excellent preview to kick off the new season. Great stuff Ned.
I think your team is pretty close to how we will run out. If the Arsenal can produce the quality to match this preview we will win at a canter. However as has already been observed, the Bees will be supercharged with energy and drive due to the occasion and our traditional slow starters will need to have their wits about them from the off.
I predict a hard earned draw.
It’s tough to deliver Pangloss’s request for a prediction for the season in view of our unfinished business. If nothing more happens, I expect us to finish 6th at best and probably 8th. If we bring in a quality creative talent who performs to the level we hope for, we may get 4th but we will need an injury-free season, Auba to rediscover his scoring boots and a decent back-up keeper OR Leno to lead a charmed life.
Great to see you in the bar Lonestar Gooner. Your favourite tipple is on the bar. Don’t be a stranger!
We have discussed how recent events must have tickled your fancy. BMBD indeed!
Being reported that both Laca and PEA are both unwell and unavailable????
Thanks, all.
Dr F@8: Bradford City spent 77 years outside the top flight after being relegated in 1922. Bradford Park Avenue, relegated the season before, has never returned to the top flight. It is now in the National League North, and this year celebrates — if that is the right word — a century away. Bury, in bankruptcy administration, would have been out of the top flight for 92 years this year. Grimsby Town, relegated from the old First Division the year after Brentford, would top the length of the Bees absence if they manage to get to the Premiership as they are now in the National Conference, so four promotions away.
Ned@17: Thanks!
Season’s predictions? If we get Ødegaard and a competent back-up for Leno, keep the squad mostly healthy, then my optimism makes me think that a #4 finish is quite possible.
An FA cup run too is very much on the cards. Why not win the whole thing again? 🙂
Auba and Laca are both ill for today’s match. Gabi to start down the middle with Balogun as the option from the bench? Saka and Nico on the two wings…
Martinelli or Balogun to start up front?
Eddie was already out
hey joe…
…i’m going way up north
Thanks NBN for an informative preview as ever – an excellent standard to start the season, let’s hope in a short while the team follow your example.
The New Season is finally here!
Here we fucking go!
UTA
Same old, same old. Need to massively wake up on the second half.
Not good enough boys. Wr need to actually want it a bit more.
Not a great start and what Steve T said above…
One dimensional football exactly what Insaw last season
We’re clearly the better side but it’s not slick and quick enough. First 20 were good but we failed to capitalise on it or develop our game. Upfront we are being bullied and it’s difficult to see where the breakthrough will come from unless the manager tells them to buck their ideas up. I’m far from without hope for the game but we simply have to want it more.
Really poor and nothing has changed from the too many crap performances of the last few seasons.
Evening ATG. I hope all is good in your world.
Agree. Let’s hope that like last year, we have two totally different halves?? At the moment we look rudderless and disjointed.
Saka for Martinelli at half time.
Big save by Leno there at 66:30. A spark?
Our movement off the ball is virtually non existent. Really poor.
Hey Steve all good here thanks for asking fella, how are things on your side?
This is f….. embarrassing
I like that tactic where you grab the keeper with both hands on the line and lock him solid while someone else nods the ball home. A keeper with nuts would have thrown the guy to the ground. Leno is a flapper.
BtM
I thought that was Fabianski 😀
So did we play any better to what we have shown last season?
Well I now seem to be confirmed as suffering with madness, after all Arsenal never lose the first game of the season do they.
We change some players but not tactics, and even though I thought the officials were generous to Brentford they deservd the win and we deserve to get relegated which seems a ridiculous thing to say on the first game of the season.
No drive, no ideas and reliant on young players to make anything happen, I’ve never been sold on Arteta as a manager and nothing is going to change my mind if we carry on like this.
Guess not. Are we likely to have 0 points after three matches?
BtM @33 above – is that allowed to hold the keeper’s hands like that? That to me would be unfair competition – the keeper is not being allowed to use his hands.
In American football, that would be a flag for holding!!
Utter shite.
Embarrassing.
Very much looking forward to CSKA Fulham. What could possibly go wrong???
Very disappointing but not really surprising. It’s going to be a tough season.
Frankly, Auba and Laca would not have made much difference the way they’ve been playing lately
@35 depressedgooner
If it was foul play it’s the officials who are at fault here not Brentford…
Did we deserve to win the game is the question?
BtM @33, exactly!
Bt8 @36, yes.
@40 ATG Absolutely not, this has the potential to be unmissable viewing for every neutral out there.
In my opinion if a keeper can be held like that, then it should be okay to hold the legs of an infield player without it being called a foul. Why have cameras & not use them to make the correct calls/decisions?
Besides that did Arteta & team watch any prior Brentford game film?
We did not get any breaks in that game. Balogun could have had a penalty and Leno was impeded for their second goal. But it is hard to say we deserved much better than we got. ESR and Tierney stood out and Lokonga looked highly promising. But we did not create many clear-cut chances even in the spells when we dominated possession. Balogun and Martinelli barely got in the game. Pepe had one of those where he didn’t pull out a couple of goals to offset a largely meh performance. I hope we will not rue the loss of three points at the other end of the season.
Early days, but Brentford to stay up. Palace, Norwich and Watford to go down since Pangloss would like some predictions.
It’s very familiar. We dominated possession, looked silky at times but created too little up front and we’re weak at the back. We certainly didn’t deserve to win and I feared this outcome. I hoped we’d get a point but in truth we didn’t deserve even that. Hopefully it’ll put a rocket up Edu and Garlick to bring in some more quality.
Does anyone actually think we had a game plan today? You know, one of those with tactics and a bit of direction?
Anyone? If there is then any idea what they were?????
We probably had too many plans.
@46 Steve T
Have we had a game plan since Arteta took over, changing players and hoping it works is not a tactic, we have not come back from being behind since he took over, a damning statistic and it becomes easier to see why Man City were happy to let him leave.
He may one day be a world class coach but he is not there by a long shot yet.
Steve, what game plan?
That was bad and boring.
Great coaches are not born great coaches. They learn by experience. He’s been a head coach for 18 months and it shows. He has some experienced assistant coaches around him but we have no one at any level of the club with experience of carrying the can and making the critical decisions. He’s still learning and we have to accept that.
Or start all over again!
@51 Bath
If that is the case he should have never been given the job to start with it’s not like Arsenal are a training camp for upcoming coaches. Sadly Emery managed to get more of of these lads. Just because you work with Pep does not guarantee success.
I have kept very quiet for some time and from what I have seen throughout pre season I have to admit that we are not going in the right direction and before we start blaming the owners which are not great by any means, pitchwise we are looking even worse. If we don’t improve quickly we will be losing players like Saka and ESR and that really scares me.
I’m in agreement with lots of the comments but I think Ned’s view was a fair one. We got the wrong end of every marginal situation and the coverage by Sky was as one-eyed and frankly prejudiced as any I can remember . When Bolton kicked the shit out of us regularly all those years ago and Arsenal were softies . Wenger pointed out the broken legs we had suffered through that treatment .
Brentford were deserved winners but the Goonerverse is fascinating . There was rejoicing that Laca and Auba were missing so we could play Martinelli and Balogun ( who nobody has ever seen play ninety minutes but is apparently the new Messiah) . Now they are rubbish and shouldn’t have been exposed . White got bullied by Toney but it was his first game in a team that was missing several key players . Arteta made no excuses to his credit and they were some but he must be immensely disappointed.
I won’t add where I think we need to rev up the team, you already know it . We had no drive from the left of midfield- everything came from Tierney and latterly Saka and we couldn’t protect our defence either . Lokonga looked very promising but we should have anticipated the physicality of Brentford and maybe gone to a three . Arteta is under big pressure but I’m going to keep the faith until we’ve played a few more games, got the full team in place and played a range of teams . But this was profoundly disappointing
To be griping about the keeper being held on the second goal ignores the fact that no keeper of any stature would have been prevented from getting to the ball in that circumstance, let alone the defensive frailty that allowed the goal to be scored.
Arteta is not the man. Been saying it for ages, nothing I am seeing convinces me otherwise. His tactics are often poor, off the pitch his decision making on players is poor as is his team selction. Pablo Mari instead of Holding is a poor choice. You can argue about wanting left sided this and right sided that, but the best centre back pairing we have is White and Holding. Gabriel far too lightweight, poor on the ball.
Also, getting rid of Martinez and be facing a situation a year down the road where we are now trying to replace Leno is simple incompetence.
Pepe. Get the ball, hold it, cut inside on your left foot, do nothing. Rinse and repeat.
On the bright side Lokonga didn’t look too bad and we’ve still got Tierney and ESR for this season, but not for much longer because they’re far too good for this team. Odegaard? No ta. We don’t need another player like that, even though he looked ok last year. You buy him if you’ve lost Smith-Rowe, not to play in the same team.
Going to get hammered by City and Chelsea. Sorry.
“We’re clearly the better side…”
Come on, Azeez
What?
Come, come…
74 years waiting and searching
for
The Mugs
Thanks for the drink, Bath. Been deep in the brandy since this afternoon.
Geesh, that sucked.
Our young guns showed promise, but our frailty is glaring. It’s a problem I don’t back Arteta to be capable of fixing…but I don’t anticipate any solution on that front.
Roll onto the Blue Russians…
After a rough night of reflection, my opinion has not changed at all, we are no longer the Arsenal side teams worry about playing, they relish the chance now to impose themselves on us and watch us crumble under pressure.
Tough times lay ahead for us now.
I think we are all depressed Gooners now. There is SO much that appears to be wrong with this club.
After time to calm down, you can look back on last night and reflect. I guess the biggest disappointment for me is that we were not unlucky. The fact is that on the night the better team, and the team that wanted it more, won the game. That’s incredibly disappointing on both parts.
I hope Arteta can turn this around and go on to be a real success. However, I would suggest the jury is more out on that than it’s ever been.
Ned, thanks for an excellent preview with some really interesting historical context.
Sorry I only got to read and comment after the game but work and family illness were preoccupying.
Thanks, Trev. I hope all is as well as can be on the family front.
Cheers Ned – and that really was a superb introduction to the summary.
Puts my old twaddle to shame – but I don’t have a whole army of monks at my disposal. That my excuse and I’m sticking to it !
At least we are off the bottom of the table now, and may even end the day out of the relegation zone. Onwards and upwards.
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