{"id":12360,"date":"2025-12-04T00:33:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12360"},"modified":"2025-12-04T22:53:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T22:53:48","slug":"arsenal-move-past-brentford-but-rice-limps-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=12360","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Move Past Brentford but Rice Limps Off"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal won a tense London derby with an early strike by goal machine Mikel Merino supplemented in the first minute of added time with a finish by Bukayo Saka after that man Merino had played him through. Arsenal had reason to be grateful to a spellbinding save by David Raya in the first half after Schade had risen above the defence to head a right wing corner goalwards. The fingertip save  that diverted the ball onto the bar underlined the value of a brilliant goalkeeper and contrasted with the rather tame concession last night from Raya\u2019s predecessor Aaron Ramsdale (albeit it that he was unsighted by his defenders) at St.James Park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strikers with the sort of goal instincts Merino has developed win matches but saves of the quality of Raya\u2019s tonight stop you from dropping valuable points. Raya is a truly magnificent goalkeeper now. The only clouds for Arsenal from the evening\u2019s proceedings were firstly an injury to Mosquera just before half-time (he was taken off immediately with Jurrien Timber replacing him in his international position of centre back). More worryingly, Declan Rice left proceedings with a calf injury seven minutes from time. We must keep our fingers crossed for Declan who was his usual industrious self tonight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel Arteta made three changes from the weekend draw at Chelsea with White, Madueke and \u00d8degaard starting  and Brentford left out two of their bigger beasts, Igor Thiago and Jordan Henderson who were both on the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal began confidently making frequent use of Madueke\u2019s pace and trickery down the right. It was good to see Ben White back and he was much more effective than in his last start against Olympiacos. Madueke almost breached the Brentford defence with some nice footwork and Arsenal\u2019s main concern came from a couple of long throws from Brentford\u2019s wily midfielder Kayode. Wily Kayode – see what I did there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did not have long to wait for an Arsenal breakthrough. Ten minutes had elapsed when Madueke freed White with a deft piece of footwork and Benny Blanco\u2019s neat cross found Merino at the near post and he headed the ball into the ground and past Kelleher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 1 Brentford 0 – Merino, 10.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If any Gooners envisaged an easy night after this it did not pan out that way. Despite Arsenal moving fluently at times and stretching Brentford\u2019s five man defence, the West London side were resilient and organised and troubled Arsenal intermittently on the break. It was noticeable that Schade beat Mosquera repeatedly in the air, but little danger emanated from it,  and he showed his aerial ability on 20 minutes with a flashing header from a right wing corner which Raya finger-tipped onto the bar. He made a similarly brilliant save from Podence in the Olympiacos game showing reflexes of incredible sharpness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Declan Rice almost set up Madueke for a second goal with a fine pass from the left across goal in the 39th minute. Madueke\u2019s effort was foiled by Rico Henry\u2019s last ditch challenge. Calafiori was popping up in some incredible places, he is rewriting the playbook for full back play but he adds a spectacular dimension to Arsenal\u2019s forward movement. He and White were both playing very effectively but Arsenal suffered a blow 4 minutes from half-time when Mosquera landed awkwardly after an aerial challenge and had to be substituted and was replaced by Timber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half-time – Arsenal 1 Brentford 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first 15 minutes of the second half were not reassuring for Arsenal fans as the team seemed to be labouring a little and Brentford forced a number of set pieces without really troubling Raya. We anticipated change and it came on the hour . They brought on Thiago, Henderson and Damsgaard who they had presumably kept in reserve for the greater challenge of Tottnumb at the weekend. Arsenal added Saka and Eze and without dominating were able to hold Brentford at bay. Rice and Calafiori brought full length saves from Kelleher but then in the 83rd minute we had the biggest scare of the night when Rice had to leave the pitch, apparently with a calf injury. We would very much like to have him available for Villa on Saturday but that looks doubtful (Declan said post-match that he\u2019ll be fit for Villa – Ed.). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gy\u00f6keres replaced him with Merino moving into midfield and it was the Spaniard who found Saka in space as the game moved into added time. He checked back deceiving the Brentford defence and Kelleher could not prevent his fierce drive from crossing the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal 2 Brentford 0 <\/strong>– Saka 90+1 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal played out the remaining time without alarm and pocketed another three points on a night where there were some surprise results around the country. Arsenal look imperious in football terms but they must look very carefully at the rate of muscle injuries they are sustaining throughout the squad. We have the strongest squad we have ever had but seem determined to use every man jack of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight I was delighted to see Ben White return so effectively and I also thought Calafiori was terrific. \u00d8degaard was his usual industrious self but looked like he needed the game to help him re-orientate to Premier League football. The challenges keep coming. We face Villa at midday on Saturday, another side moving ominously into form. Let us pray Declan and Saliba will be with us! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full time – Arsenal 2 Brentford 0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal won a tense London derby with an early strike by goal machine Mikel Merino supplemented in the first minute of added time with a finish by Bukayo Saka after that man Merino had played him through. Arsenal had reason to be grateful to a spellbinding save by David Raya in the first half after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12360"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12363,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12360\/revisions\/12363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}