Arsenal Defeated Brentford 2-0 in the Premier League Opening Match

Sergi Canos put Brentford ahead in the 22nd minute and Christian Noergaard headed in the second in the 73rd after Arsenal failed to cope with a long serve, giving the promoted club a perfect start to life in the Premier League in front of almost 16,500 fans. at Community Stadium.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzuFoRwtBpM

Those fans finally got a chance to celebrate inside the stadium, which opened last year amid the lockdown when fans were not allowed into games.

They had waited even longer for a moment like this. Brentford’s last game in England’s top division was a 1-0 loss to Arsenal in May 1947. Now the team leads the league for at least one night, before the rest of the games at the end of week.

“No one who was here will ever forget it. And I’m proud to be a part of that, ”said Brentford manager Thomas Frank. “I have so much faith in this group of players, so even though I knew we were going to face Arsenal, a huge club with incredible players, I had a feeling that they would be disappointed if we didn’t beat them.”

For Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, it was another disappointing performance and a disturbing start. The team only finished eighth last season and showed little sign of having solved their previous problems. With the absence of forwards Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette _ Arteta said they felt “bad” _ Arsenal again found it difficult to create any clear scoring opportunities despite dominating possession during several stretches of the match.

And his defensive deficiencies showed themselves again.

Brentford’s first goal came after right-back Calum Chambers cut the ball from the baseline, only for it to return through Ethan Pinnock to Canos, who cut inside the defender and buried a low shot inside the first post. by Bernd Leno.

For the second goal, Arsenal defenders allowed a long shot from Mads Bech Sorensen to bounce off the six-yard box and Norgaard reached the far post to head into an empty net.

Arsenal academy forward Folarin Balogun had his first Premier League start but was retired early. He was replaced by Bukayo Saka, who received a standing ovation from Brentford fans after being subjected to racist abuse following his missed penalty for England in the final European Championship loss to Italy.

“I don’t want to use excuses. We had a good enough team to achieve a different result, ”said Arteta. “We know we have to improve.”