{"id":3791,"date":"2021-08-12T21:13:41","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T20:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3791"},"modified":"2021-08-14T19:13:40","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T18:13:40","slug":"to-pick-up-where-we-left-off-74-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=3791","title":{"rendered":"To Pick Up Where We Left Off 74 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<a id=\"xp_LlXtETV1061M6oHvYjQ\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/53013915\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'xp_LlXtETV1061M6oHvYjQ',sig:'oNN_HPfTg9l8Xdlud-itKhXg9Kk_heDYYnMmaCvnfrw=',w:'594px',h:'435px',items:'53013915',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\" async=\"\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was \u2014 and at point of writing still is \u2014 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Griffens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some \u2018holics 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Benhamball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 \u00a3500,000 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 (\u2018moneyball\u2019) that are cornerstones of his football philosophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At Brentford, he scrapped the club\u2019s Academy and U-23 team in favour of a \u2018B\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ollie Watkins, for example, was bought from Exeter City as a 21-year old for \u00a36 million and sold three years later to Aston Villa for \u00a320 million. Sa\u00efd Benrahma was acquired from Nice at 22 for \u00a31.5 million and sold to West Ham two and a half years later for \u00a320 million, plus a \u00a33.5 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 \u00a35 million and is now valued at approaching \u00a325 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Toney missed the Bee\u2019s final pre-season match, a win over Valencia, with a \u2018minor, minor\u2019 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 \u00a313.5 million, and similarly aged Nigerian central midfielder Frank Onyeka, signed from sister club FC Midtjylland for \u00a38.5 million. A late recruit, 24-year-old winger Yoane Wissa from Lorient, may make the bench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The big decisions for Arteta are who partners Xhaka in Partey\u2019s absence, whether White starts and which of Bellerin or Chambers will play at right-back. That might be determined by Holding\u2019s availability, with Chambers starting if Rob is fit for the bench, and Bellerin starting if Chambers has to be the back-up centre back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Leno<br>Bellerin, White, Mari, Tierney<br>Lokonga, Xhaka<br>Pepe, Smith Rowe, Aubameyang<br>Lacazette<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bench<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Runarsson, Tavares, Holding\/Chambers, Elneny, Saka, Maitland-Niles, Balogun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The \u2018holics pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy the game, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images 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\u2019s last game before being relegated from the top flight to which they only now return. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791"}],"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\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3791"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3801,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3791\/revisions\/3801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}