At least the passing seems to have a purpose rather than simply recycling,

Looks like they’ve settled now.

1-0 brentford too easy

Oh no

And Brentford 1 - 0

Chambers poor clearance, we had a few times to clear it. Wondered whether it had even gone out for a corner. Chambers then slow to close down, let him inside on his right foot and Leno beaten at his near post.

With the young team we have out and our problem creating chances and scoring I can't help bnut feel this is it for us tonight

Balogun needs to cut the flicks out and start holding it up and laying it off. Play it simple

This won’t be easy to get out of.

If you had to pick a team in this league who would somehow find themselves missing their 3 most senior strikers and their key players through the spine of central mid and central defence it would of course be us every time!

And I don't think Lacazette, Aubameyang, Nketiah make much difference to this. Partey and gabriel would

Not sure about that. Think we could do with a Lacazette out there

Look a bit shell-shocked, need to just get on with it now.

Unbelievable. They should be 2-0 up, their man messes it up and we let him dance his way through with no attempt at a tackle,

It's bizarre seeing large crowds, no social distancing and no masks.

And here I am and haven't set foot outside my front door in 9 weeks and likely another 11 more to come of lockdown.

Sounds grim down under.

Many here are quite happy to mix freely, and many are not. I’m certainly not.

Agree with that. Need someone to hold it up.

Sideways, sideways, Sideways, sideways, Sideways, sideways, Sideways, sideways, Sideways, sideways, Sideways, sideways,

Xhaka is doing my head in when we have the ball at the back. He doesn't make passing lines for the defenders, he's positioning himself in the line of the Brentford player closing down the defender.

Then he dawdles on it on the edge of the box and nearly costs us. When a team is pressing you why do any players think they're going to be able to have more than one touch when you receive the ball with your back to goal

Still defensively frail,especially on our left side.

Some of our passing at the back - our player has no one within 20 yards so passes it to a teammate who has a player 15 yards from him, who passes to a player who is only 10 yards from an opponent - this keeps going until we boot it long or panic in the closing down!

Really ? I think we look shot to pieces on the right and would sub chambers for Bellerin at half time.

Whoops, got my orientation wrong. I meant right side.

Half time. Played quite well, then conceded a goal, then faded away.

Poor

I’d swap Balogun for Saka at HT and push Martinelli up front and swap chambers for Bellerin.

We are losing this for sure unless you change this quick.

45 minutes of everything we've seen far too many times before. had 70% of the ball before the goal, not a single threatening moment or proper shot at goal. Once again it is pretty simple tactics working against us and the tactics are pretty much based on the basics of football and athleticsim. Closing down, high press, lots of movement, willingness to dribble to move the ball forward, get it in to the front man quickly and get men in the box. Pretty much everything we're incapable of doing and were incapable of doing last season as well

Didn't think Arteta's brand of non-football was going to surface so soon.

Two tight decisions in that half as well. Was the ball out before their goal - impossible to tell from the camera angles. Also did Balogun deserve a penalty, tiny touch on the ball from the defender but followed through on Balogun knee high - sky saying last season it might well have been given. Not saying either decision was wrong because they are a tough call in the moment for the ref and he's taken the view NOT to make the call. Which generally I'd prefer because it keeps the game flowing rather than the forensic analysis. But of course you knew that Arsenal would be the ones to be disadvantage by the new way of interpreting the rules

Our defenders are definitely still social distancing

Only 1 shot on target after 47 minutes and a bazillion passes.

Balance of the front 6 is poor but I'm not sure who else Arteta could have picked. That balance has to be sorted out in the transfer window.
Pépé, Martinelli, Balogun are not really creators, they're all more finishers of moves so there is very little interplay. Xhaka and Lokonga sit deep and keep it simple - so Smith Rowe is a bit of an island having to take it from the midfielders, bring it forward and create something for the strikers all by himself

They haven't a single outfield player we would be interested in signing. As usual, our football is slow and conservative. It's all impotent passing.

No idea what is happening on the wings. Pépé is hugging the touchline on the right but Martinelli is so central that Tierney seems to be a wingback. A mess.

Even by our lowly standards that was shite.

Martinelli runs around like someone has stuck a firework up his arse but no one ever gives him the ball. He moves inside to create space for Tierney but in doing so he takes himself out of the game. I'd rather he stayed wide.

I think Arteta is trying him out in some new positions - either the left-right out or the team setback.

depressing stat on sky there.
Arsenal have been losing at half time 14 times under Arteta, we've drawn 4 and lost 10

Lokonga looks slick though. Confident not one paced like Guendouzi and eager.

A flash of quality there. Smith Rowe our best chance of turning things.

He's the one making things happen. Amazing talent

Nice from Smith Rowe, first proper moment of danger for us. shot too close to the GK

Keep up this momentum

Come on Arsenal, we have the quality to win this one