Tag: Brentford

WE GOT WHAT WE DESERVE despite var being the biggest waste of time and money for everyone involved. Kill me (Arsenal-Brentford reaction)

And just like that, Arsenal dropped another two points at home to mid-table Brighton with a 1-1 draw at the Emirates. Very frustrating afternoon considering the opportunity we had to rebound from a 1-0 loss to Everton last week, and we were at home, it was all set up for us to smack Brentford before Man City on Wednesday and it was not good enough, to say the least. 4/10 and 5/10 all over the pitch for Arsenal players, with all to play for is disappointing but we move to Wednesday against Man City.

THOUGHTS ON THE FIRST HALF: Arteta started with the same starting XI we have seen for most of this season and I think we are at a point where we need a change or two to spice things up. Arsenal saw a lot of possession to start the match as you would expect but Brighton unlike the earlier matchup between the two teams was well-organized and stood up to the Gooners at every turn. Martinelli, Eddie and Xhaka for me, were way below the standards we had set for ourselves heading into this match, never getting and coming into the match like we needed them to, made life easy for Brentford whenever they received the ball around the box. Just a lack of cutting edge from our standout players this season. If we are being honest, Brentford had the more clear-cut chances in the first half with well worked counters between Mbuemo and Ivan Toney up top where Arsenal didn’t cope with the pressure well at all. Rico Henry had a sitter where he incredibly hit it off target and Toney hit the crossbar with a wide open net as well. The chances for Arsenal were few and far between where there were spells of well-worked possession and intricate passing around the box but we were never able to open the low block/5 defender set that Brentford set themselves up with, leaving both teams going into the half tied 0-0.

THOUGHTS ON THE SECOND HALF: Arteta seemed to have gotten into the Arsenal players at the half as we came out of the blocks with may more intent and pressure than the first half. Arteta knew what was at stake and before the 60th minute mark, got Trossard ready to come in for Martinelli which was surprising, given the fact that Arteta usually waits on subs instead of being aggressive to make changes. Trossard who benefitted from the tired Brentford legs was lively from the start and was giving Roerslev the runaround a bit before Saka found space and time on the right to whip in a cross which was was well-finished and well-timed by Trossard:

It was a perfect moment. Arsenal had broken the deadlock and secured themselves 3 points to extend the lead before this debacle:

Just terrible, fucking terrible. Zinchenko getting pinned off, Saliba was dominated by Pinnock, Ramsdale all at sorts, and Toney had the easiest goal in his life.

BUT Lee Mason, that disgusting human being who was on VAR assignment for the game failed to take into account Christian Norgaard’s positioning for the goal. He did not draw the offside line for the Danish midfielder which then allowed for the goal to stand for Brentford. Just an abysmal performance from the Premier League, PGMOL, and Lee Mason for not doing the bare minimum for their job. Like the only reason VAR should exist is to get the objective parts of the game right, and they have failed in VAR’s tenure to do that consistently. It’s so basic, so frustrating.

At the end of the day, Arsenal weren’t good enough over the 90 minutes to get the 3 points, fair to say Arsenal are hitting their current low point of the season and needs to get their heads back yesterday before things unravel even worse, no better time to do it then against title challenger City on Wednesday.

MATCH RATINGS:

Ramsdale: 5/10: Made decent saves throughout but in the biggest moment of the game, came up short

Ben White: 5/10: Been pretty poor for the past few weeks

Saliba: 5/10: Outdueled by Toney for most of the game, lost out to Pinnock for the goal

Gabriel: 5/10: Struggled a bit as well

Zinchenko: 6/10: Tried hard

Xhaka: 4/10: useless in the final third

Saka: 7/10: Our only constant attacking threat

Ødegaard: 6/10: also tried hard

Nketiah: 5/10: May be back to his level?

Trossard: 7/10: did what he could for the team

Lee Mason: -10000000000000/10: F off

BACK TO TOP OF THE LEAGUE (Arsenal-Brentford)

After the United loss over Labor Day weekend, it was always going to be interesting how we’d respond, and thank goodness we played a sorry Brentford team today, winning the game 3-0 at Brentford. I’d usually wax lyrical about how much quality we had going forward, how we dominated from the start, etc. but Brentford were so bad, I’m not even sure if Arsenal played well today. Zinchenko and Ødegaard missed out due to injuries but Tierney and Vieira stepped in and kept the train going. I’ll take the 3 points for what they are for sure, keeps us in pace with the Top 4 and the league, and puts us in the right direction before the International Break.

  1. Brentford showed everybody what not to do against Arsenal. Usually, I’m the first to tell people if Arsenal were shit or not shit, never giving the other team acknowledgment on an Arsenal game but my word Brentford were terrible. These guys came into the game on the top half of the table respectively but played like relegation fodder. They smoked us last year to open the regular season with a 2-0 drubbing and you’d think they would look to replicate that game if possible. In our faces, winning their individual battles, pressing from the start, using the crowd to energize them. But they did the opposite, they sat back instead of getting in our faces, showed us WAY too much respect and tried to hit us on the counter. The problem with that is, once you concede early, which they did through a Saliba header, it puts all the onus back on you to get on level terms and they never coped with it. Arsenal never got out of 2nd gear, but we never had to, Brentford’s midfield was nonexistent, defenders stagnant, attackers isolated. Just a shit and weird performance from a usually respectable Thomas Frank side.

2. Gabriel Jesus is back to his dancing and goal-scoring ways. It was an 8/10 performance from Gabi, consistent with how he has performed and carried us this season. He could have had more as well with just a little more time and quality on his 1 on 1 opportunities but I won’t complain about his performance, just so much quality on his header for our 2nd goal.

It’s a splendid ball from Xhaka to find Gabi, but how Gabi had the strength in his neck to divert the ball back across the face of the goal is sickening. Just unreal from my #9. I love him.

3. Saliba is still the greatest to ever do it. Besides adding Ivan Toney as one of his victims, he scored another unreal goal, this time straight off a corner with a flicked header. The goal angle is absurd and makes no sense when you look at where he was on the front post. Adding another goal to his legend.

4. The medical and physio staff need to get their shit together. Gary O’Driscoll, Arsenal’s head of medical services, and his staff need to sort this crap out. I am tired of seeing these last-minute updates on how Zinchenko and Ødegaard missed out due to calf injuries suffered in training. Tomiyasu missed the second half of last season with a calf injury as well. We all know Thomas Partey is always a liability to get hurt. Gabriel Magalhães and Gabi Jesus both spent time down injured at different points of the game, like bruh, this club and staff need to do something about these non-contact injuries, unacceptable at this point.

5. Ødegaard, come outside, we need to have a chat. With Martin missing out due to an injury, stepped in Fábio Vieira who delivered a 30-yard stunner to open his account at Arsenal. Something I have been annoying about all over this site is how Ødegaard doesn’t shoot enough for himself or the team, well here you go dude, you weren’t in the game and we didn’t skip a beat away from home. Vieira had a relatively quiet first half but his goal came right after half-time and put the game to bed. Obviously Martin is still our guy in the 10 spot but he should keep an eye out on this Portuguese guy lurking for his spot.

Just a beauty from outside the box. Love this guy already

6. Our next two games are Spurs and Liverpool at home and 6 points is the only acceptable result. I honestly have butterflies thinking about Spurs at home. We have to win, we have to win, we have to win. A draw at home to Spurs, and you might as well off me at this point cause I don’t have the strength to live if we don’t win. Yes, I am overexaggerating and being dramatic, but I don’t give a damn, I unfortunately put too much time and thought into these clowns and they better not let me down when Spurs come to town.

7. Absolutely love Arteta using Toney’s tweet from last season as motivation still. Here is the timeline:

After they beat us to to open the season last year
Before the Brentford match at home, he used the tweet as motivation
After we beat them at the Emirates last season, Laca went in on Toney
Gabriel today talking his shit.

I absolutely love the shit-talking from the boys, just need them to keep that same energy with the big teams. Please don’t let me down.

8. Xhaka is my captain. For obvious reasons, he could never be our captain but we all know deep down, he runs this team. Not as a slight to Ødegaard as he is not a natural vocal leader, and that is not a bad thing. Watching the Amazon documentary just made it uber clear that Xhaka runs the locker room. He is the first to call the boys out when we have been terrible, he holds himself accountable as well, he is dependable (most of the time), and is always available for selection. He got the armband today, and if I had it my way, he’d be our captain full-time.

I also know that I went on and on about how we needed a Xhaka replacement this past summer but now I can’t imagine life without the guy. At the moment, he has gotta be the first name on the team sheet and has proved to be irreplaceable for the team at the moment, on and off the pitch. Xhaka has pretty much bitch slapped me and told me shut up. Good for him. Credit to me for admitting I was wrong on the guy.

Twitter credits: NBC Sports, Amazon, Gabriel Magalhaes 🙂

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