After losing to Everton last week, Arsenal wanted this match against Brentford to be a “nice kick about with the boys”.
Instead, though, it was a frustrating afternoon as they were held to a draw by the Bees after Ivan Toney returned to haunt them.
Toney was a thorn in Arsenal’s side when Brentford beat them at the start of last season, prompting the striker to tweet: “Nice kick about with the boys”.
This time the points were shared, but the forward was equally dangerous and it was his goal that cancelled out Leandro Trossard’s opener.
It means Arsenal are now six points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League. They will have wanted that gap to be eight, particularly as City host Aston Villa on Sunday before travelling to Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.
That promises to be a huge clash and Arsenal go into it on their worst run of the season so far as they are without a win in three games.
They have set a high bar for themselves with their performances this season, but Mikel Arteta knows that is the level required if the Gunners want to be champions.
Arsenal will be frustrated they didn’t take three points from this match, however truth be told it could have been a lot worse.
Toney may have scored the equaliser, bundling the ball home from a set-piece with 16 minutes to go, but he also spurned two great chances before that.
The first of those came in the first-half when Toney clipped the woodwork, and it summed up a difficult half for Arsenal.
They struggled to play through Brentford’s press and, when they did, Thomas Frank’s side worked back well and doubled up on Arsenal’s wide players.
It starved Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli of the usual space they thrive in and, at the break, it was Brentford and not Arsenal disappointed the game was still 0-0.
Such was the length of Martinelli’s struggles that he was hooked for Trossard just after the hour mark. It looked like an inspired substitution too, as four minutes later the Belgian scored his first goal for the club.
Finally, Saka got space out wide as he was played in by Odegaard, and his fizzed cross was tapped home by Trossard.
Arsenal have proved efficient at grinding out results from that position this season, but this time they failed to do so - and Toney was at the heart of it.
First, he won a free-kick after grappling for what felt like the 20th time with William Saliba. From the resulting free-kick a scramble ensued and, as Arsenal failed to clear, Toney pounced.
It was a hammer blow for Arsenal, but no more than Brentford deserved.
Last week, Tottenham did the Gunners a favour when they slipped up at Everton. Now Arsenal will be hoping their old boss Unai Emery and Aston Villa do the same.
