Arsenal v Brentford… Against each other and the all important recent form…

By Bulldog Drummond

Brentford are one of the small number of clubs that have beaten Arsenal, more than Arsenal have beaten them.  We’ve won four, four have been drawn and they have won six – including of course the first match of this season.

After a Woolwich Arsenal cup game in 1902 which was a draw at Griffin Park and then a resounding 5-0 victory in Plumstead, the clubs didn’t meet until Brentford were promoted to the first division for the first time in 1935.  This was of course Arsenal’s heyday when we won the league five times and the cup twice in a decade.  Except we didn’t do that against Brentford.  Arsenal played them eight times in the 1930s and drew two and lost five of the first seven!

Date	Match	Res	Score	Competition
13 Dec 1902	Brentford v Woolwich Arsenal	D	1-1	FA Cup
17 Dec 1902	Woolwich Arsenal v Brentford	W	5-0	FA Cup
2 Nov 1935	Brentford v Arsenal	L	2-1	Division One
4 Apr 1936	Arsenal v Brentford	D	1-1	Division One
3 Sep 1936	Brentford v Arsenal	L	2-0	Division One
9 Sep 1936	Arsenal v Brentford	D	1-1	Division One
15 Apr 1938	Arsenal v Brentford	L	0-2	Division One
18 Apr 1938	Brentford v Arsenal	L	3-0	Division One
8 Sep 1938	Brentford v Arsenal	L	1-0	Division One
6 May 1939	Arsenal v Brentford	W	2-0	Division One
12 Oct 1946	Arsenal v Brentford	D	2-2	Division One
26 May 1947	Brentford v Arsenal	W	0-1	Division One
26 Sep 2018	Arsenal v Brentford	W	3-1	League Cup
13 Aug 2021	Brentford v Arsenal	L	2-0	Premier League

However, we’ve also been looking at form guides a lot of late because they are the best indicator of what is likely to happen in a match.  And in doing so we started to wonder exactly why most pundits don’t use the form guides more extensively.

I rather suspect that the reason they are not particularly used in football journalism is because they are so helpful to punters, that gambling companies that put so much money into football these days don’t like them, and so put a little pressure on the media to lay off any serious use of form guides.  Wild journalistic opinions and predictions help the bookies rake the money in.

However, we have grown increasingly to love the form guide because unlike the media’s prognostications of Arsenal’s appalling season, total failure and desperate need to buy a new squad, the form tables do give us a clue as to what really is going to happen next.  Of course, all runs come to an end, but if they are genuine runs they do give an indication of what’s what.  Here’s our favourite that we have been using all season… the “last six league games” table.

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Manchester City	6	5	1	0	11	2	9	16
2	Arsenal	6	4	1	1	13	3	10	13
3	Liverpool	6	4	1	1	11	4	7	13
4	Wolverhampton Wander	6	4	1	1	8	3	5	13
5	Manchester United	6	3	3	0	10	5	5	12
6	Newcastle United	6	3	2	1	7	7	0	11
7	West Ham United	6	3	1	2	10	8	2	10
8	Chelsea	6	2	3	1	9	6	3	9
9	Southampton	6	2	3	1	11	9	2	9
10	Brighton & Hove Albion	6	2	3	1	8	7	1	9
11	Tottenham Hotspur	6	2	1	3	7	10	-3	7
12	Leeds United	6	2	1	3	10	14	-4	7
13	Norwich City	6	2	1	3	6	11	-5	7
14	Crystal Palace	6	1	3	2	8	8	0	6
15	Aston Villa	6	1	2	3	8	11	-3	5
16	Leicester City	6	1	2	3	9	14	-5	5
17	Everton	6	1	1	4	8	10	-2	4
18	Burnley	6	0	3	3	3	8	-5	3
19	Watford	6	0	2	4	1	8	-7	2
20	Brentford	6	0	1	5	3	14	-11	1

Of course we don’t normally print the whole table, but this time we need to bring in Brentford which means going to the bottom.  But it is also interesting just how far down Tottenham Hots have sunk of late, despite the media endlessly doing their best to talk them up.   Leicester likewise have been in a decline having lost the ability to swing their two favourite tricks of recent years: tackling with impunity and the Vardy direction change in the penalty box in order to get penalties.

But part of the reason for the Brentfordian collapse is who they have been playing of late…  They have been defeated by Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City in that run.  Their one draw in the last seven league and FA Cup games was a goalless affair at home to Crystal Palace.

However, since this has been a particularly bad run of late I thought we ought to extend the analysis to 15 games and look at both home and away results to see if that gives us a better clue as to what is going on.   Here is the whole league table.

As you will expect, across the last 15 Arsenal are right up there with the major teams, showing us five points above Tottenham and eight points above the media’s darlings, West Ham.   Home and away form are fairly evenly matched although our defence is better at home these days.

				H	O	M	E			A	W	A	Y
Pos	Team	P		W	D	L	F	A		W	D	L	F	A		GD	Pts
1	Manchester C	15		7	0	0	22	4		7	1	0	19	4		33	43
2	Liverpool	15		6	1	0	19	3		4	2	2	15	10		21	33
3	Arsenal	15		5	2	1	14	5		4	0	3	15	10		14	29
4	Manchester U	15		5	1	2	11	7		2	4	1	10	10		4	26
5	Chelsea	15		2	5	0	11	8		4	2	2	14	7		10	25
6	Wolverhampton	15		3	2	2	6	4		4	2	2	7	5		4	25
7	Tottenham Ho	15		4	1	3	14	11		3	2	2	8	8		3	24
8	West Ham Uni	15		4	1	2	14	11		2	2	4	10	11		2	21
9	Southampton	15		2	4	0	10	6		3	2	4	12	19		-3	21
10	Leicester City	15		4	2	3	18	15		1	2	3	9	14		-2	19
11	Brighton and H	15		1	4	1	5	4		2	5	2	11	12		0	18
12	Newcastle Unit	15		3	4	2	11	14		1	2	3	4	11		-10	18
13	Crystal Palace	15		3	1	3	14	11		1	4	3	7	10		0	17
14	Aston Villa	15		2	2	3	12	15		3	0	5	7	9		-5	17
15	Leeds United	15		2	3	2	9	10		2	2	4	11	21		-11	17
16	Norwich City	15		2	2	5	6	17		2	1	3	6	10		-15	15
17	Burnley	15		1	5	1	7	6		0	4	4	5	12		-6	12
18	Brentford	15		3	1	4	8	10		0	2	5	6	18		-14	12
19	Watford	15		1	0	7	7	17		1	2	4	9	11		-12	8
20	Everton	15		2	1	5	10	15		0	1	6	5	15		-15	8

More anon…

• Do Arsenal really urgently need a striker as the media says?
• The media conspiracy: Lay off the proof, stay clear of the facts