Mikel Merino’s powerful header and Bukayo Saka’s late strike gave us a 2-0 victory over Brentford to extend our run to 18 matches unbeaten in all competitions.<\/p>\n
Good link-up play between Noni Madueke and Ben White allowed the full-back to find the Spaniard, who netted for the second game in a row.<\/p>\n
As Brentford looked for a late leveller, we opened up the Bees as Saka latched onto the end of Merino’s inch-perfect through to make it 2-0 and move us five points clear at the top of the table.<\/p>\n
merino with authority<\/p>\n
It was a new combination down the right-hand side as Ben White and Noni Madueke looked to do damage to the Bees’ backline. An early combination between the pair almost paid off but it was a sign of things to come as Noni’s fine flick found White moments later and this time, the England full-back picked out his man as Merino powered his header into the ground and beyond Caoimhin Kelleher.<\/p>\n
The goal was Merino’s fifth of the campaign and his 21st of a goal-laden 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Madueke was making his first start since facing Manchester City in September and was making his presence felt, giving full-back Rico Henry plenty of problems and forcing a good save from Caoimhin Kelleher low to his right.<\/p>\n
Brentford have showcased how potent they can be from set pieces this season and almost found a way back into the game through a corner. Kevin Schade rose highest inside our box, but his thumping header was brilliantly tipped onto the bar by David Raya to keep the scores level.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The attacks didn’t stop down the right for us. This time, left-back Riccardo Calafiori joined the attack, backheeling into White’s path, who found Gabriel Martinelli, but he could only put his effort over the bar from just inside the box.<\/p>\n
Madueke almost capped off his electric half with a goal as Delcan Rice produced a perfect low cross across the box but his effort was well blocked from close range.<\/p>\n
Second half battle<\/p>\n
Brentford continued to threaten with a series of corners and set pieces as we looked to stand firm against Keith Andrews’ side. David Raya confidently collected two dangerous set pieces.<\/p>\n
We introduced Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka shortly after the hour mark to carry more threat in the second period, and they almost had an impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Good play down the right saw a cross drift over to Rice who fed Calafiori who unleashed a low drive that was parried by Kelleher but gathered off the toes of Merino at the second attempt.<\/p>\n
The long shots continued to come from us, Rice the next to have a go after making space on his right foot. Kelleher again parried his effort out into Merino’s path, but our Spaniard slipped as he tried a first-time finish, and the effort drifted wide.<\/p>\n
The contest opened up as we looked to put the game to bed late on and again it was Calafiori causing problems. The Italian led a counterattack and worked his way into the box before unleashing his effort, but again found Kellerher in the way.<\/p>\n
But we weren’t to be denied a late goal, as Merino slipped through substitute Saka and his effort proved too strong for Kelleher, who got a hand on it but his save drifted into the net to confirm the victory.<\/p>\n
what’s next<\/p>\n
It’s a quick turnaround following our game against Brentford as we’ll be taking on Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday, December 6, at 12.30pm. We’re then in action again the following Wednesday, heading to Belgium to face Club Brugge in our sixth match of the Champions League league phase.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Merino’s powerful header and Bukayo Saka’s late strike gave us a 2-0 victory over Brentford to extend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-297506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}