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A night on from the chaos of Manchester City beating Fulham 5-4, Arsenal seized the opportunity to prove that they are a sturdier proposition than Pep Guardiola’s side. They kept their eighth clean sheet of the season despite losing another centre-back to injury and restored their five-point advantage at the top of the Premier League by seeing off Brentford thanks to an early header from Mikel Merino and a late goal from Bukayo Saka.
It was another stolid effort from Mikel Arteta’s side. They made an enterprising start, delighting the Emirates Stadium when a lovely move ended with Merino’s second goal in four days, but they could not maintain their flow and were leaning on their resilience when Cristhian Mosquera increased their defensive issues by limping off before half-time.
The loss of Mosquera could be significant. Arsenal coped against Brentford, the unfamiliar partnership of Jurriën Timber and Piero Hincapié holding out, but it will be different at Villa Park on Saturday. A resurgent Aston Villa will fancy their chances given that Arsenal are already without Gabriel Magalhães and William Saliba.
Although Arteta does not have a reputation for tinkering, part of his focus has to be on keeping energy levels high in this slog of a season. There is nothing to gain from overplaying key assets and the benefit of freshening things up was evident during a start in which Arsenal did not appear to be carrying any extra weight after the physical and mental toll of facing Tottenham, Bayern Munich and Chelsea in the space of a week.
This is why Arteta invested so much in bolstering his resources last summer. What a luxury it is to be able to give Eberechi Eze a breather and bring in Martin Ødegaard for his first start in two months. No wonder there was such hunger and desire to Arsenal. There are places up for grabs and nowhere was that clearer than on the right flank, where the new partnership of Ben White and Noni Madueke did not need long to dispel concerns over whether their unfamiliarity with each other would clog up the production line.
There were only 11 minutes on the clock when they combined for the opening goal. White, in for Jurriën Timber at right-back and looking as commanding as he did before injuries curtailed his progress, began the move with a layoff to Madueke and confused Rico Henry by continuing his run. The Brentford wing-back, faced by two possibilities, was in clear danger. Henry watched for the dart inside from Madueke but that was a decoy. Madueke was simply waiting for help and when the time was right he opened Brentford up with a glorious dragback to the overlapping White, who marked his second league start of the season by clipping the ball in for Merino to head past Caoimhín Kelleher.
Madueke was eager to impress after replacing Saka. He soon threatened again, driving at Henry before testing Kelleher with a low drive. All that was missing for Madueke was a ruthless finish, although he was unlucky not to score when he looked to meet a low cross from Gabriel Martinelli and saw Henry turn his shot wide.
At that stage it would have been easy to conclude that Brentford’s decision to start without Nathan Collins, Jordan Henderson, Mikel Damsgaard and Igor Thiago was bound to backfire. They hung on, though, and almost equalised when Kevin Schade met a corner from the right and forced David Raya to tip his powerful header on to the bar.
It was not all plain sailing for Arsenal. With Saliba and Gabriel already missing in central defence it was not ideal when Mosquera had to make way for Timber after an awkward fall.
Brentford saw an opportunity to test a weakened back four and emerged with more purpose after half-time. They made their physicality count and were not afraid to go direct. Arsenal, unsettled by Mosquera’s exit, were tense whenever the visitors had a set piece in a promising position.
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Arteta was animated on the touchline. The home fans were impatient, moaning at Martinelli when the forward failed to release the ball, and Keith Andrews responded by introducing Damsgaard, Henderson and Thiago as the hour approached.
Arsenal sought to restore order by bringing Eze and Saka on for Martinelli and Madueke, whose influence had waned. Yet cohesion was lacking in possession. Declan Rice was winning tackles but misplacing passes. Counterattacks started well but swiftly ran out of steam. At least Riccardo Calafiori lifted the temperature in the 65th minute, drawing a fine save from Kelleher with a shot from 20 yards.
Rice was next to be denied by Kelleher. It remained nervy. A weary Rice went off and there were howls when the fourth official’s board showed six added minutes.
Not to worry. Moments later Merino released Saka, who squeezed a shot past Kelleher. Arsenal did enough again.
