Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Quotes round-up
If Arsenal do win the league this season, nobody will be able to accuse us of doing it the easy way. We came away from Brentford last night with a point which, when compared with pre-game expectation, was frustrating and disappointing. However, when viewed through the prism of how this game transpired, it felt like one we needed to tuck away and hightail back to North London feeling quite glad about.
After the news of Kai Havertz’s injury, we were also without William Saliba who missed out through illness. That meant a start alongside Gabriel for Cristhian Mosquera, with Piero Hincapie at left-back, Eberechi Eze in midfield, and Viktor Gyokeres up front flanked by Leandro Trossard and Noni Madueke.
The game was intense and physical, as you’d expect, but there wasn’t much to be encouraged about by our first half performance. The biggest chance of half fell to Brentford after David Raya misplaced a short throw to Declan Rice, they got it into the box, and the Arsenal keeper made a fine save from Igor Thiago. We had a decent-ish spell in the last 10 minutes or so, but ended the half without a shot on target.
Eze was peripheral in midfield, I think he needs a player like Havertz or Jesus to connect with more than someone like Gyokeres, but he wasn’t alone in being poor. Madueke on the right took an age to do anything, and usually did the thing he should have done earlier about 10 seconds too late. If at all. Brentford’s press and set-up kept Martin Zubimendi out of possession, and there was little to like about that first 45 minutes from an Arsenal perspective beyond the fact defensively we dealt well, generally, with their set-pieces.
The half-time change of Martin Odegaard on for Eze didn’t surprise me, and I think the captain made a difference in the early part of the second half. Collectively we played with more intent, more purpose, and in the period between the break and scoring, we dominated the game. 75% possession, 5 shots to their 1, and crucially, a goal. Arsenal were readying Bukayo Saka from the bench when Hincapie crossed from the left, and Madueke produced a very good header which caught Kelleher just off balance and looped in to make it 1-0.
As has too often been the case with this team though, scoring a goal results in us allowing the game to go too far the other way. Immediately we let them get on the front foot, they had nearly 75% possession themselves, and out-shot us 4 to 0. I will say, their set-pieces were absolute chaos. The amount of holding and wrestling and grappling and writhing was like something from Caligula more than the Premier League, but we’re in no position to complain about making life difficult for the opposition in those circumstances. The long throws from Michael Kayode are such a weapon, and so difficult to defend against anyway, but when it’s mayhem every, single time it requires perfection or you get punished.
Unfortunately, we switched off once. He hurled one in, they won the first header and flicked it on, and Keane Lewis-Potter reacted more quickly that Odegaard who hurt himself trying to clear it as the Brentford man made it 1-1. And from there, every time they had a moment like this you could feel we were on edge. In the cold light of day, I think we generally did pretty well. Raya was commanding if not always 100% secure, but more than once came away with the ball in hands or with a vital touch. Gabriel and Mosquera ended the game with nearly 20 clearances between them, but that one time you switch off, you pay the price.
The bigger question was whether or not we could find a way to stem the tide, and get a goal ourselves. Saka came on and barely had a kick in 25 minutes. Odegaard played on after the injury that required treatment, but looked inhibited by it. Calafiori and Martinelli were introduced for Hincapie and Trossard, but by then the game itself felt like chaos. Mosquera made a mistake to let Thiago through but redeemed himself with an outstanding tackle; Gabriel was very lucky to not pick up a second yellow for a clumsy foul deep in our half; Thiago had another moment when he fired over from a tight angle; and there was a late opportunity for us when Timber could have gone through but took a bad touch. His subsequent pass for Martinelli was crying out for a first time finish, but he took a touch and Kelleher came out to make a good save to deny him.
But, I think it says a lot about what we did and didn’t create that we’re hanging so much weight on a chance that came in the 93rd minute. Yes, Brentford made it tough, but it’s also true to say that Arsenal didn’t offer enough from an attacking perspective. Can Martinelli do better? Perhaps, but collectively we didn’t make enough to offset a miss which, as I said, came in the dying minutes of the game.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:
A really tough place to come, we knew that. Very difficult to dominate the game through long periods because they are really good; they drag you to a game where anytime the ball is in and around the byline or in the channel, you put the ball out for a throw-in, and it’s like a casino. Anything can happen, and something really bad can happen. You have to navigate through that. I think after the first 15 minutes, we started to dominate the game. We started the second half really well, the first 20-25 minutes, we scored the goal and from there we lacked more composure to maintain the ball better, to play in the right areas, to stay more disciplined, because we started to give a lot of unnecessary free kicks away, and bad clearances, and allow the ball in the channels, and start to generate set-pieces, and they are really, really good at it. So credit to them as well, for sure.
I think it is fair to credit the opposition who made it so tough and who were probably the better team on the night. Sometimes you have to acknowledge they had a game-plan that worked well, and we didn’t have the answers. But we’re now at a point of the season where it’s imperative for the manager to find solutions in games, because the margin for error becomes tighter and tighter. The gap was 9 points, briefly, at the weekend, it’s now 4. We’re heading towards squeaky bum time, if we’re not there already, and Mikel Arteta has some real thinking to do.
How can we get more from Eze, whose talent is obvious, but whose impact has been disappointing aside from that North London derby? Despite some goals of late, I still have concerns that Gyokeres continues to feel a bit like a square peg in a round hole in terms of how he connects with those around him. I’m guessing he stayed on last night because we needed height to counter their set-pieces, and I get that, but the consequence of that was it was harder for us to get the ball to stick up the other end when we did have it. Madueke, goal aside, was frustrating. Odegaard flickered briefly. Saka was anonymous when he came on.
The concern for me is that we struggle to look in any way cohesive in attack, and this is February, not August. You can concede a goal like we did last night if you’re capable of going again and going up a gear in the process. Last night we looked tired, heavy-legged, and out of ideas. And it’s not the first time we’ve seen this kind of performance either. Obviously Havertz is a miss, but as much as I like him and wish we had him available, his impact has been because his presence gave the team a different dynamic, rather than him playing out of his skin on an individual level.
Without him, we reverted to a much more predictable version of ourselves, and for the most part Brentford coped with that fairly comfortably. How Arteta deals with this remains to be seen, but in general I think you can say that bar one or two, most of our attacking players have been below par this season to varying extents. You don’t win the league if you can’t get a consistent tune out of those players, and it’s imperative the manager finds a way to do that as soon as possible. Otherwise, we’ll see more nights like last night, and if that’s the case, the season ends in all too familiar fashion.
Sorry if that’s a bit down, because I know that’s a tough place to go and we got a point, but it’s how I felt when I went to bed and struggled to sleep last night, and it’s how I feel this morning. We remain in good shape, in a very good position on top of the table let’s not forget, but the sense that we have to step it up if we want to go and win this league is inescapable to me. We’ll take the point from last night, but this is a busy week, and Arteta has to find a way to make those heavy legs feel lighter with Wolves and the derby coming up after the FA Cup tie on Sunday.
Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. We will have an Arsecast for you a bit later, so stand-by for that. Until then, have a good one.
