If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Ivan Toney has lived by that. The Brentford striker squandered two glorious chances at the Emirates, before finally equalising to earn the Bees a fully merited draw.
Before this afternoon, only Eddie Howe’s Newcastle had taken a point off the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League this season. Thomas Frank shifted to a back three and his players recovered from a slightly nervy start to thwart Mikel Arteta’s side while threatening on the break.
Toney is Brentford’s leading marksman this season and only Erling Haaland and Harry Kane have been more prolific in the entirety of the division. Still, for so long at the Emirates it looked as though it just wasn’t going to be Toney’s day.
When the Bees finally cut through Arsenal in the first half, Mbeumo and Toney combined fluidly. The Cameroonian crossed for his strike partner, who inexplicably struck the crossbar.
It was a poor miss from a player so accustomed to netting when his team need it most. By the time midfielder Christian Norgaard squared for Toney in the second half, Brentford deserved to lead.
Toney couldn’t grant them that however, placing wide when opting for power would surely have worked out better.
Leandro Trossard, the Arsenal substitute, therefore took it upon himself to open the scoring, steering in when Bukayo Saka had crossed so sumptuously that the Belgian could only have missed the target if he’d tried to.
Brentford’s No 17 was never cowed by the disappointment of his earlier misses and levelled on 74 minutes when excellent work by Norgaard and Ethan Pinnock to keep a free-kick alive resulted in the former volleying across the goalmouth for Toney to pounce.
It showed the fight and resilience that Toney has showed throughout his career, learning the trade at Northampton Town and never hiding when his spell at Newcastle between 2015 and 2018 didn’t work out. Now he is a household name, received an England call-up in September, and is inspiring his side towards a European push.
When asked last week about the possibility of achieving European football for next season, Thomas Frank smiled and said: “I am a dreamer.” The entire Brentford team can start dreaming. Toney’s goals allow them to.
