- Arsenal face two of the best goalkeepers in the world in consecutive games
- Brentford away of late – and how are Arsenal likely to fare?
- Arsenal’s record at home v Brentford’s record away, and the recent games
- Arsenal v Brentford. Slowly it is being recognised, Arsenal are more than XI
By Tony Attwood
And yes I know there is a game this afternoon (I am after all, getting ready to travel to London to watch it once I have written this final piece on the match,) but I really do have to divert your attention just for a moment to the ongoing saga of the mighty Tottenham, so solidly tipped for a continuingly upgoing curve this season by the media.
The headline that has caused this is ‘We’ve got a leak’ – Spurs to ‘deal with’ problem in camp
So a leak? Well yes, conceding 45 goals this season in the league. Which is only two short of Brentford who we play in the early evening or late afternoon depending on your perspective. But here the esteemed manager is complaining that the leak is a person who is revealing club secrets to the media. The manager said, “”It started last year. We thought we had nipped it in the bud but it’s still consistently coming out at different times.”
But when we think about this, it doesn’t make sense. What secrets can Tottenham possibly have? Every season they are talked up as a club to watch. But in the past five seasons they have come 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th although not in that order, losing between 11 and 14 games each campaign. And their defence is so awful they have let in nearly twice as many goals as Arsenal this season.
In short there is no secret – we all know it. They are not very good but have constantly been talked up by the media, although the manager is now talking about a “cultural change” rather than plugging the gaps in the defence. And maybe that’s the problem.
But we can be fairly sure what upsets the Tottyhots man, and that is the fans who don’t make enough noise, the fans who point mobile phones at him, the negative agenda of the press vis a vis Tottenham (which really is a laugh – he should see what they say about Arsenal – and indeed what they actually said about Tottenham before this season started),
So, just to keep us occupied until the unfashionably late start of this match, here’s a Posty quote: “The one slight against this club is that it hasn’t been a winner. Well a winner’s mentality in the last minute of a game is to score a goal.”
Anyway, enough of that. What about the team?
Raya
White Saliba Kivior Lewis-Skelly
Odegard Jorginho Merino
Nwaneri Trossard Sterling
Raya
White, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinchenko
Rice, Jorginho, Merino
Nwaneri, Trossard, Sterling
Raya
White, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinchenko
Odegaard, Jorginho, Merino
Nwaneri, Trossard, Sterling
Finally Sportsmole gives us
Raya;
White, Saliba, Kiwior, Tierney;
Odegaard, Jorginho, Merino;
Nwaneri, Trossard, Sterling
Still at least everyone is agreed on the forward line, with no Saka and no Martinelli.
If you don’t have a ticket, the match today is on Sky TV, while the match on Wednesday (unlike the game past week against Real Mad which was only on Amazon) is on TNT,
