This was, as the away support gleefully reminded Ivan Toney, a stroll in the park for Arsenal. It certainly presented some departure from the night, 13 months ago, when they buckled under a battering at this venue. Brentford were quickly subdued to near silence and their new England call-up barely had a sniff thanks to a visiting defence whose performance was almost immaculate.
Last year Toney had tweeted about a “nice kick about with the boys” after his side’s 2-0 win; this time references to playground football became especially relevant in stoppage time, when Mikel Arteta felt sufficiently assured to create a piece of history. He sent on the schoolboy Ethan Nwaneri, who had not been born when the Emirates Stadium was completed in 2006: at 15 years and 181 days old, the England under-17 international became Arsenal’s youngest-ever player and the youngest to appear for any team in the Premier League.
