In the circumstances, the New Year's Day win at Brentford can be regarded as extremely satisfactory indeed. Their ground is often a tricky place to go - who can forget those muppets Neville and Carragher cavorting with the Brentford fans a few years ago? - but since then Arsenal have managed to negotiate things satisfactorily. As was the case on Wednesday.
Bukayo Saka is going to be out for quite a while, as we know, and Mikel Arteta is going to need to experiment/mix and match with how he deals with it for a few games yet. This time, with Havertz ill and out of the squad, he made the big decision to start Ethan Nwaneri out on the right wing. Big shoes to fill for the exciting yet raw youngster, but he has the closest attributes to Saka within the squad; left-footed, highly skilful, low centre of gravity, and super-confident in his ability. This meant Martinelli back on the left, and Jesus the only fit centre-forward standing so he picked himself. Elsewhere, Declan Rice's minutes are being managed, so Thomas Partey and Mikel Merino took their places alongside Odegaard in midfield. Further back, Riccardo Califiori - another whose minutes need to be managed - came back in for MLS. Brentford, lest I neglect to mention it, were decimated by injuries, especially in defence, but still had the dangerous duo of Mbuemo and Wissa up top.
As anticipated, Brentford immediately settled into a low block as the game kicked off, and Arsenal had 80+% possession from the get-go. But in the 13th minute, at the first opportunity offered (a misplaced pass in midfield by Odegaard), Brentford broke and - from their very first shot - took the lead. Now, can we apportion blame for this? Well, firstly there was the misplaced pass. Then the run of Mbuemo which had Califiori at sixes and sevens. A cut inside, and with Raya (and Gabriel) expecting a far post effort, the Cameroonian passed the ball into the net at the near post.
And here's something that really annoys me; the number of times that the opposition score from their very first effort on goal. Couple that with the number of goals that Arsenal concede from low xG positions; far more than is normal and - as the x in xG indicates - should be expected. There is no doubt that Raya is an excellent goalkeeper, and is a magician in possession (most of the time), but he does have a couple of weaknesses. Firstly, he is encouraged to take up aggressive positions on the field - at one point on Wednesday, with his team-mates camped around the Brentford penalty area, he dealt with a hacked clearance from inside the Brentford half! And secondly he's not quite tall enough - certainly compared to others. I see opposing players wrong-footing him, or curling the ball into the far corner of the net past his outstretched fingers; taking advantage of those weaknesses. Not that I'm complaining; the pros outweigh the cons considerably.
Down a goal early on, Arsenal continued to press and dominate. Brentford sat as deep as I've seen any side against Arsenal this season, but were up against a team prepared to do things a little differently to what we'd seen in recent match-ups with Everton and Ipswich. There was more ingenuity and variety in the play, as full backs were taken on on the outside, and balls were lobbed over the lines and into the box. Nwaneri did a decent impersonation of Saka, beating his man and crossing with both feet as well as linking up with Odegaard and Partey, and Partey himself simply ran the game from the edge of the penalty area. There were patches when Brentford saw plenty of the ball, but the danger felt low-key for most of the time.
Brentford continued to allow Arsenal into their penalty area, and the game resembled a game of pinball as much as a football match at times. There were close-range chances for Partey, Nwaneri and others before a critical passage of play that saw fortunes change dramatically in the space of a single minute. A shot from Lewis-Potter squirmed through Raya's hands - at the time, it was starting to feel like the pressure was getting to the goalkeeper on his return to his former home ground - but he got back to claw the ball back from the brink of crossing the goal line. Less than a minute later, it was 1-1. Arsenal broke - Nwaneri played a clever part in the move - and were soon back camped on the Brentford 18-yard line. More pinball, with the home side simply unable to clear their lines, and Partey's shot was parried out by Flekken into the path of Gabriel Jesus who, having reacted more quickly than his markers, was in position to stoop to head back over the keeper's head. Full marks for perseverance, and for Jesus's anticipation. He appears back to his sharp, mercurial best, and Arteta knows that he must tap into that - because if we can draw anything from researching his career this purple patch won't last too long.
1-1 at half-time, but plenty of optimism abounded in the away end. And Arsenal came out and carried on as before. Early pressure led to two swift successive corners (just as dangerous despite neither of their normal corner takers being on the field; Martinelli and Nwaneri taking over and doing really well with their deliveries), and from the mass confusion engendered by Flekken, who failed to punch clear, and Jesus's snap shot, Johnny-on-the-spot Merino lashed the ball into the net from close range.
Moments later Nwaneri's cross was again not dealt with, and Gabriel Martinelli volleyed home past the unsighted goalkeeper.
At which point, with fully half an hour left, Arsenal declared. They kept Brentford at arm's length for the rest of the game - and I for one didn't mind that the final third of the game was quite boring. The points had been secured, and the only moments of note came from some magnificent long-range distribution from Raya that almost led to what would have been spectacular breakaway goals.
Positives and negatives from the game? Well, tv gave the Player of the Match award to Gabriel Jesus, who did have a fine game. And there was an awful lot of positivity to draw from the performance of young Nwaneri. But for me Thomas Partey stood out. He was everywhere, not only snuffing out danger when Brentford looked to break, but with his positioning and distribution. Always on the front foot. A top, top performance from the Ghanaian (despite the home supporters booing his every touch). William Saliba was back to his best also; so cool and decisive under pressure, and a delight to see his cruising around the pitch. The only negative? - a booking for Jurrien Timber that means a one-game ban. That, with Ben White still out, will surely see Partey at right back at the Amex Stadium on Saturday evening.
Arsenal are about to enter a ludicrous period of three games a week for the next 6 weeks or so, so Arteta will need to continue to shuffle his pack. With the Transfer Window open, and Saka out for a while, the big question is do Arsenal look to dip into the pot? I've honestly no idea, but the Manager has put on record that the squad is 'thin'. However, I'm not sure that doing something major now, which may affect the plans for the summer, is that good an idea. But with 9 points to make up, perhaps a little refresh wouldn't go amiss.
All Arsenal can do is keep winning, and hope that Liverpool come back to them. With Chelsea dropping points consistently, the Gunners are surely the only dangers to Liverpool now. But Brighton are tricky opponents; they're not in brilliant form at the moment, but they are capable of beating anyone on their day. Arsenal nonetheless need to take some form of revenge - particularly on the full back Veltman - for Rice's ludicrous sending-off against them earlier this season.
COYG!
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