Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction
A 2-0 win over Brentford last night reestablished Arsenal’s 5 point lead at the top of the Premier League. Mikel Arteta made some changes to the side, handing starts to Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Noni Madueke as Jurrien Timber, Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka dropped to the bench. Not exactly wholesale rotation, but some fresh legs in there, and it was the right hand side which looked most threatening.
White looked like a man with a point to prove. He hasn’t been playing due to a combination of injury and the consistent excellence of Timber, but he was out to show he’s not to be forgotten. There was one nice interchange with Madueke which came to nothing in the end, but a couple of minutes later they did it again, White overlapped and put in a cross which, thanks to his smart movement in the box, Mikel Merino headed home to make it 1-0 in the 11th minute.
The Spanish international may still be seen by some as a makeshift option at centre-forward, but he’s someone who has learned a new role in a really impressive way. That’s 2 goals and 3 assists in his last four Premier League games, which are the numbers of a man in form. In 2025, it’s 21 goals (and 9 assists) for Arsenal and Spain, which is quite remarkable for someone who had never scored at anything close to that frequency in his career previously. That kind of form and output must give the manager something to think about as he considers his team selection, even with Viktor Gyokeres available again and Gabriel Jesus looking to play again too.
Madueke showed quick feet to force Caoimhin Kelleher into a save, but it was the other goalkeeper who made the save of the night a few minutes later. From a Brentford corner, Kevin Schade rose highest to plant a header on target, but David Raya’s reaction time was incredible, pushing the ball onto the bar and away to safety. You might see more spectacular looking saves this season, but I’m not sure you’ll see much better given how close range this was. Maybe it’s worth mentioning that as well as Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie have done, you rarely see us concede those kinds of chances with Gabriel and William Saliba in the team.
There were a couple of nearly moments again for Madueke as the half progressed, but just before the break there was an injury to Mosquera which forced him off. It is non-stop at the moment, and I understand the need for people to ask questions about our list of absentees, but I don’t know how any club or any medical team can legislate for a player landing slightly awkwardly and hurting themselves in the process. Sometimes shit happens. I have no information on this incident at all, but a feeling of real disquiet based on how he jarred his knee, so let’s keep everything crossed it’s not too serious. Timber, who plays centre-half regularly for the Netherlands, came on to replace him.
The second half was a bit of a struggle, it’s fair to say. It might have been down to us, with some tired legs, but I also think Brentford played well. They upped the intensity of their press, which meant we couldn’t find any fluency on the ball, and the possession stats were far more even after the break than in the first half. The scoreline made it feel something like a game on a knife-edge, but there wasn’t a lot of threat from the visitors. It was one of those where a single moment, a mistake, a set-piece, could cost you points, but when it comes right down to it, they didn’t muster a shot on target in the second 45.
Bringing on Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze helped give us a bit more control in the game, and there were moments when we could have scored again. A Declan Rice shot was saved and Merino couldn’t make the follow up count, there was another one when he tried to buy a penalty rather than keep the ball alive, and right at the end Riccardo Calafiori’s shot was there for Saka to tuck it away at the back post, but he didn’t make good contact and Kelleher smothered the ball.
He made up for it shortly afterwards, picking up a Merino through ball, and although the shot was saved, it looped up and over the goalkeeper, and dropped under the bar and over the line despite the best efforts of Kelleher to claw the ball away. The ref’s watch buzzed, the goal stood, and that was 2-0. By that time Gyokeres had come on to replace Rice who went off feeling his calf, so that’s another worry, but the most important part was getting back to winning ways after the draw against Chelsea.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta had words of praise for Merino:
It’s his will to learn and his will to help the team. He knew that we had a major problem from the beginning of the season. We lost Viktor, Kai was out and Gabriel Jesus was out. So we needed a solution. He did it last year really, really well. I think this season he’s probably taking it to another step because he’s able to do even more things. So I think the team is really grateful and he’s enjoying it.
And Ben White:
Personally, I’m very, very happy for him as a human being. I think the rest of the team is the same because he’s a player who has always played for us, and sadly, because of the right reasons, he wasn’t playing that much. But his attitude has been so positive, so good. Then when you are ready and you’re given the opportunity, you take it like he did today. So I’m very happy that we have him back in the best version of himself as well, and we’re going to need him because he’s a tremendous player.
Football is a funny business. White was a lock-in for so long, a first name on the teamsheet kind of player, then things go a different direction for various reasons. But did anyone have any doubt that if we needed him he’d step up? Not me. He’s demonstrated so often in the past what a fighter he is, and the reality is now we might need him to play more often depending on the defensive injury situation. I suspect the plan was to give him an hour or so last night, but he did 90+.
Then it’s a question of waiting to see if William Saliba can return at the weekend, how bad the Mosquera situation is, and we know Gabriel is going to be another few weeks. Add the Rice issue on top of that, and the manager is going to have to continue to elicit results without big players at his disposal. It’s a theme of this season, not unremarked upon by Arsenal fans because we’re living every ache and strain, and feel these injury problems acutely, but in the wider discussion to be where we are with the absences we’ve had isn’t getting quite the recognition it merits.
The schedule remains relentless, and Arteta had some pointed comments in his press conference, saying:
Now we play Wednesday night and we have to play Saturday morning as well. We can play minutes but if they can please give us just a little bit more time to recover and to make the well-being of these players a little bit easier, that would be great.
Unfortunately, and not just for Arsenal, there is no consideration at all for the welfare of the players. It’s just a question of Arteta, and all the other managers, having to get their teams through this run of fixtures. We’ll await further news on Rice and Mosquera, and hope that there’s nothing too serious for either of them, and perhaps we’ll get some kind of update tomorrow morning when the manager holds his pre-Villa press conference.
For now though, it’s another win, three points, a first clean sheet since the start of November, and the Arsenal machine keeps moving forward. For more on this game, and the rest of the week’s Premier League action, we’ll have an Arsecast for you a bit later on so please join us for that.
Until then.
