Arsenal have succumbed to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of newly-promoted side Brentford.
This was the home side’s first match in the top tier of English football since 1947, the first year of football after World War II, and their fans will have plenty to celebrate after beating one of the country’s best teams in recent history.
We started the match brightly, but despite strong spells in possession, we were unable to force much work out of goalkeeper David Raya.
After 15 minutes of play however, play turned on it’s head, and we began to endure an extended run of pressure, and not before long that pressure saw the Bees earn the 1-0 lead.
The goal came from Spaniard Sergi Canos, who turned his man in the box to fire his powerful shot low and hard inside Bernd Leno’s near post.
We tried to push back immediately after the goal but there was little fluidity to our play, and we ended up going into the break at 1-0 down.
After the break, the game was slow and we were struggling to get the likes of Gabi Martinelli and PL debutant Folarin Balogun into the game, and it was no shock to see them both go off, although we didn’t really have any viable attacking players worth considering to turn this game around, apart from Bukayo Saka, who clearly isn’t at 100%.
With just under 20 minutes left to play, the final nail in the coffin came from a long throw-in, with defender Norgaard steaming into the box to thump his header home, and leave us clutching at straws of hope of getting anything out of this match, not that we deserved anything.
There was little worthy action to comment on from the remaining time either, with a couple of long shots, and plenty of passing around the box that didn’t end up opening any gaps in a resilient defence, and Brentford can be proud of their performance, although the same cannot be said for our men.
Has the result moved to highlight just how limited our squad depth really is? How badly did we need some more experience in attack today?
Patrick