A dramatic night at the Home of Football saw us (eventually) restored to our rightful place at the top of the Premier League with a late header by Kai Havertz. It decided a bad-tempered and tense affair pockmarked by Brentford’s play-acting and simulation of head injuries. The ball was in play for less than fifty minutes in a game that lasted nearly a hundred!
A comedian once told me that there are only seven types of joke and I suspect there are only a limited number of types of football match. This game fell into the bracket of a very one-sided game turned on its head by a catastrophic error by an Arsenal keeper playing only because his replacement in the first team line up was ineligible to play against the team from which he is on loan. Given this scenario, football dramas dictate that the replacement keeper saves a penalty or compounds his errors. Ramsdale did neither but made two fine saves in the second half in what may be his valedictory performance as an Arsenal keeper.
The game degenerated as a spectacle as Brentford employed every underhand trick in the book to waste time, dupe the referee and wind up their opponents. There are many Arsenal fans tonight who will, as a result, be hoping Brentford’s plunge towards relegation goes into free-fall. Their demeanour was ghastly and their shithousery raised the temperature of an already febrile Emirates to boiling point.
Yet it had looked relatively routine throughout a very one-sided first half.
Arsenal began with Trossard replacing Martinelli in the only change from Monday’s cakewalk in Sheffield. Toney was called on to clear a Rice corner off the line in the second minute. Our tempo was electric, our interchanging bewildering but Brentford’s low block held firm until the 18th minute when Benny Bianco curled in a right wing cross which Declan Rice glanced wide of Flekken in the Brentford goal .
Arsenal 1 Brentford 0
We switched the ball constantly between wings and Havertz had a shot blocked by the keeper before screwing wide after a beautiful Jorginho pass. Trossard was put through by a brilliant piece of distribution from Ramsdale but lacked the pace to finish and Saka drilled just over. All seemed set fair until just before half time Gabriel nudged the ball back to Ramsdale who dallied on the ball allowing Wissa to deflect the ball into the net. Before too many sages reflect that Raya would never commit such a mistake may I refer you to his error early on in the crucial game against Manchester City when he almost let in Alvarez.
Arsenal 1 Brentford 1 – Half-time
The half-time interval felt similar to the one against Liverpool where they scored a freak goal on the stroke of half-time. As the enormity of Ramsdale’s error dawned, he was comforted and encouraged by several team-mates. I reflected how fortunate it was that the odious William Gallas had retired.
Arsenal tried to up the pace from the start of the second half but Brentford dropped into a narrow and deep block. We forced many corners which saw farcical pushing and shoving matches and the ineffectual referee Rob Jones exercise a degree of tolerance that I thought was far too generous to a cynical Brentford side. We had two decent shouts for penalties for fouls on Trossard and Gabriel but Brentford felt Havertz who had already been booked was guilty of simulation in going down too easily about fifteen minutes from the end. Our two best chances saw a Gabriel header blocked on the line and Declan Rice fire a fine effort following a corner onto the angle of post and bar. But Brentford were dangerous too. Toney tried to take advantage of Ramsdale’s advanced position with a dangerous effort that Ramsdale tipped wide at full stretch. With twenty minutes left Collins, a perpetual nag to the referee popped up in the Arsenal box to fire in a header which Aaron tipped athletically over.
We were just trying to estimate the amount of injury time that the referee would add (predicting that it would be woefully inadequate) when Benny Bianco produced another excellent cross this time to the near post and Havertz arrived to head firmly home off the bar. Cue pandemonium and wholesale disapproval at the inordinate amount of injury time (seven minutes) that the referee had allowed!
Arsenal 2 Brentford 1
We managed to survive the seven minutes with few alarms and thankfully the labyrinthitis which had spread through the Brentford team throughout the second half, miraculously disappeared.
Full Time – Arsenal 2 Brentford 1
It was the sort of messy, highly charged game that occurs in our situation at this stage of the season. It is about a year since Reiss Nelson’s last-second ‘worldie’ against Bournemouth. We had nothing like as late a goal today but it was tight and tense and ultimately triumphant.
Ramsdale, while not completely redeemed, did not cost us any points and made two terrific saves. I was taken by the intelligence of Jorginho whose passing is a delight, the runs between the lines of Havertz who is really developing as a 2024 version of Martin Peters for those of older vintage, the consistency and effectiveness of Ben White who is now such an effective attacking weapon and the industry and quality of Rice and Ødegaard who are players of the highest class.
A narrow squeak, but one of those games I felt we were always going to win. Now for Anfield and hopefully an eagerly contested draw!
A fine report thanks TTG covering the bases in your usual entertaining style.
I am not going to blame Rammy, it’s a risk we knowingly take when we play
this way and it was a nice finish for him after a tragic end to the first act.
Brentford were a real piece of work 2nd half as you say and it was good to see
justice done, sadly the wide range of relegation candidates available this season
will see them safe. Though the generally useless Jones played over 10 minutes of
additional time he did make the key decision right 😃
Good to see several players continuing their comebacks.
Perhaps it was a blessing to have a good tough fight after a run of sound thrashings,
who knows, but regardless we go on to the Porto game in good heart and Top of the League!
Frank displayed a noteworthy level of hypocrisy in saying Kai should have got a second yellow (it wasn’t) when his players were dropping farcically all over the place. Complete bollocks but all part of job these days I suppose.
Brentford took a Portovian approach (and why not, it worked for Porto) at corners. I hope a noisy home support can pressure the ref on Tuesday night – that tactic carries its own risk of giving away penalties.
Thanks TTG for your typically excellent write-up and perspective. I think it’s right that it’s a good to get tested as we inevitably will many more times this season. 6-0 and 5-0 games are fun but too many of them give you a false sense of security. Come on the Porto, Mother of all Lulls, and Citeh on its backside.
Last season after 28 games Manchester City had won 20, drawn 4, and lost 4 with 70 goals for and 25 against. This season, Arsenal after 28 games have won 20, drawn 4, and lost 4 with 70 goals for and 24 against. Make of that what you will.
A typically perceptive and perspicuous report from you, TTG. You nailed a testy and testing game.
It did cross my mind that Raya wouldn’t have been caught out for Wissa’s goal, but also that he wouldn’t have pulled off the two finger-tip saves that Rammy did, especially the one from Toney’s long-range shot.
OM@2: I was surprised by the way Frank brushed past Arteta at the end of the game with barely a handshake.
bt8@4: I would happily take 6-0 or 5-0 wins from here on until the end of the season and worry about my sense of security over the summer.
Ned @4; yeah Frank was saying after the game that his players felt hard done by etc etc.
We should deliver a truckload of mirrors to Griffin Park this week.
Cheers TTG. Great report. Brentford were odious yesterday. Good preparation for Porto though, we could face a very similar game again.
bt8 @ 4: am I to conclude we should have conceded another goal (not yesterday obviously) to ensure we win the title later?
Nice report, TTG , which certainly reflected the game I saw. Brentford are just a 2024 Stoke. The ludicrous chants of “ same old Arsenal, always cheating” from their fans really hacked me off, given the play acting their own poor excuses for footballers engaged in yesterday. In any case, how would they know, unless they’re all in their 90’s, so infrequently have they played us. Frankly they can crawl back to the M4 underpass whence they came. And take the pitiful excuse for a referee with them. I hate watching cheating being facilitated by officials and that is exactly what he did.
And Ivan Toney – £80m? They must think we ‘ve just come off the boat, as my old nan used to say. I wouldn’t give you 80 million lire for him.
Indeed CER, that chant annoyed be, but it was a mercifully brief single occurence, that didn’t have the (misplaced) conviction their northern counterparts usually show when singing it.
Almost as if they realised how absurd it was of them to sing this on the day.
One of my favourite moments of the match was Saliba shoulder-barging Toney to the floor near the touchline. Thank God for that amazing Ramsdale save though, because, however much I can’s stand him that shot was an inspired moment from Toney.
Thanks TTG – an excellent job quickly done.
I had a certain respect for Brentford until yesterday. It must be incredibly hard to come up to the Premier League for any club, especially one working on Brentford’s capacity, and they have to play to whatever strengths they have to survive. Brentford have done that admirably until now, establishing themselves as a team that nobody looks to as a first pick to go down at the end of the season.
Yesterday though, as some have already noted, they quite clearly decided to base their game on the tactics of the only team to have stopped us scoring in the amazing run we have enjoyed since the turn of the year. As Porto did a couple of weeks ago, they fouled, rolled around on the floor, play acted, time wasted and wrestled players at set pieces until it became a farce. Unfortunately, just like Porto, they were facilitated in their efforts by a referee who either didn’t understand what they were doing, or didn’t want to bother to do anything about it.
Afterwards, the hitherto reasonable Thomas Frank appeared to have metamorphosed into another unpopular Portuguese who used to manage doen the road from his present employers. He, like the rest of the broadcast media I have heard so far, was totally fixated on Kai Havertz trying to win – dubiously, it must be said – a penalty. Not an unreasonable thing for the newly popular, can’t-stop-scoring, £60million “waste of money” German to do, given that at least two apparently nailed on claims for spot kicks had been ignored. Mr Frank seemed not have noticed these, of course, nor the anti-football antics of his players which resulted in 49 minutes of play with the actual ball – less than 50% of the total elapsed 100 minutes.
No wonder we only scored two – we only had half a game to do it in !
I did feel sorry for Aaron Ramsdale when his worst nightmare came true and his delayed clearance led to Brentford’s goal. And I agree with Ned – as I noted at the time – that David Raya would probably not have reached the two finger tip saves that Aaron made to redeem himself in the second half. We can now see the relative qualities of both keepers. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.
At least one of our title rivals will drop points this afternoon. Until then, thanks to a determined, disciplined, hard earned victory yesterday – We Are Top Of The League !
Ivan Toney ? Pound Shop Troy Deeney – and that’s saying something !
Cheers TTG. That’s a fantastic report – balanced and well-crafted as always.
It certainly reflects the game I saw the MOTD highlights of!
I particularly liked that you snuck Gilberto in there. You must have keen eyes, as, on MOTD, Invisible Wall was completely invisible!
Havertz scored a winner. I’m not usually one for “I told you so” (mainly cos I get so much stuff wrong – I thought Raya was brought in to push Rambo into working harder earn his place as our number one keeper!)
However, on this occasion, as I took the time to write out a very long post about the German which ended with me saying I had a a feeling he would score a couple of decisive goals this season, it was gratifying to see that borne out so swiftly.
3 lovely points. Porto next.
Good stuff Trev.
To be fair, you could get Troy Deeney in a pound shop too. You’d just need about 300 pounds.
Thanks TTG for a very rapid report after being at the game. After the pipe and slippers of Bramall Lane, this was a tense match in most of the second half. And yet, my son turned to me and said, with ten minutes to go, “we’ve got this”. At the time we were battering them, but the ball refused to go in. Curiously, an Arsenal fan said the same thing on the radio phone while we were driving home. There was a confidence in the air.
I must confess that as the clock ticked on past 85 minutes, my faith began to waver, as Brentford took every opportunity to break our momentum. Then Benny picked it up on the goal line and put in a bending cross, which avoided the keeper and centre back and reached the unmarked Havertz, a man reborn. He thumped in a bullet header worthy of Radford or Kennedy (as Matt said). At which point the sky fell in, or that’s what it felt like in the North Bank as limbs went everywhere, everyone hugged everyone else and, once the initial exultation had passed, Kai Havertz’s song rang out from every throat into the North London air. Arteta said that the North Bank sucked that goal in and that’s how it felt.
Brentford worked the dark arts to an extent last seen from Newcastle two years ago. Aided and abetted by a referee from Liverpool.
Poor Aaron. He must have wanted the ground to open up and swallow him. But the crowd stayed loyal, he made two match saving saves in the second half (the shot from Toney was remarkable, almost Zlatan like) and was cheered off the pitch to the echo as he made what looked very much like a final lap of honour.
Rice is really growing into this midfield 8 role. Fantastic header for the first. And as for Benny Blanco, why Southgate does’t want him at least as a Kyle Walker back up totally defeats me. He’s been immense. Tross and Saka slightly below par, although Saka was triple teamed every time he got the ball. I was worried about big Gabi first half, on a yellow and limping heavily but he played on like the lion he is and ran it off.
A huge win. Now onto Porto. Now that one I am nervous about.
GSD,
You give me too much credit! I wrote some of the report on the train home and somehow juxtaposed Gilberto for Saliba . But maybe subconsciously I was drawing a comparison between them . I was very impressed with Saliba yesterday . Last season Toney gave him big problems but he handled him superbly yesterday . I can’t think of a more exciting centre half in world football . But England have Harry Maguire so that’s alright !
But the more I think about it the comparison between Havertz and Peters holds water .
TTG@15 Is Havertz 10 years ahead of his time? Anyway, I think it is an excellent comparison too
C100@14 Southgate is simply a very strange person, but as long as Benny Blanco doesn’t mind then it’s all good with me. Thanks as always for an enjoyable report from the ground
That’s the game I saw, TTG, thanks for the swift and enjoyable report. A very big win in a very frustrating game. The players deserve accolades for sticking to the game plan and keeping up the pressure.
I am extremely disappointed that the fear of dropping into the relegation battle has caused Brentford to trash their reputation by adopting rough house tactics and shithousery rather than playing the football that endeared them to many over the last two seasons. I am also disappointed that Frank decided to ditch his acceptance of errors by officials (“they’re only human” – in response to failure to draw offside lines last season), instead choosing to rant about Jones’ failure to book Havertz again for an alleged dive when his own players had been diving and feigning injury without sanction throughout the game.
I am as disappointed by Jones the ref – who is at least consistent in maintaining my low opinion of his decision-making and by Tierney, the VAR official, who did nothing to change my extremely low opinion of him either. It seems that there are no holds barred in the defence of the penalty area that Arsenal are attacking when a corner or free-kick is to be taken. First it was blocks, with two hands on an attacker, then it was holding an attacker round his waist, then it was holding an attacker’s shirt and clearly virtually pulling it off and now it is wrestling an attacker to the ground or pulling him backwards by the neck. All without sanction. It’s remarkable how the game has been allowed to deteriorate by the powers that be. It wasn’t so long ago that a shoulder-to-shoulder charge was the only upper body contact allowed between opponents. Now it’s like wrestling. What’s next, I wonder?
Many apologies, TTG. In editing the piece for publication, I noticed that you had written that Saliba passed the ball back to Ramsdale for his ‘rick’. I intended to replace ‘Saliba’ with ‘Gabriel’ who did in fact make the final passback but had a brain-fart and wrote ‘Gilberto’ who has made such an indelible mark on my cortex that I frequently miscall Gabriel Gilberto. Entirely my fault. It has now been corrected. Well spotted GSD.
The comparison of Havertz with Peters is a great call. Very similar, very effective and just as deadly.
Wonderful game and excellent report that followed TTG, Just before the game I told a friend that I didn’t want us to batter Brentford as I had a grudging admiration for what they have achieved.
Then came some of the worst play acting and time wasting seen this season coupled with staggering levels of duplicity and lack of self awareness to their incredible claims to have the ever improving Havertz sent off, I genuinely think another more competent referee would have sent off one maybe two of theirs for the antics they decided to employ instead of playing football.
Yes that does mean I’d love it if they went down and took the odious Toney with them
Depressed, hear blooming hear, mate ! Good to see you too !
Trev@10: Well said.
Bath@17: There does now seem to be one set of rules for what constitutes a foul in the penalty area and another for outside it. Trossard being pulled back by the neck was a clear example of that.
I’d forgotten Frank’s comments from last year 😂😂
Cheers TTG, a focused and entertaining report like the performance we put down against an irritating Brentford side.
Honestly, we could and should have been 3 – 0 up (Havertz miss and the penaly for Leo) by the time Rammy made his blunder. And even with the shock it caused our win felt inevetable. We were focused and calm noone went over the board it was an assured performance by the whole team. And the big up for Benny Blanco who become our secret weapon scoring and assisting freely.
I think Brentford done what they had to. If they could nick a point or three they would have felt vindicated. And I think fighting against relegation take al the shame away using dark arts.
But it was in vain.
COYG
Watching Spuds / Villa, both rubbish in a dull first half.
Sadly, the marshdwellers are 2-0 up now
And Villa down to ten men as McGinn channeled his inner pre redemption Xhaka and just pointlessly hacked down Udogie. Afterwards there was some handbags and McGinn was hauled away by UE, who must of been having flashbacks.
Vicario still looks dodgy at corners, and I guess we can all think of just the man to make his life miserable next game
It may be premature but Emery’s trajectory at Villa seems to be resembling his at Arsenal. Villa looked nailed on for the Champions League but are starting to lose regularly at home and defensive discipline appears to be fading . Spurs could never have expected that result
Havertz the new Peters. Villa-era Emery the new Arsenal-era Emery. Be careful not to overwork your crystal balls, TTG
Ned @ 29. Are you making reference to TTG’s recent urino-genital interventions?
We. Are. Top. Of. The. League. (Outright)
C100@30: you will know better than most what wonders medical science can work. 🙂
How on earth was that not a penalty against City when Doku kicked him in the chest? I saw RVP sent off at Highbury for raising a foot that high.
Not that I mind. Draw a perfect result.
We are top of the league!
What Ollie said @31. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼. And long may it last
All good for us, but agree that was a penalty at the end.
McAllisters obvious exaggeration could have been a
factor I suppose,
Same. When I saw there was VAR, I thought there was no way this isn’t given.
And wait for media outrage that Salah wasn’t sent off – or at least carded – for pretty much exactly what happened to Havertz yesterday.
The media agenda is so obvious it’s now just laughable.
Who wins the league may be decided by how well each team can deal with Tottnumb
And who is the most unschaved after the internationals.
Highly enjoyable review TTG, thank you!
My moment of the match was Jorginho’s gorgeous through ball and Kai’s brilliant late run. If only that chipped finish went in I think we would have won by a much greater margin and without any of the unnecessary drama. But on the other hand, this may have been a better preparation for the Porto match.
I was very skeptical about Jorginho’s role when we had signed him. He has always been a very intelligent footballer with great qualities on the ball, but when we signed him I felt that he won’t be able to come to terms with the breakneck speed of our play, especially in transition. Kudos to him that he has used his strengths — the awareness, the ability to control the tempo, the vision — superbly to offset the limitations. A bit like late era Pirlo.
Good to have Zinchenko back. Likely a better alternative in the CL tie. Though Kiwior has been very good in a more traditional left back role.
Dr F @40 I think most of us were fairly skeptical about Jorginiho’s value especially as we just missed out on the seemingly more attractive option of Caicedo at around the same time. He was a player I had enjoyed disliking at Chavski, my instinctive conservatism kicking-in each time I saw him take one of his silly looking penalties. Also of course there was our purchase history – never buy goods near the sell-by date from a spiv at a bus stop is sound advice.
Anyway, I agree he has done well for us, been a good influence it seems from reports and the odd mistake aside he’s been very handy in a pinch. MA has managed his playing time well too. Of course, the way it’s going he may not be our most successful purchase from south of the river 😃
Cheers TTG!
@BtM
Well, at least Anatomy of a Fall won Best Original Screenplay, a Champions League place if not the title 😉
Matt @41. On a point of order. Stamford Bridge may have a postcode of SW6, and be in Fulham, but it is most assuredly north of the river.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/8u27EyD6JJSpLkxp9?g_st=ic
On behalf of probably an amounf of unknown people, thanks a lot to the incredibly generous holics. The page is now closed.
https://gofund.me/7af864fe
Thanks TTG for a splendid summation of the match. Maybe having to deal with the shithousery of the Bees was good reminder of what to expect tomorrow from Porto tomorrow evening.
Yesterday’s result from “big two” was a best outcome for us. All 3 teams vying for the championship will come across an unexpected difficult match in the remaining fixtures
( like we found Brentford ) – much will depend on how they overcome such matches.
OM, just to re-iterate C100’s affirmation, Chav$ki’s home is still north of the river in spite of the incessant rain of late.
Thanks for the correction gents, you’d think I would know that having grown up in South London 😂
It’s a big old place, Matt!
*pre-assists*
Its been about 450,000 years since what is now Fulham and indeed all of London was south of the Thames.
Don’t mind if I do.
Oh, and we are still top of the league.
Exactly Ned, people need to take the long view
Well in for the half ton bt8
Good work, bt8!
So after 28 games for us – and 26 for Chelsea – another £1,000,000,000 spent, yet another new manager, and selling us, it seems their two best players as excess to requirements, Chelsea sit 28 points behind us in the league table.
So what is going on down there ?
Probably the most essential ability of any coach in any sport is the ability to communicate clearly and precisely. With that in mind, Mauricio Pochettino has offered this explanation of the fans’ discontent at their team’s inability to improve –
“I see the fans are not going to love another coach of Chelsea because if you compare with the past when you are in a brilliant project people need to understand.”
As you were then ……
Trev@53: I think the difference is that Abramovich spent billions on a sport he knew and loved, and, in his era, had first mover advantage in buying success, whereas Boehly is spending billions on a business he thinks he understands and in which he is far from the only one to have parked his tank and started firing fivers.
Well in for the half-ton, bt8.
OM@51: 👍
Mudryk and (especially) Cole Palmer looking good for Chelsea. Saudi boys getting spanked again.
It’s 10pm on a Monday night. Newcastle supporters have a 288 mile journey back. If they’re lucky they’ll get home close to 4am.
The travelling supporters are regarded as the lowest of the low by the powers that be in football.
Mike McDonald’s takes are generally very interesting . This is his Brentford thoughts
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