Arsenal avenged their surprise opening day defeat with a comfortable and thoroughly deserved victory against Brentford. The 2-1 score line was something of a travesty and did not reflect our clear superiority. Two second half goals by our two home-grown tyros, ESR and Saka, clinched victory after a frustrating first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My day began with severe travel disruption. I had fixed lunch with the Countrymen in Holloway Road and after Storm Eunice yesterday had left copious margins in my projected travel time. Sadly I arrived at a station to see a notice that all services were suspended; thankfully a train arrived about an hour later and proceeded to make very reasonable time to St.Pancras, disgorging a lot of Happy Hammers at Stratford on the way. I made lunch, and it was an excellent occasion with C100 and his son. The wine flowed (and a little Grappa) and we made our way subsequently to a wet but expectant Home of Football. It was almost exactly two years since I had seen Arsenal both score and win, my last goal being an Aubameyang header against Everton in what I think was a 3-2 win in February 2020. Arsenal were without the suspended Martinelli and the injured Tomiyasu but our Japanese defender made the bench. Toney was missing for Brentford and boy was his absence a problem for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had treated myself to Club Level in the South-east corner and I\u2019ve rarely had a better view of a football match. It was worth watching too although the first half was a little frustrating. Our passing rhythm was quicker than our last home game against Burnley and Partey and Odegaard were heavily involved in most of our attacks. Lacazette fired home from an ESR pass after 15 minutes but it was disallowed for offside. Our finishing was loose with Lacazette off the pace again and Saka and ESR missing presentable chances. We forced a number of corners but Brentford defended stoutly and looked organised; at the same time they made virtually no progress forwards, and White and Gabriel were able to push forward enterprisingly. A huge part of Arsenal\u2019s game is related to creating overloads on the opposite wing and there is strong emphasis on keeping a structured shape in and out of possession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As we moved towards half-time our pressure intensified and we had two very reasonable shouts for penalties turned down. Lacazette was bundled over by Ajer and then I felt quite strongly that Wisser had blocked a Saka cross with his arm. Jon Moss was unmoved by both appeals. Incidentally the programme (you get a free one in Club) had Martin Atkinson down to referee. He had apparently refereed fifteen PL games as well as several Carabao Cup games and has brandished only two red cards this season .Guess which side those players represented? Perhaps it was a blessing that Jon Moss was refereeing, words I never expected to type! I noted at half-time that we had enjoyed 80% possession but had nothing to show for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Half-time: Arsenal 0 Brentford 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Editor of the Gooner had recently asked me to recall the last time I saw Arsenal play Brentford at home in the League for my Rewind column. As that was a very long time ago even I was not born! So if Arsenal could score it would be the first strike against Brentford for seventy five years. We did not have much longer to wait to celebrate it. On 48 minutes Smith Rowe took the ball on the left and cut inside showing the value of an inverted winger and threaded a right foot shot past Raya into the corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arsenal 1 Brentford 0 – Smith Rowe 48<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal had little effect on the balance of play or possession. Brentford were hard-working but limited in their ability to get at Arsenal. One ball forward to Wisser almost saw him get in and a few crosses, often from free-kicks were repelled by an Arsenal defence that looked comfortable and well-drilled. But a second goal didn\u2019t arrive until the 79th minute when Lacazette challenged Jansson and the ball fell to Partey who timed his pass to Saka on his left exquisitely and Bukayo showed the benefit of a winger playing on his natural side by whipping a fierce shot past Raya and in off the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arsenal 2 Brentford 0 – Saka 79<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That felt like a hugely decisive moment, Pepe had replaced ESR (forcing the switch of Saka to the left) and he looked comfortable in possession. Nketiah replaced Lacazette and looked no more likely to score. Brentford increased their intensity but made little impression until the last minute of the three added when we became discombobulated by Ajer\u2019s challenge for a right-wing cross and Ramsdale was unable to prevent Norgaard poking the ball home, depriving a lot of Holics of hard-earned Fantasy points (including yours truly). The assistant referee in front of me raised his flag but after a long delay Mr. Moss was able to give the West Londoners some consolation by overturning that decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arsenal 2 Brentford 1 – Norgaard 90+3<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There was (fortunately) little time left for Brentford to press forward and Mr. Moss duly obliged with the final whistle. We had seen Arsenal win at home against Brentford for the first time in seventy five years and well-deserved it was. On the balance of play, the chasm in quality and the number of decent chances we created we should have won by a bigger margin. But this is an Arsenal team that are not going to be free scorers until they sign a prolific striker. On a day when the Spuds showed just how valuable lethal strikers can be it is a problem we have to overcome. Fortunately both ESR and Saka showed fine finishing and will need to if we keep relying on Lacazette as our spearhead. Admirable player though he has been for us he is some way past his scoring sell-by date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Full time: Arsenal 2 Brentford 1<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I hadn\u2019t seen live several of our players before the Burnley game and this was my first view of Partey. He is a bigger unit than I expected and I was impressed by his intelligent use of the ball and his strength. I think he has adapted to English football after a difficult settling-in period. I was most impressed by White and particularly Gabriel, more for their ability to push into midfield and play incisive passes than their defensive capabilities as they weren\u2019t tested seriously here very often. Ramsdale produces some terrific passes that completely confuse the opposition and is a terrific communicator and Odegaard was industrious and intelligent and able to provideI subtle and unexpected passes. Even the much-maligned Cedric had a very decent game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe it was the effect of a good lunch with the very positive C100 or just the opportunity at long last to enjoy a win at the Grove, but I found today very enjoyable. Yes, we should have won very much more convincingly and yes there are at least two positions where we need a significant upgrade but something exciting is stirring in N5 and we have a real chance of a very high placing at the end of the season. Roll on Wolves on Thursday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arsenal avenged their surprise opening day defeat with a comfortable and thoroughly deserved victory against Brentford. The 2-1 score line was something of a travesty and did not reflect our clear superiority. Two second half goals by our two home-grown tyros, ESR and Saka, clinched victory after a frustrating first half. My day began with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"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\/4839"}],"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=4839"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4844,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4839\/revisions\/4844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}