Arsenal played to a 1-1 draw against Brentford in a case-in-point example of how difficult the Premier League is, if you aren’t at your best, you’re likely to drop points. The home side made it tough — it’s not hard to see why they’re in the mix for a European finish. Nor were the Gunners weren’t great on the evening. That match really could have gone either way, and a draw is a fair result.
That match had five phases: the opening 15 minutes, the next 20, the final 10 of the first half, the second
half until Arsenal scored, and the second half after Arsenal scored. I’ll try to break them down.
The Gunners were fine to open the game. Brentford pressured Arsenal into a couple mistakes on what should have been easy passes. The ball was mostly in the middle third, not much was happening, but Arsenal had most of the possession.
The match changed after Keith Andrews harassed the referee enough to earn himself a booking. After that, Brentford seemed to get a call each time one of their players went down. Arsenal picked up three soft bookings. It really felt like the referee caved to the complaints of the Brentford manager and the pressure from the crowd. To me, that was the reason the first half flipped. The Bees took control and penned the Gunners in. David Raya made an excellent save on a chance he gifted Brentford when he missed Declan Rice with a rollout.
Arsenal reestablished some control in the closing minutes of the first half. They did not, however, turn any of it into decent attacking chances. That was a bit of a theme. The Gunners did not generate enough going forward, which is perhaps to be expected given the circumstances. Kai Havertz, who is clearly one of the most important pieces in the attack, is out. Bukayo Saka, who came back earlier than expected from his injury, might as well have not played — he didn’t seem to have anything to give. You wonder whether his nothing performance was because he actually didn’t have anything to give or if Arsenal couldn’t get him involved.
Martin Ødegaard totally changed the match when he came on to start the second half (after another concerning performance from Ebere Eze — it’s definitely time to worry about his fit). But Ødegaard went down holding his knee on the Brentford goal and was completely anonymous afterwards.
The point is any analysis of the Arsenal attack has to include an acknowledgement that key pieces were missing / hamstrung. As I sit writing this, I’ve also realized that Mikel Merino totally would have scored a jammy, grimy goal on a night like tonight, right? Like, that’s just what he does!
The flip side of that coin is that Arsenal didn’t do enough with the handful of chances they created. Declan Rice probably should have shot instead of passing to Viktor Gyokeres. A begrudging nod to Michael Kayode’s hustle, too. He saved a goal and probably the game for Brentford by intercepting that pass. Gabriel Martinelli probably should have shot let the ball run across himself onto his left foot and shot with his first touch just before the end of the match. Instead, he took a touch and gave Caoimhin Keller a chance to make an excellent save.
To be fair, Brentford had a chance to win it at the death and Igor Thiago blazed it over the bar. So you could reasonably say that chance and the Martinelli chance cancel each other out.
Back to the phases of the game. Arsenal were clearly the better team to start the second half. As I said, swapping Eze for Ødegaard gave the Gunners the control and connection they needed. Arsenal took the lead from a lovely cushioned header from Noni Madueke from a fizzed Piero Hincapie cross.
I don’t want to say that Arsenal stopped playing after going ahead, but control of the game swung, and it swung in the wrong way. That seems to happen far too often for my liking with Arsenal, too. They did have the Rice-Gyokeres chance to go 2-0 up, but other than that, Brentford had the better action.
The Bees equalized from a long throw. Perhaps with William Saliba, who missed out with illness, on the pitch Arsenal don’t concede like that. Personally, I thought the referee missed a clear foul on Jurrien Timber on the change of possession in the Brentford end about a minute before the goal. Brentford attacked down Timber’s vacated wing and won a throw. That’s the way it goes.
Arsenal struggled after the match went to 1-1. Martin Ødegaard stayed on the pitch, but I don’t think he was physically right. The Gunners couldn’t hold onto the ball nor establish an attacking presence in the Brentford final third. You don’t see that happen to Arsenal for long stretches of matches. It’s a credit to how well the home side played. Sidenote: just once, I’d love for a quality side to have an off night against Arsenal. Like, Liverpool’s leaky defense put in their two best performances of the year against us. And so on.
A point at Brentford isn’t a bad result. It doesn’t feel great to drop points from a winning position. The performance from Arsenal leaves plenty to be desired. But on the other hand, that’s probably the most difficult remaining Premier League fixture apart from the trip to face Manchester City remaining on the schedule. Arsenal are still four points clear — two results — at the top of the table. And if you’re feeling glum about Arsenal dropping points, remember that City blew a two-goal lead to Tottenham. They’re really nothing special, y’all.
