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Confirmed Arsenal team to face Brentford – Odegaard returns

The international break is now over, and the Premier League returns with Arsenal travelling across London to face Brentford. Here is the team that Mikel Arteta has selected.

A win today would propel Arsenal to the top of the table, taking advantage of the 1-1 draw earlier between Manchester City and Liverpool. This should serve as ample motivation for the team to secure all three points.

However, Brentford will pose a challenge, especially on their home turf. Nonetheless, if Arsenal performs at their usual level, they have more than a good chance of winning this game.

Brentford has shown inconsistency this season and clearly miss Ivan Toney, but it would be a mistake for Arsenal to assume that his absence makes the match a foregone conclusion.

Saturday evening games tend to be passionate affairs under the floodlights and we can expect an enthralling game and one which we all hope is not affected by VAR and the officials.

Share your thoughts on Arteta’s chosen starting eleven in the comments below and let us know your predicted score for the match.

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109 Comments

      1. Jorghinho was taking command in midfield, but this team has 5 attacking players and Rice as only proper CM, lets hope it will not dis balance the team, and we can gain some rhythm

  2. Let’s hope now for a quick restart.
    Any notice the City goal disallowed for a slight push in the back?
    Funny that isn’t it

    1. Yeah a stupid fowl that from Akanji. He should have pushed hard with both hands on the keeper’s back.

      1. Liverpool shout after that Luis Diaz disallowed goal might have come into play here, Liverpool psychological game afterthat disallowed goal has seen them being favored in many occasions. But this disallowed goal feels better as goal was chalked off city.

  4. Our midfield lack physicality gainst a very physical team. The good news is that we have good bench Incase of a change. The Boys should take their opportunity to go top Epl

  5. A heavy weight on the shoulders of Rice for sure with Odegaard and Trossard making up the midfield trio .Probably the most attacking selection of the season so far,so let’s hope we can bang in a few goals and get the three points.

  10. Rice at No. 6 I suspect.
    The midfield looks soft to me.
    But, hey, let’s go Gunners; get the job done and make my evening pleeeaaaseee.

  13. Best lineup we have, except for Timber being injured. We are surely going for this. Hope I’m just as happy at 7.30pm. Great to see Leo Trossard starting.

  14. Lucky Brentford don’t have alot of tall players, else our midfield would be toast, I suspect we’ll have wingbacks to accommodate Jesus and Trossard.

    1. Wow, is all one can say. Ramsdale again with self inflicted errors. Such a lack of composure and decision making, he’s reminding everyone of why he got benched.

      He really needs to wake up and fight harder for his opportunities. Such an avoidable error, really should not be happening from a GK.

  18. Arteta engineered this BS with our keepers and now none of them is confident enough and the entre stadium can smell fear. What on earth was he thinking? Must be the most stupid decision so far.

    1. Nonsense. Ramsdale has stated that Arteta and himself came to a compromise on how he plays, trouble is Raya doesn’t need that compromise so now Ramsdale has to step up. That’s what we are witnessing with Ramsdale pushing out of his comfort zone, long-term he’ll be the better for it whether he stays with us or not. Raya has been fine most the criticism against City was because he was doing what he was told but the team were not creating options in the 2nd half that changed and Raya looked good, that is why Arteta stuck with him because he did as instructed and stuck with it even with the crowd on his back thinking he was nervous when it was an instruction.

  20. The English media would rather he keeps making such silly schoolboy mistakes and cost us the league than let the gaffer do his job. Goalkeeping is evolving like every other position and modern keepers need more than excellent shotstopping to be the No 1. You need ice-cold composure and vision like Manuel Neur/Ederson when being pressed inside and around the box. Unfortunately, Ramsdale lack that and I am afraid it cannot be trained.

  21. Brentford are an elite counter attacking team, giving them a cheap goal advantage is a death sentence. Gotta wake up soon.

  22. I can see SAKA GETTING BOOKED ONCE, THEN TWICE FOR TIME WASTING AT CORNERS.

    STUPID TACTIC WITH NO POINT TO IT.

  23. iTS A VERY LONG TIME SINCE i have seen our club waste SO much time before passing. FAR TOO SLOW MOVING THE BALL. WAHAT ABORE FEST THIS GAME IS!

    2. So true Jon.
      We are so slow in passing and moving the ball it makes it easier to defend. Martinelli and Saka double teamed on the wings as always, and our only answer is pass it slowly.

      We are way too predictable in attack around opponents box. We are too 1 dimensional in the striker position; take away the space and passing lanes, Jesus is a passenger.

      We lack versatility in the striker position, and lack a B2B midfielder making those late runs.

      Looks like our best chance for goals in hitting them on the counter. So far this possession based, slow passing game has yielded nothing.

      Hoping Martinelli can create some magic; don’t see anyone else attacking aggressively.

  24. Var found the angle to work out that offside even with Jesus off the ground. Amazing, given the issues the had determine whether Joelinton pushed Gabriel, handled the ball or after handling the ball played it to his offside teammate. They just couldn’t tell.

    2. It was rightly chalked off. The blame is ours. Jesus could not score free header being a striker than what can we expect of him. That was one of the simplest of heading one could have and still managed to not score. So we can only blame ourselves on this.

  25. A dull half
    Ramsdale is suffering from the equivalent of first night nerves and the goal that wasn’t was clearly offside- nice build up to it – but hey ho that’s the way it goes

    1. Brentford doing Brentford things. Why our performance against them last year was so impressive. We’re still the only team in the league to have beaten Brentford at home by more than 2 goals.

  27. Looks like VAR had an upgrade recently, could clearly check that trossard was offside. They weren’t able to do it for gordon goal vs Newcastle.

    1. It was a very big margin here, relatively easy decision. Regarding Newcastle match we don’t repeat same thing. It was disgusting and embarrassing to football. Such disgusting doesn’t happen too often.

  28. PLAYING A BIT BETTER NOW BUT CAN SOMEONE PLEASE RID FOOTBALLOF THE ABOMINATION OF VAR!

    What a rubbish game for excitement. We had all the play but took half an hour to pass the ball.
    No players moving and swiftly exchanging positions. A total STATIC bore!

    Ramsdale has had all his former confidence stupidly destroyed by MA and is a rabbit caught in headlights now!

    1. I take issue with your last paragraph, Jon, purely because Ramsdale should be up for the challenge at this level of sport. That said, I feel desperately sorry for his predicament but I cannot put those errors down to Arteta alone.

      In fact, I’d be livid if I was Ramsdale because his father royally stuck his oar in

    3. Get rid of VAR and the refs and linesman can just go back to the I didn’t see it or made a mistake nonsense. The solution is to make var competent. This whole clear and obvious nonsense is their attempt at keeping that option of sticking with the on-field decision.

      The nonsense of refs going to the screen when they always give it in those scenarios is to waste time and make people angry so they can get rid of VAR. VAR is shining a light on the incompetence (and almost certainly corruption.)

  29. Ramsdale was rusty and our defending set-piece made me nervous because of our lack of tall players in the box

    If Brentford still play like that in the second half, I think we’ll be able to score first and win the game

    We might need the lamp post to score from corners

    1. Which tall player are you talking about? We have Saliba (6’4″), Gabriel )6’3″), Tomiyasu (6’3″) and Rice (6’1″) and Ramsdale who is 6’3″. Remember we are the Arsenal, not Stoke City. If we need Havertz it’s probably to score goals more than defending as we are often on the front foot attacking most of the time.

        1. Are we playing to defend set pieces all game? Aside City with 6 players who are at least 6’1″ in their starting lineup, I don’t think we are far behind. Late in the game if we need to defend a slim lead, White might be brought on for say Trossard. At the moment I think we are fine despite the injury to Partey.

    1. Partey is almost irreplaceable, very likely that Arsenal take tests to get someone close to him.

  31. Need to change the tactics; speed up ball movement and try 1-2 quick passes, this current play style has yielded nothing.

    Jesus squandered best chance we had; he wastes so many chances. He’s not a reliable striker for long stretches.

    Sub him on as a 9 last 20 minutes, or occasionally as a starter, but not a reliable starter as a striker.

    Pep was right, he’s a winger not long term striker. We need upgrade in the striker position.

    Jesus can be backup striker and backup RW for Saka.

    1. Couldnt agree more, even WHEN healthy
      Jesus is not the man to lead the line for
      AFC. He is a fantastic player, but a prolific
      goal scorer he will NEVER be accused of.

      Its pretty simple, if Kronke refuses to back
      EDU this winter (STRIKER and B2B) MA and
      the boys AT BEST may finish in the top 4.

  32. Arsenal is on the spotlight, both FA and referees are looking for a way to deal with Arsenal, if it was man city that scored that goal it will definitely be allowed to stand.

  33. One can only congratulate var for making the correct decision this time… who wants to win illegally?
    Ramsdale looks a ghost of his former happy, confident persona – what on earth has MA been playing at?

  37. Is this the worst ever game under Arteta?!! For me it is!! Boring, tedious, no movement, no pace, no interchanging positions, Nothing . HALF AN HOURT TO THROW IN THE BALL SAME AT CORNERS. Unacceptable all round!

  38. IN THH 69 TH MINUTE the Brenford keepr with ball in hand clearly stepped outside his area.

    Nothing was done!! This happens in all games but is never pulled up. Why?????? SHOULD BE AN AUTOMATIC RED CARD!

    2. Oh how they’ve got to eat every single crumb Dendrite.

      Great to see that wide smile on Ramsdale’s face, with a clean sheet to boot!!

      Listening to Havertz now and I love it!!!

      We are top of the league and with a great team performance of solidarity against a very good team.

    3. 1 goal in 20 games isn’t eating humble pie 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

      How you come to that conclusion is very funny

  51. Havertz looks completely different today I must admit.
    His first touch when he came was good, saw the turned with the ball and almost squared the ball to Nketai.
    Now, this is the kind of Havertz I want to see.
    Please let me eat my words for all I’ve said about you, Havertz.

  52. What Has Arteta got AGAINST MARTINELLI? The most productive of the attack force at Brentford, Arteta decides to leave Jesus and Saka who frankly are still tired from their international duties, and take Martinelli out.
    Well after the 1st half horrors from Ramsdale, I think even Brentford got so dumbfounded they conceded to, of all people, Havertz.

  53. Defences win titles shout-out Rice and Zinchenko. Also Ramsdale settled in the 2nd half, respect. What a result. Title challenge on. Let’s go!!!!!!!!!

  55. I can’t believe it. We are top of the league after one of the worst performances of the past two seasons.

    1. Look up City and Liverpool’s results against Brentford when Brentford are home. Imagine going top of the league late on and moaning.

  59. Really happy we are top of the league, well done Kai, and what a relief, but geez, whenever we go ahead, after an eternity of trying, why can’t we just hang onto the ball, and make it difficult for the opposition, instead of giving the ball to them, and making it so difficult on ourselves?

  60. Everybody hated Havertz, yet he scored the most important goal of Arsenal this season. Well done Havertz. To get the best out of him, we have to accept him as one of our own. But Nketiah really looked weak link today, hope he can also come good and sharp. Finally we are still striving to produce clear cut goal scoring chances, still missing that fluidity. But 3 points from this match is job well done as we have been dropping points in this fixture.

    2. We have actually been doing well in their home ground..so we haven’t been dropping point there except for the 2021 season

    3. I still hate the fact we spent £65million on Kai Havertz. He will never score enough goals to justify that blunder. He will never be good enough for that price, so please. Stop being irritating. Shakespeare would’ve told you “One swallow, does not, a summer make”.👎🏾

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