Brentford vs Arsenal 01.01.2025 KO 17:30 GMT

A fixture that only Skysports will be able to tell you why they decided to schedule it for today, as opposed to yesterday or Monday but there we go.


The Havertz in midfield experiment has to end, it didn’t work last season and it’s not working now. The fact that we looked better simply by bringing Merino on, tells you how ineffective we are playing him there


Play Rice at 6, Partey at 8 and Calafiori at left back. Then play Jesus on the right, Martinelli/Trossard on the left and Havertz up front. There’s no need to complicate things.


After the miserable failure that saw us win 5 games in 11 and give succour to a Liverpool team we should have beaten comfortably at the Emirates, pretty much every game from here on out is a must win. In a fair world Arteta’s job would be on the line, and online imbeciles wouldn’t be showing our calendar year form as if it’s anything more than a curious statistic.


But we don’t, so we have to put up with him even if the looming humiliation does come to pass. But we should still make every effort to make sure it doesn’t

I hope we win, tbh

After the Ipswich gane when Rice was being interviewed he mentioned that he's stronger as a number 6 but Arteta like's him at 8 (well that's what I got from it anyway)

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Originally Posted by dazthegooner

After the Ipswich gane when Rice was being interviewed he mentioned that he's stronger as a number 6 but Arteta like's him at 8 (well that's what I got from it anyway)

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Well the explanation for that is simple. Arteta is a cunt more interested in proving himself to be brilliantly unorthodox than doing the basic and simple things. Whilst I think people wanting us to adopt the hire and fire method of Chelsea are not thinking straight (assuming they are capable of thought at all), the head coach/manager should be little more than a functionary who oversees training and makes sure that the correct team is picked for match days….and without major trophies should be kept at the club no longer than three seasons. That we allowed this inexperienced arrogant individual whose grasp exceeds their reach to do a power grab and make himself manager, shows that half the problem is the ownership’s indifference

1-3 tbh.

I think this will be another struggle. I think because of the way Brentford have gone for games this season (especially at home) I think we’ve forgotten how they played against us last season….especially at home. We have to expect that almost every team will play a deep block against us (unless they ate stupid) because it’s a clear weakness of ours…again because of who we have as coach.
Like always if we get sloppy and concede the first goal, we statistically have a negligible chance of coming back to win the game…that means Havertz in midfield has to be out of the question…especially with a team that as much as it will defend will go for us on the counter

Also given that despite our usual solid record in the last couple of seasons away from home defensively, we haven’t kept a clean sheet away from home in the last 7 games (conceding 10 times in those 7) we probably need 2-3 goals to make sure we win this game

Think we'll just sneak it 2-1

1-2

Forgot all about this.

Football :rose:

Must win

Team to play Brentford: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Partey, Merino, Odegaard; Nwaneri, Jesus, Martinelli
Subs: Neto, Kiwior, Tierney, Zinchenko, Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Rice, Kabia, Trossard

I don’t even know where to begin. What’s happened to Havertz.

Stop Playing Partey at 6. Stop playing Merino at all…if he’s got to play, play him as a sub after we’ve taken the lead…he’s too slow to play in a creative position and his passing isn’t good enough.

If Havertz is sick/injured, Jesus should have been played on the right with Nwaneri next to Odegaard

I’m not confident

I'm not yet a huge fan but I expect Merino's there to give some solidity, Brentford are quite a physical team

Good to see Nwaneri start but seems a weird match to pick as opposed to Ipswich at home...

As for Havertz it must be an injury or personal reasons, I can't see a reason for him being out of the squad otherwise

Nwaneri was presumably picked because of the injury/illness or otherwise unknown reason for Havertz’s absence. Otherwise he’d presumably have stuck him up front.

Merino isn’t especially that good physically either, he may have looked that way in Spain but doesn’t look especially like he’s confident being pressed.

I don’t know. I honestly can’t remember the last lineup I had much confidence in. Arteta for me, just does not know what he is doing

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Team to play Brentford: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori; Partey, Merino, Odegaard; Nwaneri, Jesus, Martinelli
Subs: Neto, Kiwior, Tierney, Zinchenko, Lewis-Skelly, Jorginho, Rice, Kabia, Trossard

I don’t even know where to begin. What’s happened to Havertz.

Stop Playing Partey at 6. Stop playing Merino at all…if he’s got to play, play him as a sub after we’ve taken the lead…he’s too slow to play in a creative position and his passing isn’t good enough.

If Havertz is sick/injured, Jesus should have been played on the right with Nwaneri next to Odegaard

I’m not confident

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Brentford: Flekken; Roerslev, Collins, van den Berg, Lewis-Potter; Norgaard, Janelt; Mbeumo, Damsgaard, Yarmoliuk; Wissa
Subs: Valdimarsson, Schade, Jensen, Meghoma, Konak, Maghoma, Ji-Soo, Yogane, Arthur

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

Nwaneri was presumably picked because of the injury/illness or otherwise unknown reason for Havertz’s absence. Otherwise he’d presumably have stuck him up front.

Merino isn’t especially that good physically either, he may have looked that way in Spain but doesn’t look especially like he’s confident being pressed.

I don’t know. I honestly can’t remember the last lineup I had much confidence in. Arteta for me, just does not know what he is doing

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Sort of my point really, he's given Nwaneri too little game time up until now and here he is now making a very rare start against the team with the joint best home record in the league

I'm alright with our team tbh

Odegaard and Nwaneri presumably will interact a lot. If he's on the right of course.

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Originally Posted by Mac76

Sort of my point really, he's given Nwaneri too little game time up until now and here he is now making a very rare start against the team with the joint best home record in the league

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Again I wasn’t disagreeing with you, he should have started against Ipswich but just stating that presumably he’s only starting now because of another player being unavailable.

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Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost...

I'm alright with our team tbh

Odegaard and Nwaneri presumably will interact a lot. If he's on the right of course.

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That’s not the problem I have. The problem i have is Merino starting and Jesus playing up front. In the absence of Havertz I’d sooner have Trossard up front

Come on Arsenal. :bow:

nasty tackle on Martinelli goes un-carded - after all it's not as bad as kicking the ball away is it :rolleyes:

Brentford almost open us up by going Route one within the first five minutes

Nwaneri on corners is interesting.

Odegaard sends one into space

Mbeumo does Calafiore - 1-0

1-0 Mbuemo

Well Odegaard caused that goal ...and he has been doing shit like that for a lot of this season!!

That’s game over (well in terms of getting a win I mean), there’s about a 10% chance of a draw

Great finish by Mbuemo BTW.

I don't think their is any forward in our club who could do that except Saka of course.

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

That’s game over (well in terms of getting a win I mean), there’s about a 10% chance of a draw

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A little melodramatic at this stage, but given how hard we seem to find scoring it's...less than ideal

Us. :lol:

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Originally Posted by The Wengerbabies

Forgot all about this.

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Should have stayed forgotten :rolleyes:

Jesus pussies out of pulling the trigger after beating 2 men, leading to Brentford immediately winning the ball back anyway. :rolleyes:

Bet Liverpool cannot believe how easy this title win is going to be for them.

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Originally Posted by WMUG

Jesus pussies out of pulling the trigger after beating 2 men, leading to Brentford immediately winning the ball back anyway. :rolleyes:

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He has reverted back to form.

Only an idiot would insist we don't need a serious striker, especially seeing what Mbeumo just did

Raya seems to be feeling the nerves back here at his old side

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Originally Posted by Letters

A little melodramatic at this stage, but given how hard we seem to find scoring it's...less than ideal

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No melodrama involved I'm basing it on statistics. In Arteta’s tenure as coach we have come back from conceding the first goal to win a game away from home three times and only once in the last almost four years (roughly about 30 times have we conceded the first goal in that time)

Its really funny that it takes an injury for Nwaneri to start a EPL game.

I think he's been the most comfortable forward so far.

Jesus Raya. :haha:

WTF is going on with Raya!!!

JESUS!!!