Brentford has been on a roll, so despite Brentford's lack of a victory at Arsenal since WWII, no one was taking them lightly. The Gunners started strongly, and after ten minutes took the lead at the end of a 14 pass move in which all ten outfield players touched the ball. Ben White, back in the side to give Timber a rest and round him into form, was sent to the endline by Madueke with a clever flick, and crossed it for Merino, who headed down past Kelleher (see photo). I agonized for the next 80+ minutes until the first minute of added time, when Merino found Saka steaming through the middle to put the game to bed with a powerful strike that Kelleher could not keep out. Raya made a spectacular reflex save on a bullet header in the first half to maintain our slender lead.
The good news on the injury front is that Odegaard played the whole game and looked good. Madueke was dangerous. Gyokeres came in late. Jesus was on the bench. White was the MOTM. The bad news is that Mosquera and Rice had to come off with injuries, severity unknown. Gabriel will be out for a while yet; Saliba could be back in a week or so. Havertz is still out until probably January.
We travel to Villa Saturday and to Brugge next Wednesday. Maybe we can rotate heavily for that ECL match. Nwaneri has to get more minutes.
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