Arsenal academy graduates Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka have sealed the 2-1 victory against Brentford.
It was a bright start for the Gunners, who did look to have broken the deadlock early into the match, with Ben White and Saka coming close. We then thought we could be set to be given a penalty, only for VAR to fail to do their job, only for Alexandre Lacazette to then have the ball in the net and be ruled offside all inside the opening 15 minutes of play.
The game did slow down after that however, with very little shooting opportunities emerging in the remainder of the half, but it didn’t take long after the break for the deadlock to be broken.
It was a neat run by Smith Rowe to break forward, and after carrying the ball into the box, it was the overlapping run of his team-mate which opened up the space for him to cut across goal and place his effort beyond the goalkeeper, who got a slight touch but not enough.
We continued to push forward in search of a second, but it wasn’t until just before the 80th minute that Bukayo Saka added to our tally to make it 2-0 after placing his effort into the side netter from just outside the box.
Brentford clinched a late consolation goal in injury time, despite initially being ruled out for offside, but it was a deserved three points for Arsenal, who close the gap on West Ham and Man United whilst still having played less fixtures.
Patrick