Brentford is a difficult place to go and play football.
They have a brilliant coach and a talented group of players getting the absolute best out of their resources. It is a study in how to run a club well.
While they might not be setting the Premier League on fire this season, they are a difficult side to beat when things click for them. In transition, they are one of the best in the business and they showed that again last night.
Press, pass and move as we did in that opening 15 minutes or so, and I thought we did it quite well, it was Brentford who made the breakthrough with the sort of trademark break that is their stock in trade.
Coming back from that against a well-organised side is no mean feat but we managed it and we managed it in some style. All told, this was a good win given all the circumstances at play. I don’t think anyone should underplay that, particularly with rumours of illness around the camp.
Also, with Bukayo Saka missing, we are a lot lighter in attack and yet, right now, we have players stepping up to fill what is a large void. Our Brazilian pair, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus, have been rejuvenated and reignited.
For so much of last season and the initial stages of this one, the duo had been well below their best. Low on confidence and struggling in even the most basic facets of their games, it looked bleak for both and bleaker for Arsenal in a side shorn of Saka’s goal contributions.
However, both have risen to the occasion in a way that far exceeded my expectations. Jesus is at last looking like the player we saw in his first six months at the club and his timing couldn’t have been better. Martinelli, meanwhile, is looking productive again. There is a big burden on him to start producing and, at the moment, we are seeing flashes of his best again.
We’re going to need it to continue.
I must confess I feared the worst when Brentford took the lead last night. It had all the hallmarks of a those maddening nights where you toil endlessly only for the opposition to score from almost every attack. On another night it may well have gone exactly like that but, thankfully, last night we recovered, steadied ourselves and got back to doing what had been pretty successful up until Brentford’s opener.
I have to say, for all their skill and finesse on the break, the hosts were pretty poor when in a sustained period of possession. It didn’t really suit them to have to find a way through a set defence and that meant I didn’t real feel too much danger outside of those breakaway moves.
We could focus, therefore, on having the ball for long periods in areas of the pitch that suited us. While we were a little bogged down in the first half, we really came alive in the second period and, especially early on, caused the hosts big problems.
I don’t think anybody could complain that we were good value for the lead and once we went ahead and the third goal was simply a nail in the coffin for the hosts. Able to sit deeper and with no requirement to commit large numbers to the attack, we put the onus on Brentford to come out and they didn’t really have an answer. In fact, the better chances after we’d taken a 3-1 lead fell to us as we marauded on the break.
It was a tremendously satisfying win, not least because we had to come from behind and that’s never easy, especially away from home and especially at Brentford, who have an excellent record at home.
In terms of the title race, this was a big win. Unfortunately, we’re already at the stage where it is hugely unlikely that we will recover to challenge Liverpool but it is important that we keep pushing nonetheless. Funny things can happen in March and April but we have to be in the mix. Arne Slot’s side currently don’t look like slipping up but an injury or a defeat can change things quickly. We need to be in position if that happens.
It’s not the position we would like to be in but we have had our own misfortunes to deal with already in this campaign and can only play the cards we’re dealt.
For now, that means beating the sides in front of us and we did that last night in some style.
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