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.
- 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.
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:
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 🙂