On Tuesday evening, the Emirates Stadium stood witness to perhaps its greatest result for a home team. Arsenal were the victors, defeating Real Madrid 3-0.
It was a remarkable display of football. The 15-time winners of Europe’s great competition, the Champions League, had been swept aside with relative ease.
Declan Rice was the hero, banging in two stupendous free-kicks to send north London into chaos.
Well, this time around, it was a rather more sedate affair. Brentford were the visitors to the Emirates and they were here to disrupt Mikel Arteta’s momentum.
The Gunners took the lead through makeshift right-back Thomas Partey, only for Yoanne Wissa to equalise. The game ended 1-1.
It marks a continuation of a poor run of form for Arsenal in the Premier League. The title race may have been done and dusted a few weeks ago but the run has still been a disappointing one, winning just two of their last seven league outings.
Still, they remain in Europe and are a game away from a semi-final spot.
Arteta will likely already know his team for the second leg in Madrid in Wednesday but did anyone stake their claim on Saturday evening?
Arsenal's best players against Brentford
This was a patched-together Arsenal side, make no mistake about it.
Despite the result, Arteta was right to rotate ahead of a trip to the Bernabeu but that did mean the likes of Jurrien Timber, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Mikel Merino dropped out.
As a result of those absentees, Leandro Trossard was handed a start as the central striker, Partey featured at right back, Kieran Tierney was on the left and Oleksandr Zinchenko came into the midfield.
Both full-backs very much caught the eye. Tierney, unfortunately, had a goal ruled out for offside in the first half but did well at the back. As for Partey, there was no denying his opening goal.
The man of the hour, Rice, broke from a Brentford corner, galloping forward like a racehorse beyond the halfway line. His pass had to be timed to perfection and indeed it was.
Partey was to his right and ran onto the ball, firing past Mark Flekken in the Bees net.
The Ghanaian enjoyed a fine evening at full-back, standing in for Timber and Ben White who picked up another injury in training. Rice was a machine in the middle again, but they weren’t the only two standouts from the draw on home soil.
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Arsenal defender is now undroppable
When Gabriel hobbled from the field during Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Fulham a few weeks ago, fear spread like wildfire through the fanbase. Rightly so, too.
The Brazilian has been one of, if not the best player at the club this season. He’s been a rock at the back and a menace from set plays, proving to be an asset in both boxes. He’d barely missed a minute of football either.
Yet, here was Arsenal’s third big hamstring injury of the season, following in the footsteps of Saka and Kai Havertz. The prognosis was that the centre-back would miss the rest of the season.
In his place has stood Jakub Kiwior, the Polish defender who hasn’t exactly set the world alight when handed rare opportunities this season.
Prone to a nervy moment, the former Spezia man now well and truly deserves his flowers. Indeed, across his last 19 starts in all competitions, Arsenal have not lost a single game, winning 13 matches and drawing six.
He saved his best performance for Madrid in midweek, putting a nervy error in the first half beyond him to deal with the threat of Kylian Mbappe and Co superbly well.
Wins
13
Draws
6
Defeats
0
Goals conceded
13
Clean sheets
9
Against Brentford, despite not keeping a clean sheet, he was also in top form.
It wasn’t the most eye-catching of displays but he came through the game ably, notably winning every single one of his four contested duels and completing 94% of his passes. It was a supremely composed display, building from the back and holding onto the ball well further up the field.
To sum up that influence in possession, only two players on the pitch registered more touches of the ball; William Saliba and Jorginho.
Handed a 7/10 match rating by Football.London at full time they wrote that “there is a sense of calm that previously was not there when he first came.” That sums things up rather nicely.
Previously, supporters didn’t want to see Kiwior anywhere near the starting lineup but he has very quickly become as undroppable as the likes of Rice and Saliba.
He will never be raved about from up on high but this is an underrated squad player who’s now played exceptionally well in recent weeks. The Pole will deserve his place in the starting lineup against Madrid in a few days’ time.
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7 ByJack Salveson Holmes
