Arsenal: 4 positives from crushing Brentford defeat

The morning after a defeat is always sobering. The morning after a defeat to a side who looked stronger in every department despite it being their first ever Premier League fixture is soul-crushing. Arsenal are in a bad way.

Goals from Sergi Canos and Christian Norgaard secured a thoroughly deserved victory for Brentford who had prepared for Friday’s festivities in perfect fashion. Thomas Frank had done his homework.

Arsenal’s weaknesses are plain to see. Yet setting your team out to exploit those chasms in the papier-mâché armour is a different story: Ben White’s aerial weaknesses were exposed, Pablo Mari was run at repeatedly and the wing-backs forced Arsenal into positions of reduced threat.

The better team won without any shadow of a doubt.

Arsenal: 4 positives from crushing Brentford defeat as Mikel Arteta oversees woeful Premier League opening day performance

Seeing as how nobody gives Arsenal a rat’s chance in hell of claiming any points off of Chelsea and Manchester City in the next two Premier League fixtures, losing so comfortably to a newly-promoted side goes down as additionally damaging.

How fitting, then, that Amazon’s All or Nothing cameras will have caught every moment in glorious high definition for all of a football affiliation to sit back and either laugh at or weep over.

There isn’t just ‘work to do’ for Mikel Arteta and co, this is leaving your dissertation to write eight minutes before the deadline with nothing but a crayon and a slab of rock to do it with.

All in all, pretty glum. So how on earth is there anything positive to talk about? Why even try and extract anything joyous from such distressing mediocrity? Well, finding light in the dark is what will keep most supporters sane during these concerning times. We must try.

Here is what was positive(ish) from Friday’s horror show.

1. Albert Sambi Lokonga Showed Glimpses of His Talent

Nobody, barring the obvious few, had a strong game. Albert Sambi Lokonga struggled on Friday, like so many others.

But we saw glimpses of his talent to offer some reassurance.

The first half was especially tough for him. Operating in a deeper role, the passing lanes for him were mostly limited to feeding Xhaka on the angle, who proceeded to find Tierney wider left. Brentford had choreographed their press cleverly with the right timings of their movements causing all sorts of issues for the backline. Sambi, however, dealt with it better than most.

Not offering much on the ball, what he did off it shone through. Positionally he was always available for the pass, and in a defensive sense he plugged the right gaps to limit the Bees’ options. This was noticeable when Bryan Mbeumo had a pass inside the penalty box sniffed out by some proactive positioning.

In the second half Arsenal began relying on the Belgian to offer them creativity and progression. Assuming possession he had a couple of delightful half-turn motion where he received the ball under pressure and pulled away from his markers, trying to carry Arsenal up the pitch.

Not everything was perfect, but there was one neat ball into Bukayo Saka that resulted in Tierney having a shot at goal that stood out. For a first Premier League outing in what was a collectively dreadful performance, Sambi showed little signs of teething issues with the transition from the Belgian league. Positive early signs.