I’ve heard some self-indulgent tripe before yet this is one to top them all. Mikel Arteta has used the build up to Wednesday evening’s top of the table clash between Arsenal and Manchester City to further whinge about Brentford. Specifically the goal Ivan Toney scored for the Bees on Saturday to level things up in the 74th minute. An apparent VAR error allowed the goal to stand and despite the apologies from PGMOL (the referee’s association) about a human error, he’s still been banging on. 72 hours on and we’ve been overloaded with Arteta’s image being beamed across our TV screens, complaining to anybody who would listen about the officials and the fact he had been denied a win.
I tell you what. I love it. Absolutely love it. Not just the hypocrisy but the fact that Brentford have played Arsenal and their management as easily as a second hand fiddle. We’ve been there before after Ivan Toney’s comments last season when the Bees beat Arteta’s team in the first game of the campaign. You remember – we ran out 2-0 winners and went top of the Premier League. A moment followed by Ivan tweeting about his ‘nice kick about with the boys’.
How we lauged. As much then as in the subsequent meltdown that emerged from the Arsenal TV documentary where Arteta declared,”It’s still in my stomach, and I have managed to keep it in my stomach for six months. This is Toney after the game when we played them at Brentford.
“You know what he did, you know his tweet? ‘Nice kickabout with the boys this afternoon’. So, today they play in our house guys, and there is only one team in that f****** pithead. Only team, they don’t play, we take the f****** ball, we take the game and we go for it. Let’s win this f****** game let’s go.”
Sure, they did win. Just. 2-1. Well done. Yet our own retribution this time around was ten times sweeter. Brentford were magnificent on Saturday. Picking up where we’d left off from the defeat of Manchester City at the Ethiad. From the 3-1 trouncing of Liverpool. From an unbeaten Premier League run that stretches back to Aston Villa away (move along everyone, nothing to see there) in late October 2022. From a season that saw Manchester United humbled 4-0 in our first home game.
Have some respect for the opposition, Mikel. Have some class. Let’s be clear. Arsenal were lucky to get away with even a draw. Totally outplayed, let’s not forget that only the woodwork preserved their modesty in the first half. Ivan, Bryan and Rico carving them open with aplomb whilst, of course, Mbeumo had a legitimate goal denied early on.
Gabriel channeling his inner Tom Daley and falling over under no pressure whatsoever was deemed to be some sort of foul after we’d found the back of the net. Where was VAR then? Where was Thomas Frank crying his eyes out to anybody that would listen? Nowhere, because that’s not what we do. That’s football. Much as it hurts, a game is played out over 90 minutes. It doesn’t always hang on single moments. Cripes, if we are going to that level then where was the late penalty that could have been awarded to Brentford for handball?
Arteta’s claim that Ivan’s goal, “Cost Arsenal two points that are not going to be restored so we are going to have to find those two points somewhere else in the league” is nothing more than salty nonsense. Bitter excuses about his own team’s ineptitude. About his own team’s inability to outplay a magnificent Brentford side who, frankly, should be the ones feeling upset about only taking a draw.
The subsequent racist abuse dished out to Ivan Toney at full time by Arsenal fans was as abhorrent as ever. Nobody needs further lecture from me on that side and we are all with Ivan in feeling sickened. Albeit nobody can really put themselves in his shoes. Not truly. Yet if anything, it shows the entitled attitude that permeates the Emirates. They don’t win so play dirty. They don’t win so go crying to the referee.
The simple fact of the matter is that Arsenal enjoyed 63% possession and had 23 shots over the course of the 90 minutes. If they were unable to do anything more than limp to a draw then that’s their problem. Not PGMOL’s. Not Brentford’s.
Arsenal and Manchester City slug it out this evening in a game that is truly impossible to call. Part of me hopes Pep’s team take advantage of the psychological frailty clearly now creeping into a Gunner’s side who prior to the Brentford match had, of course, lost at Everton. Part of me doesn’t actually care. For Brentford, the priority has to be continuing the unbeaten run. Continuing the push for Europe and maybe even the top four.
We were wonderful on Saturday (and you can catch up on the post match debrief & top five players, here) but the result has been and gone. Win, lose or draw the attitude from Thomas Frank has always been one of reflecting for 24 hours then boxing it away. Whatever happened. Focus on the next game.
Mikel Arteta would do well to follow similar advice although I hope he doesn’t. Getting under his skin – under any team’s – is always a wonderful feeling. Always a sign that little Brentford have been underestimated. Again.
Long may it continue.
BrentfordFC 