Leaders Arsenal slip up in title race

Arsenal will lose top spot should Manchester City beat Aston Villa and then win here on Wednesday.

Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo battles for possession as Gabriel takes a tumble. Picture: Getty

This ended, for Arsenal, with a flurry of bruising. In the last two minutes of stoppage time Christian Norgaard cleared out Oleksandr Zinchenko, then Bukayo Saka, and Zinchenko again, dumped on the turf by industrial tackles.

Those physical hurts will heal. The question is whether dropping further points, after last week’s defeat away to Everton, will cause any lingering damage to Arsenal’s psyche. Title progress that looked serene has got sticky. “Still top of the league,” said the stadium announcer as fans departed the Emirates but it didn’t raise a cheer.

The result means Arsenal will lose top spot should Manchester City beat Aston Villa and then win here on Wednesday, and Mikel Arteta found himself trying to douse hyperbole about that showdown. “All games in the Premier League are massive,” he told a journalist.

At other times, in his press conference, Arteta had to rebut suggestions Arsenal are suffering psychologically, are soft at set pieces and have become too predictable because he keeps naming the same starting XI. He did so with good humour – he knows managers of top sides are only ever two iffy results away from all manner of questions coming in.

Indeed, there was no need for over-worrying. Arsenal were considerably better than at Everton and Brentford – a miraculous 10 games unbeaten despite the second-lowest budget in the league – have become quite a proposition under Thomas Frank.

But there are nagging issues for the leaders. Apart from their goal, Brentford had four clear chances – and Arsenal won’t take anything from Wednesday’s game if City are given such leeway.

And, as against Everton, their biggest problem was in the skies, especially when corners and free-kicks came in. William Saliba lost all 10 of his aerial duels and Ivan Toney, an old Arsenal bugbear, rampaged around the Emirates administering hits, socks down and mouth upturned in a grin. Frank’s clever and muscular players excel given the chance to stick a restart into the opposition area. As Arteta observed, set pieces are Brentford’s cornerstone, with Frank so confident he is willing to put eight players in the box at attacking corners and leave nobody back defending, save for Rico Henry, on the edge of it.

In the 74th minute, Mathias Jensen arced a free-kick to beyond the far post, Toney volleyed the ball back into the middle, and Norgaard and Ethan Pinnock won headers before the ball fell to Norgaard, who lifted it over Aaron Ramsdale for Toney to finish.

Toney ran straight to Brentford’s technical area and collected a shirt that read “We are all with you Sergi” – a poignant message for Sergi Canos, who left on loan to Olympiacos on deadline day and whose mother passed away this week.

Arteta was annoyed, arguing that Pinnock – who was offside when Jensen delivered – had affected the first phase of play by impeding his players. He said Arsenal defend such free kicks with a high line on the basis that awards in those situations will be given. He may have had a point, but what happened afterwards, as Arsenal failed to clear, was self-inflicted.

Arteta's’s biggest frustration should be conceding so soon after finally breaking Brentford down. Doing so was such hard work. In the 62nd minute, he had introduced Leandro Trossard for Gabriel Martinelli after Martinelli showed nice touches without threatening the box. Trossard brought a greater focus on getting into scoring areas and repaid his manager quickly.

In the 66th minute, Ben White made ground down Arsenal’s right and Saka combined with Martin Odegaard, the Norwegian playing Saka behind Brentford’s retreating defence with a cute pass. Saka hit his cross early and unerringly, sending the ball across David Raya’s goalmouth and Trossard arrived at the back post to knock home his first Arsenal goal following last month’s £27m move from Brighton.

For the first time since January 2022 Arsenal failed to win a home league game in which they scored first, but Brentford deserved something.

Arsenal’s passing was quick and neat but until the last half-hour of the game they failed to move Brentford around to create spaces in their packed and well-defended box.

Their best moments were when they did the unexpected. Early, Martinelli surprised Brentford by popping up on Arsenal’s right and making a superb, angled run into their box, where Odegaard found him.

In the 15th minute, Odegaard attempted – and executed – a tricky ball through to Saka but Saka stumbled as he poked his shot at David Raya.

Yet, before Trossard’s goal it was Brentford, with their way of playing in bursts, who went closest again when, after smart collective attack, Norgaard squared and Toney struck a good chance wide. But Toney then found the net and Frank had touching words about his players’ tribute to Canos.

“It’s so sad,” he said. “I said to the players to remember to worship and cherish life. And call your mum and tell her you love her.”

The Times