We were not outgunned by the Gunners

After two great away wins at Villa and Newcastle, I was quite relaxed about Arsenal getting all three points at the Gtech. Yet, we came away with point after a 1-1 draw. Arsenal were desperate to win as the previous night Man City had closed the gap to three points at the top of the PL.

At the 10-minute mark Arsenal almost scored from a corner. Rice delivered to the far post, where Gabriel headed towards goal from close range, but van den Berg headed the ball off the line and away. Ten minutes later, Raya made a great save. He attempted to roll the ball out to Rice, but Jensen was sharp and robbed it off him. He then delivered a fantastic ball into Thiago in the six-yard box. His thumping header was low and goal-bound, but Raya did phenomenally well to get down and beat the ball away.

It was goalless at half-time, but Arsenal were on the front foot immediately after the break. Yet, after 53 minutes KLP’s mazy run saw him beat three Arsenal players, before a pass to Ouattara saw him feed Thiago, whose thunderous shot was blocked well by a Gunners defender. Ødegaard had the visitors' first chance of the second half, when some neat football on the left saw the ball find its way to him, but he blazed well over the bar. Arsenal broke the deadlock on 61 minutes. A Hincapié cross was whipped to the back post, where Madueke rose above Henry to head the ball back across goal and past Kelleher to make it 0-1. The Bees were so close to equalising from a near-identical scenario just a few minutes later. Jensen swung a corner to the back post, and it was KLP who was there, unmarked. He powerfully headed it down into the ground, but unfortunately, it bounced just wide of the post. We had another chance soon after, when Thiago did superbly well on the counterattack. After Kayode made a crucial intervention at one end, Janelt (who had been booked after only 4 minutes) won the ball and quickly played it forward to Thiago. He drove at Gabriel and, using Ouattara as a decoy, found some space to shoot at goal, but it was saved again by Raya. We finally equalised in the 71st minute. A Kayode long throw was flicked on by van den Berg, and KLP sneaked in to head past Raya and make amends for his previous miss.

We pushed for a winner, and with three minutes to go, another great pass from Janelt saw Thiago one-on-one with Mosquera. He flicked the ball past the Arsenal defender and was just about to shoot when Mosquera made a fantastic recovery run and block. Thiago had one more chance in added time, when he was fed by Jensen, but his powerful effort was fired over the crossbar. In an end-to-end finale, Kelleher made one of his best saves in a Brentford shirt. Timber broke into the final third and played the ball across to Martinelli who looked in a prime position to score the winner, but a big, outstretched arm by the Bees' no.1 confirmed the draw. Now we need to make sure we don't come unstuck next Monday night in the 4th Round of the FA Cup, away to non-league Macclesfield Town (who beat the holders Crystal Palace in the last round).