Arsenal Analysed | 5 reasons we beat Brentford

We moved to the top of the Premier League table with 10 games to go after beating Brentford 2-1 at Emirates Stadium - our eighth league win in succession.

To find out how we managed to find a way to beat the Bees, Adrian Clarke has delved into the stats and rewatched the footage to unearth some of the reasons why.

White at the double

Ben White has been one of our unsung heroes during this winning streak, performing with consistent excellence for Mikel Arteta’s side. Building on his goal at Sheffield United last time out, he provided two assists in the same match for the first time in his career.

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  For our breakthrough opener, we saw the benefit of using White as an inverted full-back who tucks inside. Receiving a pass from Jorginho centrally, he fed the ball wide to Bukayo Saka who naturally drew White’s marker Vitaly Janelt towards him, as Brentford sought to double up on our brilliant winger.

This decision freed up our right back to be the spare man, and once Saka laid the ball back, White was only too happy to whip a top-class cross onto the head of an onrushing Declan Rice.
 

His second assist was another pacy, low-trajectory cross that was begging to be headed home. Initially Martin Odegaard did well to keep the ball alive before setting up a one-two opportunity with White, who fizzed the perfect centre onto the head of Kai Havertz.

White is a technically outstanding footballer, and these twin assists served as a reminder of how good he can be inside the final third. During the 90 minutes no one made more passes (71) or passes inside the opposition half (51) than our right-back. With Leandro Trossard tucking in off the left, we built most of our attacks down the right wing, and White was delighted to be so heavily involved.

Havertz at the heart

It was fantastic to hear Emirates Stadium bouncing to the sound of the Havertz song late on in this match, and the acclaim was well deserved. In addition to scoring a fabulous winning goal via a bullet header, our number 29 also showed an outstanding work ethic throughout. No one in an Arsenal shirt ran further than Havertz, who also topped our rankings for sprints, intensive runs, and pressures.
 

The Germany international made good runs, looked after possession well, and mustered four shots on goal. Whether he plays as a striker or in midfield, Havertz has become an integral part of the starting XI.

Power-packed Rice performance

Playing as our left-sided central midfielder Rice was a constant thorn in Brentford’s side. He scored with a great header and almost came up with a second strike that would have been one of the goals of the season, curling a gorgeous 30-yarder that crashed onto the bar.

The standout aspect of this display was the number of dynamic runs he made, with and without the ball. With the ball at his feet Rice was borderline unstoppable at times, seeing space and surging into it at speed.

When Arsenal had possession he was always making purposeful runs to offer support to teammates, or to carry the ball towards goal:

In-possession intensive runs

Bukayo Saka 189
Kai Havertz 188
Declan Rice 174
Martin Odegard 170
Ben White 160

We know that Rice is a world-class defensive midfielder, but his recent form shows he can also be an exceptional box-to-box operator too.
 

Rambo to the rescue

Aaron Ramsdale was caught in possession by Brentford’s Yoan Wissa for the visitors’ equalising goal on the stroke of half-time, but he responded to the disappointment of that setback by delivering a second-half display full of character and quality.

His acrobatic save to tip over an audacious 40-yard goalbound swerving effort from Ivan Toney was an extraordinary stop that kept us level in the game.
 

In the 71st minute, the Bees had by far the clearest goalscoring opportunity of the match when Nathan Collins connected with a free header from six yards out. Rated as a 42 per cent xG chance (compared to Havertz’s 24 per cent xG header for his goal) the speedy way Ramsdale reacted to turn the effort over the bar was a moment of brilliance.

Refusing to let that first-half error affect his mindset, he produced a superb second-half performance.

Defying awkward opponents

Thomas Frank’s side displayed plenty of resilience in this clash, blocking five of 17 shots while defending stoutly amid periods of sustained pressure. The Bees are also crafty in the way they deliberately disrupt the flow of matches, and this has been a clear tactic of theirs in both meetings this season.

Taking their time over all the goal kicks, throw-ins and set piece restarts, our opponents did their utmost to prevent the on-song Gunners from finding our usual rhythm. Whenever we had set play situations of our own they were also belligerent in their man-to-man marking, forcing the referee to make several interventions that slowed down the taking of those dead balls.

Remarkably, the ball was in play for just 47.3% of the 104 minutes and 41 seconds that were played, and this made the contest feel a bit scrappier than our other outings in 2024. Both our fixtures against Brentford feature in the season’s top five games for Premier League matches with the lowest amount of time the ball spent in play.

Lowest ball in play in 2023/24

The west Londoners succeeded in making this a stop-start affair, but our high tempo, drive and superior quality ensured that ploy did not pay off.

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