- Arsenal and Brentford – is the opposition only good against certain clubs?
- Arsenal are “unconvincing” title challengers. Really?
By Tony Attwood
Brentford v Arsenal, 1 January 5.30pm Live on TNT and Discovery Plus. Obviously TNT costs quite a lot for a subscription but it would appear from its on site advertising that Discover Plus allows one to see the match on a computer for free.
I must admit I have not tried this before and not for the first time I might have misread the instructions, or they might be deliberately misleading, but I have signed up and wait to see if I can actually watch the match for free on my computer. Obviously, anything I say about getting a match on TV only applies to the UK, and only relates to legal services but if you want to explore this yourself try this link.
So on to the facts. Brentford are the ultimate Jeykll and Hyde club, as we can see from their home and away results with Arsenal’s away form shown in contrast.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Brentford home | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 26 | 16 | 10 | 22 |
| 19 | Brentford away | 9 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 16 | -10 | 2 |
| 4 | Arsenal away | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 10 | 7 | 15 |
So on a simple measure of Brentford’s home form and Arsenal’s away form, Brentford have form on their side, having only drawn one and lost one game at Griffin PArk this season. They also outdo Arsenal in terms of goals scored at home (26 to Arsenal’s 17 away), and it is only in defence that Arsenal have a better season thus far – ten goals conceded by Arsenal to 16 conceded by Brentford.
Interestingly their defence performs the same at home as away – it is the attack that makes all the difference.
This extraordinary imbalance of form therefore, makes the normal “recent results” table look misleading since of their last five matches, three have been away But that run did include a home defeat for the first time.
In the last five, Brentford have lost to Aston Villa, Chelsea and Brighton as form predicts, but also they have lost to Nottingham Forest at home. The other game was a goalless draw at Brighton.
And this gives us a clue as to what really is happening here. Brentford’s home games in fact have been primarily against clubs lower in the league:
Crystal Palace, Southampton, West Ham, Wolverhampton, Ipswich Town, Bournemouth, Leicester City, Newcastle.
The one time they have played a club that at that moment was resting in a superior position in the league (against Nottingham Forest) they have lost.
Indeed this sort of unbalanced set of fixtures is something we have been noticing all season, and was the cause of Arsenal being seen to be dropping down the league table early on. Sadly most journalists didn’t really notice this and so we got all the negative stories about Arsenal, but Arsenal’s early form was indeed due to a combination of injuries and the fixture list.
Moving on if we look at the overall results between Arsenal and Brentford, Arsenal’s performance does not look that impressive, what with Arsenal having won nine, and Brentford winning six, with five games drawn.
But in fact in the last 11 games between the two sides (nine in the league and two in the League Cup) we find that Brentford have won just one: on 13 August 2021 at Griffin Park Brentford beat Arsenal 2–0. Otherwise, it is Arsnal all the way since 1938.
Thus in terms of historic results in games against Arsenal, and in terms of contemporary results against the leading teams, the games have swung against Brentford and that opening figure of seven wins, one draw and one defeat at home this season, isn’t quite what it seems. And yes suddenly the last six matches table does indeed become relevant once again.
As we can see, Brentford are 12th… and while looking at this table once again we might note that Nottingham Forest’s goal difference is not that impressive of late. Although it is better than Brentford’s.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nottingham Forest | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 6 | +4 | 15 |
| 2 | Liverpool | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 21 | 9 | +12 | 14 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 4 | +10 | 14 |
| 4 | Newcastle | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 7 | +11 | 13 |
| 5 | Bournemouth | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 4 | +5 | 12 |
| 6 | Crystal Palace | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 11 |
| 7 | Chelsea | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 9 | +3 | 10 |
| 8 | Fulham | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 10 |
| 9 | Aston Villa | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 10 |
| 10 | ManC | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 7 | +3 | 8 |
| 11 | West Ham | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 11 | -5 | 8 |
| 12 | Brentford | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 7 |
