Result: Brentford 0-3 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 18 September 2022
Venue: Community Stadium
Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney, Partey, Xhaka, Vieira, Martinelli, Saka, Jesus
Subs: Turner, Tomiyasu, Holding, Sousa, Lokonga, Smith, Nwaneri, Marquinhos, Nketiah
Arsenal returned to the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 win over Brentford at the Community Stadium.
Mikel Arteta’s players produced a fine performance from start to finish taking a two-goal advantage into the break courtesy of headers by William Saliba and Gabriel Jesus before Fabio Vieira announced himself in English football with a superb strike four minutes after the break.
Pre-game
The news of Thomas Partey’s return to full fitness was tempered by the absence of Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko who both picked up injuries in training this week. Our captain was replaced by Fabio Vieira, making his first Premier League start, while Kieran Tierney stepped up at left-back. Ben White got the nod ahead of Takehiro Tomiyasu who took up a place on a subs bench with an average age under 22. The inclusion of 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri got tongues wagging while 17-year-old Lino Sousa also went along for the ride.
First Half
Arsenal settled quickly and dominated possession in the opening 10 minutes knocking the ball around with a confidence that suggested we were up for the challenge ahead. In truth, we should have taken the lead inside 90 seconds only for Martinelli to slip inside the box after the Brentford defence had been expertly sliced open.
The Gunners continued to plug away and deservedly broke the deadlock on 17 minutes. After winning a corner, Saka whipped a beautiful inswinging cross to Saliba at the near post and the Frenchman beautifully flicked the ball over the line via the back post. There was a brief moment while the goalline technology confirmed the goal before the travelling fans found their voice. (GOAL 1-0)
This was a first half all about control and grinding down our opponents. The Arsenal defence rarely looked flustered when Brentford sent balls down the flanks and when we won the ball back, we simply worked neat triangles up and down and side to side. Not only did the tactic seem to tire the home players it also dampened the usually buoyant Brentford atmosphere.
A well-worked move on 28 minutes saw us double the lead. Vieira played the ball to Xhaka who exchanged passes with Tierney before delivering a teasing ball to the six-yard box for Jesus to plant a header in the top corner. It was a peach of an assist from the Swiss who was rightfully lauded by his teammates as the Brazilian danced a celebratory jig. (GOAL 2-0)
Saka had a chance to further extend the lead but fired over and Xhaka and Tierney tried their luck from long range as we continued to keep the home side at arm’s length. The latter pair were both on the receiving end of touchline high fives and back slaps from Arteta who was pleased with his side’s defensive efforts. That was exemplified by Jesus and Martinelli both winning the ball back in deep, dangerous areas.
A late Mbeumo header that glanced wide was about the best the Bees could muster.
Second half
Brentford tried to get their fans going with a few of their favourite tunes on the tannoy system as the teams took to the pitch but the Gunners, thanks to a moment of brilliance by new boy Fabio Vieira, quickly pissed on their parade.
Given the ball 25 yards from goal by Saka, the Portuguese midfielder looked up and whipped a beautiful effort in off the post that left keeper Raya with no chance. It was a special strike from a player who arrived with a reputation for goals and has already suggested he can deliver the goods. (GOAL 3-0)
Toney tried an audacious flick-up-and-volley from an indirect free-kick as the home side looked to bounce back before Jesus was denied by a great stop by Raya’s feet. Not long past the hour mark, the Spaniard produced another great save at full stretch to keep out Saka’s curler. Arteta didn’t want his players to ease up.
Having already observed a minute’s silence before kick off and a verse of the national anthem, supporters came together again in the 70th minute with a round of applause to pay tribute to the late Queen’s 70 years on the throne. While that was happening Ramsdale foiled an effort by substitute Damsgaard.
The Gunners, after switching out Partey and Martinelli for Lokonga and Nketiah, were a little ragged in the closing stages. When Brentford were denied a penalty by the offside flag, Ramsdale decided to take the sting out of things by going down with an issue that may or may not have needed treatment. The home fans sensed gamesmanship and suddenly woke up from their slumber with a few boos.
Just to rub Brentford’s faces in it, Arsenal made history in the dying moments when Mikel Arteta gave 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri his debut to become the club’s and the Premier League’s youngest ever player. “He’s got school in the morning,” chanted the Gooners who soon enough were celebrating another three points.
We’re heading into a two-week Interlull now. Next up, it’s the north London derby.
That commentary on Sky Sports was sooo sickening, I’ve never heard a pair wanting Brentford to win so badly. Worst bit was when they said ‘you won’t get a foul for that young man’ when someone tackled Vieira. Glad we shut them up good and proper in the end 🤪
Fantastic win for Arsenal, against a side that beat Man U 4-0. We looked great throughout and Brentford hardly did anything to threaten us, especially given we had a lot of other chances. Hope our injured players can recover over the international break and we get no new injuries. We need to be in top form for Sp*rs and Liverpool, our next two PL matches. Great game for us. COYR!
Jesus on 4 yellows now, hopefully he doesn’t get booked against Sp*rs or he’ll miss Liverpool.
Yes, that’s a worry, I guess. Good to see him back on the scoresheet though.
Yeah, I agree, will be a nightmare to lose him, but if we do, I believe Eddie has shown he is a decent backup, everytime he comes on, for Jesus, for me, clearly not the same level yet, cos he is developing, I feel at the very least he maintains the status quo, team standard wise, while he creates his own unique problems for the opposition defence
Respect to Brentford fans for respecting the minutes silence for the Queen throughout most of the match.
Lol😅😅
🙂
It was a very fine Arsenal performance – probably the best overall performance of the season (and just at the right time too). Regarding Brentford’s result against Utd though, football isn’t like, say, horse racing where you can trace a line of form in races. Were Brentford to play the Utd of “now”, I doubt that they’d repeat that earlier score line. But it’s certainly true to say that, overall, they’ve been very good at home so that just adds gloss to our win, doesn’t it. You’re absolutely right about how teams come out of the international break. Our next… Read more »
Sp*rs are nicking a living at the moment and Liverpool are just poor. Bring it on! COYG!
Gosh, I thought it was just me! They seemed so disappointed by the end haha
Thought I was the only one a bit puzzled especially by the co-commentator.
Firstly, he said Arsenal have been weak from set pieces. Lol
Then he went on to suggest Xhaka would get sent off after picking up a yellow card. Loved how the main commentator chimed in to say it was only Xhaka’ second booking of the season.
It was so weird.
It was odd – although Xhaka should have known better. If you’re going to do a foul like that don’t do it in front of the referee!
Well, I like me this front footed, more attack minded Xhaka 2.0… for me he is pretty much undroppable at the moment, he has always been our best deep lying play maker for a while because he can switch play in the blink of an eye because of his long range passing skills, which accounted for why, even in his darkest moments, none of our managers, including the great Arsene, dropped him, now he has been tasked with moving into the final 3rd, doing the same and I think he has rose to that challenge brilliantly, some brilliant assists and… Read more »
Partey brings the balance to the team so others can flourish, keeping him fit is the biggest challenge
Anyone have money on it?
Nice kickabout with the boys
Nice kickabout with the bees
Their buzzing wasn’t annoying today.
Sickening bias from Sky, I had to change to US coverage. While on BBC sport live text before the game. It stated Man City will go into the international break top. Without even a mention of Arsenal.
Suck it, the lot of you.
Very composed performance today from the team. Nice to put down cosmopolitan Stoke a peg or two.
Lol. Absolutely spot on.
That period of about 5 mins when they kept lobbing long throw ins into our box ala pulisball!
Dimmy fraud hasslewank was unbelievable on sky. He hates us. Cxxt. 😂
I think cunt is allowed in these parts
Yeah.. He thought they would win when he scored @50th min back in 2004 .. dude can’t get over how we destroyed them that day.
Bergkamp brought a tear to my eye that day.
Yeah, that comment passed me off too. Proper old school, dinosaur commentary
What did he say?
I know fucking disgraceful. So biased it beyond embarrassing now. You right don goodman’s comment about hard tackle/foul on vieira early on was straight out of the “they don’t like it up em” (foreigners) play book. Does big don not realise that they tackle in the top flight in the portugal as well where vieira’s been playing! Lot of tough brazilians in that league as well!! What a bunch of fucking bell ends most of these so called pundits and ex-players are. I know others will say turn the commentary off, but you want the atmosphere, the crowd etc. it… Read more »
There was a time on sky when you could just have the crowd noise and switch people like Andy fucking Grey off ruining matches. All of a sudden this feature was dropped and the rumour was it was because everyone was opting for that so the boys club did away with it. Would love to know if that was true.
My old man and his mates then swerved the shit sky commentary by muting the sound and sticking the radio coverage on. It was in syn so it worked a treat.
It was the same shite from the NBC Sports gaggle here in the States. Jim Proudf*ck was drooling for Xhaka to get a second yellow and kept dreaming of a Brentford comeback, even at 0-3. To be fair, Robbie Musto was very Arsenal positive!
the funniest thing is I think Vieira wasn’t even appealing that it was a foul, but that the throw in went the wrong way…
I didn’t quite see it the same way but I guess any commentary minus the awful Gary Neville or Jamie Carragher is going to sound an improvement.
cool to see xhaka getting more and more comfortable in that advanced left 8 role, he was great today.
Xhaka has turned out to be a decent player
He always has been. He’s needed the right players around him.
He always was this good. Its just he has been played more as a DM since he came to us. Playing in the more advanced role works to his strengths.
Something tells me he hasn’t gone from being a shit player to a good one over night.
More likely he’s always been good & this form is just a result of the manager playing him in a position that better suits his skills, better players around him & much more of the fan base getting behind him instead parroting lazy cliches.
Well said.
Got to say I never thought he would be able to handle that position. Fair play to him and the boss.
On a sidenote, I would give a kidney to see Partey have Xhaka’s kind of impeccable fitness record. He just gives us so much control in the middle of the pack. It’s insane.
I recall him having an excellent Euros playing more advanced with Switzerland. I kinda recall all the ‘why didn’t he play so well for arsenal’ comments. Seems the answer is to deploy him further forward
He was always box to box and more advanced at Monchengladbach. It’s been a travesty to play him deeper for so long.
Quote from Bleeding gums murphy before the game:
“Nwaneri is 15 years old. It’s incredible. He’s on bench. I hear he is the real deal. If we are 3 up with ten to go, we may see history being made. Fingers crossed.”
“School in the morning, he’s got school in the morning”
He only played today because tomorrow is a Bank Holiday.
Seriously though, brilliant achievement for him and his family.
If only I was as good at calling lottery numbers. Great win today and we were very unlucky at United. We played like we did today but got caught on couple of counters. We are looking very good. If injury gods are kind, we could have an exceptional season. Fingers crossed 🤞 😜
I’m ashamed to say my reaction to your comment before the game was that it was never going to happen. Next time I’ll have more faith in both you and the team.
Also let me know those lottery numbers yeah?
🤓
It must have been a lucky day mate. On the club website’s “team predictor” quiz I predicted our first goal to be scored on 17th minute and I got it right. Shame I lost on the goal scorer having picked Martinelli.
nice kick about with the boys
With the bees? lol
A nice kickabout for the boys.
We’re top of the league. Take that, Ivan Toney!
Now for Sp*rs, got to blow them off their f****ig pech
The highest perch they’ve managed to climb up is the basketball that ridiculous chicken is standing on. And we’ll knock them off that anyway, just for fun like.
What perch??? A perch is a point of altitude from which you can look down on others… where has this dialogue that spuds are good ever come from??? They look alright but during their very Veryan best days under Poch, they still did fuck all! Being in CL? We were lambasted for doing that for 20 plus years.
They will be our toughest test so far this season
Nice kickabout against the boys…I mean bees
A great performance and a great win, the referee seemed frustrated the whole game. The bad thing was the yellow to Jesus, which might complicate our upcoming schedule.
Buzzing. Dancing. And I’m not sorry. COYG!!!
What a result! 3-0 away to a strong club, 10/10 performances from everyone on the pitch today. Dare I also say, I think this is easily Xhaka’s best season so far in an Arsenal shirt.
Tbf, he was pretty good last season as well.
Best time of his AFC career
Saliba kept Toney is his pocket all match
I have been ery cautious not to over hype Saliba. But my word, he is going to be an absolute monster of a defender!
And apparently he did it carrying a knock & with only 1 days training on Wednesday under his belt!
When I told one of my friends yesterday that the only thing Toney would see in our half of the pitch was the inside of Saliba’s pocket, he though I was a bit overconfident.
Fair to say we should bee beeting the Denmark Bee team, but I wasn’t expecting it to be so easy. Very well played lads, looking great. What a goal by Vieira, and what an assist by Xhaka for Jesus!
I think you meant “bee so beeasy”
COYG!
Thank you Vieira much
Controlled. Comfortable. Efficient. Back on top of the table. Sweet revenge on loud toney and Brentford. Great goals. Brilliant performances across the field. History made with young Nwaneri. Hopefully no injuries. Couldn’t have asked for a better gooner weekend! COYG!!!
Nice seeing a training session live. Having Partey in the MF is really calming.
He makes us better simples
Great performance
Looking forward to watching the footage of Gary Neville dancing and celebrating with the away fans.
Who?
Nice kick around with the boys.
Best performance of the season so far, total dominance from start to finish. Partey makes such a big difference, his positioning and composure was top class today. Fantastic goal for Vieira too, my friend was criticising him for having a quiet game right before he scored that beauty, clearly the commentators curse at work!
Best performance of the season. Controlled from start to finish.
Partey makes a big difference to the team
Thomas Partey wow. My MOTM by far. There must be a hidden law of physics that on a sufficiently long time scale the ball just comes back to his feet.
That part where he mugged off the Brentford players about 3 times in 5 seconds so three of them fouled him at the same time
An Arsenal game that ticked all the boxes. We really needed to win; we wanted a comprehensive victory – a score line that actually reflected our overall performance; and Jesus got back on the score sheet, in addition to his general contribution to the team that we all know about. What’s not to like?
“A stroll in the park… a stroll in the park… Ivan Toney… A stroll in the park!”
Top of the league. COYG
*Toney Ivan
This team 😍
Dominant from start to finish, superb display against a team that does not make it easy for top six teams
Remember two seasons ago when we had to create the perfect situation to score?
Today we scored from a set piece, a header from a 5.9 player, and a 35 yard screamer.
Gotta love it.
Didn’t always work out, and we certainly had massive disappointments at the end of the season but my god when everything clicked they were right up there with some of the best worked goals in world football! Remember that JW goal against Norwich?
Of course I remember! Pure magic.
But I was referring to Arteta’s first 18 months, when we were playing the horseshoe of doom and whipping 20 crosses a game for our towering strikers, Auba and Lacazzette.
Agree, and it seems like Arteta has also worked to refine his methods, he’s destined to be a great Manager, top man too.
Ooh. Do I ever?!
its one of the few goals I remember when I had to see the replay to work out what happened.
Well that was easy wasnt it
I love a good tune me
Work rate, work rate, work rate. The difference from seasons past is there for all to see. I’m so pleased with what Arteta doing.
Just so I’m clear about the Arsenal fanbase’s collective assessment of the club’s next opponents in the Premier League, I am curious to ask – what do we think of Tottenham?
SHIT 😀
Shit
Shit
SHIT
shit but slightly stronger in terms of players (attacking package really impressive) and definitely better in terms of coach (it costs me saying it as I dislike Conte massively but last season still hurts). please do not play the ManU game with that lot. counters is all those pricks can do but they do it good.
And what do you think of shit?
Tottenham!
Bottleham Coldspurms!
Great performance by the team, good times! Let’s hope we can keep this momentum going, top of the league into the World Cup lull, also I love Harlaand, fair play to him, great scorer, but he’s no Henry, the King could take a football from a defended corner and majestically perform a solo counter-attack, then cap it off with a spectacular goal. This is the premier league, everyone gets kicked on cold Tuesday nights at Stoke lol. Saliba, Xhaka, all Gabriels, Saka, Vieira, Zinc, Ram, White….what a team. Also after watching All or Nothing I’ve actually come to respect Arteta… Read more »
You make a very interesting point about Arteta. Anyone reading the comments on this site what, 18 months ago – not really that long – would have seen the overwhelming majority calling for his sacking, along with “Kroenke Out” of course. Move on to today and I suspect that the majority of our fans are content to give the manager at least the benefit of the doubt now given how we’re currently doing. Also, there aren’t even quite so many “Kroenke Out” comments as there once were. As far as Arteta is concerned this could all change if things don’t… Read more »
Indeed, the All or Nothing also showed the opinions on Arteta were, at best, mixed.
Well done to Mikel, Granit and Josh.
What a difference saliba makes!
My money dont jiggle jiggle
When’s 3 nil up against spurs next, would like to see math Smith come on maybe he will show Kane a thing or two about winning trophies. Personal opinion
“Oi Harry, wanna see my FA Cup winners medal? If you ask nicely I might even let you polish it”
I remember Arsene labelling Xhaka as a box to box midfielder when he signed him. Almost everyone thought he doesnt look and play like one. Six years down the line, here we are with Granit making superb last ditch interceptions and clearances while also providing ammo for medium gabi, in the same game!
If we do that 10 times work young Ethan he will get a premier League medal at the end of the season
I thought Vieira was excellent, and indeed thought that before his great goal. Technically very very good. And looked fairly robust for someone quite slight in stature. Having said that, could do with another 3-4 kg on his frame.