Brentford welcome London rivals, Arsenal to the Gtech Stadium in a high-noon Super Sunday showdown.
Victory could see Brentford go fifth with Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool all not in action following postponements.
A win meanwhile would see Arsenal return to the summit after they were displaced by Manchester City following the Citizens’ win at Wolves.
Team News
Sergi Canos is set to be available for Brentford for the first time this season, having now completed a full recovery from a lengthy hamstring injury.
Christian Norgaard (Achilles) and Ethan Pinnock (knee) both remain absent.
Arsenal could be without Cedric Soares due to a knock but he will be handed a late fitness test, alongside Thomas Partey (thigh) who is a doubt for this match.
Oleksandr Zinchenko (calf), Mohamed Elneny (hamstring), Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson (both muscle) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- Brentford have won one of their two previous Premier League meetings against Arsenal (W1, L1).
- Arsenal lost their only previous Premier League visit to Brentford – losing 2-0 on opening day of last season.
- Brentford’s Christian Norgaard scored in both appearances against Arsenal last season.
- Three of Ivan Toney’s five goals for Brentford this season were scored at home, albeit coming in a hat-trick during their 5-2 win over Leeds last time out.
- None of Gabriel Jesus’ three goals for Arsenal this season were scored away from home.
Prediction
Following a clinical yet aggressive attacking victory over Leeds a fortnight ago, Brentford come into this match full of confidence and moreso after Ivan Toney’s call-up for England which hopefully will make for another quality performance.
Their defending though was their only weak point last time out especially when stretched towards the flanks, so improvement in that area will be required although they will have to suffer defensively against superior opposition and try stay tight in their man marking.
Arsenal meanwhile saw their unbeaten start to the season end at Man Utd a fortnight ago amidst strong attacking intensity and press due to sloppy high defending, which deservingly got punished by a clinical Utd but they bounced back with a deserved Europa League win in Zurich last time.
Now if Brentford continue to play as well as they’ve at home this season, Arsenal’s defence better not try get too greedy in how high they push up the pitch – otherwise they certainly have the attacking quality to match the Bees compared to when they last visited them last season.
One certainty though is that we surely will see goals here because I just can’t see a goalless draw given the form of both teams this season, plus this is a London derby so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a cracking score draw in front of an atmospheric crowd.
Prediction: Brentford 2-2 Arsenal
Result: Brentford 0-3 Arsenal
Leave a Reply