Trailing 1-0 to a Brentford team who have been formidable at home for most of this season, for a while Arsenal looked in some danger of failing to keep up the pressure on Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Without the unwell Kai Havertz and with Mikel Arteta attempting to manage his squad through a busy fixture list, Bryan Mbeumo’s early strike at the Gtech Community Stadium gave Arsenal a significant problem considering they can ill-afford to drop points.
But in the end a Gabriel Jesus first-half header (his sixth goal in four matches) and second-half strikes from Mikel Merino (Arsenal’s latest set-piece goal) and Gabriel Martinelli made this an unexpectedly straightforward evening for Arteta.
To add to his satisfaction, Ethan Nwaneri made his full Premier League debut as Arsenal moved to within six points of Liverpool, who have a game in hand.
Amy Lawrence and Anantaajith Raghuraman analyse the key talking points.
How did Nwaneri do on his full league debut?
Two years and three months after he appeared from nowhere — a 15-year-old substitute who stunned English football — the evolution of Nwaneri took another positive step on Wednesday. He made a controlled and intelligent first Premier League start for Arsenal on the ground where he played for the first time for the club (an 89th-minute cameo in this fixture in September 2022).
It is a sign of how highly he is regarded, and how easily he has leapt other hurdles in the meantime as he becomes even more integrated into the first team, that there was no surprise to see him composed and comfortable in a pressure game against one of the toughest teams to beat away from home. It should not be so easy to expect such great things of a teenager making these strides. He makes it so.
Ethan Nwaneri has had to be patient in his wait for a first league start (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
He has normally had his cameos in Martin Odegaard’s role on the right side of attacking midfield, but here he was chosen to deputise for Bukayo Saka. Those shoes are almost impossible for anyone to fill. Nwaneri managed to find the mix of work ethic to track back and help, and also streak forward when the opportunity presented itself, an available outlet on the right flank. In his 78 minutes on the pitch, he misplaced only two passes.
He crossed the ball into a dangerous area for Martinelli’s goal and, given the circumstances, he handled himself well enough to ensure Arsenal should see more starts from him in Saka’s absence.
Amy Lawrence
The search for midfield balance
Declan Rice’s absence, as his fitness needs to be managed at the moment, hardly seemed ideal for an Arsenal side still looking for its best balance in midfield.
Without him, Thomas Partey stepped up, carrying his side forward and assuming responsibility given the blend across the middle was not entirely cohesive and took time to warm up. But once it did, both Partey and Merino took the initiative to help Arsenal recover from a difficult start.
Thomas Partey was the most effective of Arsenal’s midfielders at Brentford (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Partey, in particular, was influential in taking some sting out of the game and exerting control as the midfield anchor. He then provided the spark for Arsenal’s equaliser, with a rasping shot that unbalanced Brentford and Jesus was there to capitalise on the rebound.
Merino was finding the going tough initially. He has had a complicated start to life in north London and is yet to establish himself as a first-choice starter. Maybe lacking some confidence, he played safe football until the ball fell for him to guide in for 2-1, and then looked much more involved.
New father Odegaard has been below his highest standards in recent weeks, and his loose pass contributed to Arsenal going behind. He won’t stop trying to push himself and his colleagues back into form.
Amy Lawrence
Do Arsenal need their left-sided players to step up?
Arsenal’s dependence on the right side of their attack to create opportunities is well known. Heading into this match, 45 per cent of their touches in the attacking half had come on that side, the highest mark in the league, compared with 32 per cent on the left. This has seldom made them predictable, though, due to the creative skill set of Odegaard and Saka.
With Saka injured, Arsenal needed more from the left side of the pitch, where Merino, who started against Brentford, had not impressed offensively, while Martinelli has struggled too.
That seemed to be the case in the first half of this match as Brentford clogged up the central spaces, forcing Arsenal to create from out wide. Nwaneri was a bright spark on the right, but Martinelli, Merino and Riccardo Calafiori often did not seem to be on the same wavelength.
The second half was better, particularly after Merino poked home from a corner and Martinelli capitalised on a Brentford mistake to make it 3-1. David Raya targeted Martinelli with long outlet passes on multiple occasions, while Merino and Calafiori were more involved in attacking sequences down that flank until both were substituted in the 78th minute.
Arsenal’s set-piece prowess, combined with the creative abilities of Nwaneri and Odegaard, gives the team options to mitigate Saka’s absence to a degree, but they will need more of these contributions from the opposite flank, especially in tight games.
Anantaajith Raghuraman
What next for Arsenal?
Saturday, January 4: Brighton (A), Premier League, 5.30pm UK, 12.30pm ET
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(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
