Mikel Arteta might not always think so, but everything seems to be going Arsenal’s way. This was another exceptional day for their top-four prospects and, while they had enjoyed the luxury of watching rivals stumble in recent weeks, here they asserted those credentials all by themselves. Brentford were flattered by Christian Nørgaard’s added-time goal and the tone could hardly have been more different from the opening weekend of the season, when Arsenal were pummelled by the same opponents and appeared a hopeless case.
On this occasion it was one-way traffic in the direction of Brentford’s penalty area. Arsenal would have enjoyed seeing West Ham drop points against Newcastle at lunchtime and were patently hungry to capitalise, barely letting up from the first whistle. A completely dominant first half did not yield enough in terms of clear chances, and much less where goals were concerned, but they re-emerged with the same tempo and deserved their reward.
