I have always enjoyed the League Cup. It has taken me to grounds I probably wouldn’t have been to in the normal course of events (e.g. Deepdale). During Arsène Wenger’s time it gave me the opportunity to see rising stars at a young age who achieved great things (e.g. Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, and Bukayo Saka) and those who flamed out, e.g. Quincy Owusu-Abeyie who absolutely dominated an Arsenal win over Everton I saw at Highbury. I even described him at the time as our own Cristiano Ronaldo, all step overs and blazing pace, but sadly it was not to be. The League Cup even took me to two Wembley finals, against the Cities Birmingham and Manchester. Unfortunately we lost both.
So the first round involving Arsenal this season took us to the Gtech Community stadium, newish home of Brentford. Premier League opponents. The prematch debate amongst the GHF community, as outlined in the preview of this match by 21CG, involved the team. The advice varied from play squad members who were not part of the first choice eleven ( a choice aided by our long injury list), to play all the kids.
Well at 6.45pm the team news broke.
Ramsdale
Tomi
White
Gabriel
Kiwior
Jorghino
Havertz
Smith Rowe
Nelson
Sagoe Jr
Nketiah
Subs: Hein, Cedric, Sweet, Walters, Zinchenko, Elneny, Ǿdegaard, Cozier-Duberry, Jesus
For those not familiar with him, Charles Sagoe Jr is a 19 year old who joined us from Fulham in 2015, so a true academy product. He’s a winger (from either side) and a regular in the U21s last season. So a strong squad team, with only Sagoe Jr from the academy in the starting line up, but three more on the bench.
Brentford fielded a strong team, considering their injuries.
I couldn’t get a ticket and it was not on mainstream tv, so was stream hunting. Countryman junior did the business and we were off. The defence lined up with Kiwior and Benny at full back and Gabriel and Tomi at centre back. No VAR so if we score we can celebrate!
And so we could on 8 minutes as Brentford played a clumsy pass back which Eddie chased onto. I thought he could have driven on and shot but he tried to cut back to Nelson. The ball was intercepted by a Brentford player. But he couldn’t sort his feet out and it fell to Reiss on the penalty spot. He rifled home clinically. The Arsenal faithful roared their approval.
Arsenal 1-0 Brentford (Nelson, 8 mins)
On 20 minutes White had a difficult ball dropping over his shoulder. He got it away but only to a Brentford player who shot hard. Tomi made a great block. Sagoe, who had been tidy up to that point, then had his first eye catching moment as he weaved past three players in midfield. ESR, Reiss Nelson, and Eddie were looking very lively up front.
Brentford were having their moments, with the odd nervy moment in defence. Good clearances were made by Havertz and Gabriel.
A lovely attack involving half a dozen Arsenal players saw ESR slaloming through the penalty area as though it was 2021. He fired in a strong, on-target shot which was well-saved by the keeper’s legs. Again ESR beat men around the area and the ball finished up at Havertz’s feet 5 yards out. But he seemed lacking in confidence and a weak shot was blocked.
A good move for Brentford saw the ball at the feet of one of their players inside the penalty area with no defenders on him. At that point my stream froze! An anxious minute was spent reconnecting but when I returned it was with a sigh of relief as it became obvious they hadn’t scored.
Aaron Ramsdale was put under pressure with the ball at his feet but everybody stayed calm and eventually Gabriel cleared. On 40 minutes Ben White was yellow carded for time wasting at a throw in. The air was blue in the Countryman household!
A good first half from Arsenal, but only a slender lead.
Arsenal 1-0 Brentford (Half time)
No changes as they came out for the second half.
On 54 Eddie was booked, maybe slightly harshly, for a foul. Brentford had come out to play and continued to pile on the pressure. On 65 Ramsdale made a quite brilliant save, tipping a fierce goal bound shot onto the post. Brentford continued to pour forward and were having the best of it for this period.
0n 68 minutes, Sagoe Jr. came off for Gabriel Jesus. The debutant had a good game, showing his skills once and keeping the ball moving. One to watch. Havertz made a good run down the left wing and cut the ball back well to Reiss Nelson. He fired just wide with the keeper beaten.
Again Ramsdale had to make a good, perhaps slightly easier save. Tomi blocked yet another shot a couple of minutes later. Brentford got the ball in the net but the flag went up for offside. I think he was, just, but was grateful to be spared a lengthy VAR analysis!
On 81 minutes, ESR, who had had an excellent game was subbed for Ǿdegaard. In a defensive move, Reiss Nelson, who also had a really good game, was replaced by Elneny. Welcome back Mo!
A terrific, game saving block on the line was made by Kiwior. At that point my stream froze! When I returned, to my horror Cedric was on the pitch. Evidently he came on for Eddie. Five minutes of added time. With 90 seconds left, the Brentford goalkeeper Mark Fletten came up for a long throw in. The ball ended safely in Ramsdale’s hands and that was that.
Arsenal 1-0 Brentford (Full time)
A good win. Particularly impressive were ESR, Nelson, Eddie, Tomi and Ramsdale. On we go to the next round. Hopefully away to a lower league team!
Bravo C100, a break from your normal style and you’ve done excellently to convey the flow of the game based on what was obviously an erratic stream ( like me before my prostate op) .
Lovely to see Reiss scoring and playing well and to hear Ramsdale had the character to perform well and that Kiwior is developing positively. I understand he is doing really well and I also heard Tomi was excellent at centre back .
Great work and delighted for young Mister Sagoe !
A top report at a breakneck velocity. I would add Kiwior to your plaudit list.
Wet Spam away.
Thanks C100, I couldn’t see the game so much appreciate the report. Happy to digest an Arsenal win over the morning coffee 😀
A very positive match with lots of currently fringe players doing well, the defence showing it’s versatility with everyone shuffling easily once Zin came on and still keeping the clean sheet. Not so easily done at Brentford as even without Toney they have some dangerous forwards.
We saw the same game, C100. I also saw the bits you didn’t as it was shown on TV here, unlike in blighted Blighty. How nice, too, not to have VAR holding up proceedings while a search is undertaken for offences two weeks ago and three postcodes away.
I agree that Tomi was excellent, both at left-back and CB. Gabriel and Kiwior had solid games (and Kiwior’s goal-line clearance was superb). Ramsdale’s finger-tip save to turn a Wissa shot onto the post was a reminder of how good a shot-stopper he is, and apart from the one alarm you mention, his footwork was fine.
ESR and Nelson did themselves no harm with their extended run-outs. However, Benny Blanco had an off-day, in my book. For some reason, he never seemed inclined to pass to Sagoe Jr, waving him up the wing and then passing inside or back. You mentioned the youngster’s twinkle-toed moment, but it was a shame he wasn’t given more of the ball so he could show what he could do. Like most youngsters, he will need to bulk up. He was effortlessly bowled over by Brentford defenders a couple of times.
I doubt that Arteta will be overly happy with the second-half performance, especially the hectic quarter of an hour when Brentford was peppering our penalty area with crosses and shots. We had no control of the game, and he does not like it when that happens one little bit.
Thanks C100 for describing so well agam I didn’t get to see. The clean sheet and the game time for fringe players should bode well.
agam = a game
You can see why Brentford might be reluctant to sell Toney. 18 shots and only 4 on target. Ramsdale was up to everything, and the one that did get through was cleared off the line by the excellent Kiwior. Nelson’s late miss wasn’t so bad really, as it was on target, but a slight late swerve took it just outside of the post. He had a decent game. I thought it odd that White just would not support Sagoe Jr, it was so obvious that he was deliberately not passing to the lad, which must have been a bit demoralizing for the kid who looked quite good. And ESR is back!!
Cheers C100.
Switched off at half-time as I was knackered, so by all accounts I missed the stressful bit. Not bad, but I still didn’t sleep so well.
baff @ 2. I think C10 said ‘lower league team’ not ‘lower in the league team’.
Oh, well wish not quite granted then :-p
Another tough test it will be.
We are one point behind where we were in the league last season, unbeaten and won a tricky tie at Brentford with a virtual second string side . We cruised through our opening CL game . That anl underlines the progress that Arteta has made in elevating the quality of the side .
We haven’t conceded away and we have a winnable game on Saturday. The one concern is that the side has only really gelled against PSV and the balance in midfield doesn’t seem quite right. But the doom and gloom around the Goonerverse is hard to fathom. We are making real progress as a club. Expectations rise and this fuels unreasonable perspectives . Maybe the excellence of Tomi and Kiwior will provide further options which might include Zinchenko playing further forwards although Arteta has shown no inclination to do this .
Perhaps the big need is a stronger no 9 .
Great report of a game I didn’t manage to see, C100.
Agree with your points, TTG. While we’re not firing really yet, I can’t understand how people can be overall negative.
I think most of the negativity comes from increased expectations (last season having possibly put the bar too high, as TTG wisely mentioned), the ‘relative’ failure so far of the Havertz signing, injuries, and the fact that, never mind the maths, sometimes you have to look beyond, and our play has generally not been as convincing as early last season.
Add to that that City have won 6/6, Liverpool are slightly surprisingly doing well, and Spurs not as shit as last year (though points-wise they had a great start last year, but everyone could see they were shit, not so much now).
And mostly, add the fact that the internet has made the negative components generally more vocal.
I remain on the fence, always hopeful, still cautiously optimistic but not entirely convinced yet that this season will be a very good one.
I think the recent progress has been mostly ‘lateral’, Arteta still experimenting a lot, sometimes a little weirdly, but I think it will set us up better longer term, so that’s good.
Remains the last point from TTG’s 9, which I wholeheartedly agree with.
So that makes it ‘the point about the 9 in post number 9’.
For me the only issue with pushing Zin forward is his end product, I think MA challenged Xhaka to be more productive last season and he responded well with several goals.
Zin doesn’t seem to score / assist much though his statistics will be misleading as he is (theoretically?) a defender for us and was the same for Shitteh I think. Not sure his record internationally where he plays in midfield.
I guess the idea with Havertz was his work rate defensively and his high potential going forward too. We have Vieira and maybe ESR there too, all of them have higher end product potential than Zin I believe. Of course please don’t misunderstand that I don’t rate Zin – I think he is a great player but he may not have the profile MA wants to play further forward.
I take your point Matt
My suggestion was based on seeing him play against Scotland in the Euro play-off and in the recent game against England ( where he scored and was the best player on the field .
Nice one Countryman.
Great to get a win, and for those with tickets, West Ham will be a good night out. Let’s hope we win that too.
City are out, and we’ve not won the League Cup for 30 years. That loss to Birmingham was an absolute kick in the balls too. It would be nice win this again, even if it the least important of the competitions we are in.
Cheers C100!
Have made 3 League Cup finals – 87, 88 and 2011. Obviously 87 pick of the bunch but they were all good days out in their own ways.
Nice one C100 – different to your usual behind enemy lines style but it captured the to and fro of the match nicely.
Despite his suggestion to the contrary, I doubt TTG’s pre prostate op stream was like your internet interruptions – unless it really did freeze ..?! Yikes ! 😳
Btw, my Arsenal League Cup Final record consists of Leeds United and Swindon Town. Please do anyone ever offer to take me to Wembley – my finals record is abysmal while we always win if I’m not there. My winning finals were Fairs Cup at Highbury, League half of 71 double at WHL. We even lost on pens in Brussels to Valencia because I was there too.
Btw (2) – on the progress front, PSV had not lost for 26 games before we made them look very ordinary, and Brentford had lost just 1 of their last 18 home games before last night.
Thought Reiss Nelson and ESR (esp 1st half) were very good last night. If we’re going to actually rotate players more this season we are likely going to suffer some loss of last season’s beautiful fluency until the players ALL get used to each other.
Zinchenko has scored nine goals in 55 international appearances with four assists and a strike rate of a goal every 434 minutes. Xhaka has 14 in 117 appearances, with 12 assists and a goal every 704 minutes.
I think that Arteta grasps a fundamental point that the boo-boys do not: just upgrading the team won’t be enough to win trophies. He has to improve it relative to rivals who are also getting stronger in a league that state and private equity money has made exponentially more competitive. This is never-ending and brutally Darwinian. In that sense, Arteta’s team will always be a work in progress. I applaud him for understanding that you can’t stand still in the rarefied atmosphere of elite club football and that he has to drive ruthless evolution to gain even the smallest advantage. We see the sausage being made. That will not always be an edifying experience, yet better than seeing rivals disappear out of sight.
Trev
Let’s close the commode on my stream issues !
I have only not been to two League Cup Finals – Liverpool which I regret and Chelsea which I do not . Although I thought a very young team played Chelsea off the park for most of the game
But the finals against Swindon, Luton and Birmingham rank as some of the worst moments I’ve had as a fan . I’ve only seen two losing FA Cup finals to Ipswich and Liverpool
Trev:
My League Cup finals record reads : 0/2 (Brum, great time with Esso among others pre-match and Citeh) – I’m at 50% for victorious semi-finals on second legs (Wigan final year at Highbury, a cold cold night, and Ipswich).
My FA Cup finals : 3/3 (2014/2015/2017). (only one semi-final, 2014).
My French Cup finals: 2/2 (1987 and 2013 with Bordeaux).
Make of that what you will (i.e. nothing, really!)
I meant to say that I have seen us win the FA Cup 9 times but I have seen us lose three finals in Europe . But I did see us win the Fairs Cup at Highbury
Great stuff, TTG!
Good stuff from Mike McDonald
Thanks C100,
Also thanks to Ned @20 for a thoughtful rationale on the “progression” of Arteta’s development.
Now, let’s smash Bournemouth.
UTA.
Cheers, Noosa.
C100@25: Thanks for the link. Acquiring the winning habit is not a bad thing to do.
I found Mike McDonald’s breakdown of Havertz interesting. The question it raises is, why are his teammates not finding Havertz when he makes runs behind into the box.
I would still like to know why White barely passed to Sagoe Jr.; it was almost as if Benny Blanco was in a huff because Saka wasn’t there (although I doubt that was the case, and Arteta would be down on him like a ton of bricks if it were). As McDonald noted, Sagoe Jr. was making the runs, but the ball rarely came to him. Were they not quite the right runs, or what?
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