Arsenal made light work of Brentford to go back on top of the Premier League table after a 3-0 win at the Gtech Community stadium on Sunday.
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The Gunners took the lead on 17 minutes as Bukayo Saka‘s corner was headed into the far corner off the post by defender William Saliba. Then the lead was doubled 11 minutes later as Granit Xhaka floated a cross into the box and Gabriel Jesus emphatically headed home the second.
Shortly after the break, Fabio Vieira, on his full Premier League debut, made it 3-0 with a dipping shot from 25 yards. Mikkel Damsgaard’s low shot was kept out by Aaron Ramsdale, but Brentford offered little else as Arsenal returned to the top of the table by a single point ahead of Man City and Tottenham.
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Rapid Reaction
1. Arsenal have a ‘stroll in the park’
It was the tweet that manager Mikel Arteta used as motivation from this fixture last season when the teams met most recently in February.
“Nice kickabout with the boys,” striker Ivan Toney tweeted after Brentford’s 2-0 win in August 2021, and the recent Amazon documentary showed Arteta using a screenshot of that comment in his prematch team talk seven months later, helping inspire a 2-1 victory at home.
Sunday’s 3-0 win at Gtech Community Stadium will arguably have given the Gunners more satisfaction, however, given they were utterly dominant from the outset, never looking in danger after William Saliba headed them into a 17th-minute lead.
All three goals were excellent in their construction and execution, Gabriel Jesus heading in Granit Xhaka’s cross 11 minutes later, before Fabio Vieira killed any prospect of a Brentford comeback with a dipping drive four minutes into the second half.
Toney, who was this week celebrating his maiden international call-up and becoming the first Brentford player to make an England squad since Les Smith in 1939, barely had a kick all afternoon. As the Arsenal fans sang late on: “Ivan Toney, a stroll in the park.”
