Just five years after taking charge of Arsenal and assuming the reconstruction of a depressed team that was wandering in the middle of the table, Mikel Arteta raises the level of demands of the team, with which he won an unexpected Cup behind closed doors in 2020 and two Super Cups . He wants more. Arsenal needs more. “The reality is that we don’t have the big titles we are looking for. There is a void to fill,” explained the Basque coach in an interview prior to the match against Brentford this new year, the first of 2025 in the Premier, the last of the first round. Arsenal took the points, after a comeback (1-3), and once again heads to compete for the title, a task in which for the last two years they looked into the eyes of an intractable Manchester City. Liverpool, which closed the first round with a single defeat, a postponed match at Everton’s home and a six-point lead over the gunnerswhich are remade after a difficult time marked by absences due to injury.
1
Mark Flekken, Sepp van den Berg (Kim Ji-Soo, min. 74), Keane Lewis-Potter, Nathan Collins, Mads Roerslev, Yehor Yarmoliuk, Christian Nørgaard (Mathias Jensen, min. 74), Mikkel Damsgaard (Paris Maghoma, min . 74), Vitaly Janelt, Bryan Mbeumo y Yoane Wissa (Kevin Schade, min. 74)
3
David Raya, Jurriën Timber, William Saliba, Riccardo Calafiori (Myles Lewis-Skelly, min. 77), Gabriel Magalhães, Thomas Partey, Martin Ødegaard (Jorginho, min. 87), Mikel Merino (Declan Rice, min. 77), Gabriel Martinelli, Ethan Nwaneri (Leandro Trossard, min. 77) y Gabriel Jesus (Oleksandr Zinchenko, min. 90)
Goals
1-0 min. 12: Bryan Mbeumo. 1-1 min. 28: Gabriel Jesus. 1-2 min. 49: Merino. 1-3 min. 52: Martinelli
Referee Peter Bankes
yellow cards
Jurrien Maduro (16 min.), Christian Nørgaard (25 min.), Riccardo Calafiori (56 min.)
Arteta continues to have problems, and he is considering going to the market to look for a replacement for Bukayo Saka, his latest casualty. But he has managed to keep a team on its feet that has not lost in two months and that in Brentford rose against a score at the beginning, after Mbeumo punished them on a counterattack that ended with a fanged shot that sought the short post. Without fanfare, Gabriel Jesus equalized after half an hour. He did it just after David Raya reacted felinely to correct a mistake of his in blocking and avoid the two to zero with a mitt that deflected the ball when it was on the goal line.
It was a magical minute for Arsenal, who found parity just in time so that the emergencies did not press them. And when he returned from the break he hit twice in one of his specialties, strategy and everything that happens from it. First he noted that he had more influence in the area than in the game but that he has already earned the affection of a fan who tirelessly chants his name; Shortly after, Gabriel Martinelli scored with a volley and the game was decided because Brentford could not find a way to generate goal opportunities again, too slow to even be able to tickle an opponent who folded without major problems.
Arsenal took out the hammer, just what Arteta had asked the team the day before. “If someone wins every game, then we congratulate them and move on to the next season,” explains the coach, before warning that they will not always find an opponent of the level of City that left them in the runners-up position in the last two years. guarantees. On Saturday they will once again travel to another uncomfortable fiefdom, that of Brighton, before Liverpool receives the very low-priced Manchester United at Anfield on Sunday.
