Brentford 1-1 Arsenal: What Arteta and Rice said

By the final whistle at the Gtech Community Stadium, Arsenal were left counting the cost of a game that slipped through their fingers after they had taken the lead, as Brentford’s set-piece expertise and a chaotic final half-hour forced the league leaders to settle for a 1-1 draw.

Mikel Arteta, whose side have now dropped points only twice in 17 Premier League fixtures when scoring first this season, admitted his team allowed the contest to descend into the type of arm-wrestle that suits the Bees. “We wanted to win so we feel like we dropped two points,” the Arsenal boss told BBC Sport. “The moment you start to give away one or two free-kicks, the ball goes into the channels, it can go out for a throw and then it is a nightmare. They can throw the ball from anywhere on the pitch.”

Arteta’s reference was a pointed one; Brentford have married their long-established prowess from dead-ball situations with a long-throw weapon that repeatedly pinned Arsenal back after the break. “They are one of the best historically in the league [from set-pieces] and they have developed this year with the long throw. It is a real threat and difficult to defend,” he added.

Declan Rice, whose midfield graft helped Arsenal wrestle back control either side of half-time, echoed his manager’s frustration. “The game was split into different halves,” the England international said. “We suffocated a lot after the goal. In this journey you are never going to be at the level for 70 games of the season but you have to be at the best you can.”

The draw means Arsenal have now collected 15 wins and just one draw from the 17 league matches in which they have opened the scoring, the only other blemish a 2-3 home defeat to Manchester United in January. Yet the underlying numbers offered a sobering context: the visitors’ 0.6 expected goals was their third-lowest total in a Premier League fixture this term, behind only the two meetings with Liverpool in August (0.49) and January (0.57).

Arteta insisted the outcome should not be viewed as a fatal blow in the title race. “We keep going,” he said, while Rice urged his team-mates to shut out the rising outside noise. “People are going to talk up the title race and Arsenal but we have a really calm group,” he stressed. “It’s a point gained in our journey but we wanted to win the game.”

Statistically, the value of defensive lynchpin William Saliba was underlined once more: with the Frenchman on the pitch since the start of 2022-23, Arsenal average 2.3 points per match and boast a 68.6% win rate, compared with 1.6 points per game and a 42.1% win rate without him.

For Brentford, the result continues a recent upward curve and leaves Thomas Frank’s side buoyed by a hard-earned point against the division’s pacesetters. For Arsenal, it is a reminder that control, once ceded against a side schooled in the dark arts of set-piece chaos, can be painfully difficult to reclaim.