Winners and Losers: Brentford (a)

Arsenal’s season has kicked off… and supporters are already wishing it would end. In the Premier League opener, with all eyes on west London, Arsenal suffered a 2-0 defeat to newly-promoted Brentford. There is no sugarcoating it — the Bees played Mikel Arteta’s men off the pitch. With the mood among the Arsenal faithful already bleak entering the 2021-22 campaign and fixtures against City and Chelsea next, things could get much uglier soon now that fans are back in the stands. Below are Arsenal’s three biggest winners and three biggest losers (but certainly not the only ones) from a brutal first match of the season.

Winners

Kieran Tierney

Before Granit Xhaka was announced as Arsenal’s captain on Friday evening, Gooners hoped that Arteta’s starting XI would see Tierney finally don a well-earned captain’s armband. However, Tierney didn’t need the Premier League lion on his bicep to be a leader on the pitch. The Scottish left-back was arguably the most dangerous player for Arsenal, regularly showing up in the final phase of attacking moves. He finished with multiple attempts on goal and was rather unlucky to walk away without an assist to his name. Throughout a performance that is best forgotten as soon as possible, Tierney served as one of the few bright spots for the Gunners. Right now, convincing him to sign a contract extension looks like an absolute coup.

Bukayo Saka

Saka came on in the second half for his first competitive minutes since missing that decisive penalty in the Euro 2020 final. In his absence during preseason, Nicolas Pépé had been quite impressive as the Gunners geared up for this campaign. But it was the Englishman who staked the better claim to start on the right wing moving forward. Saka repeatedly drove past multiple Brentford players and looked more threatening in half an hour than Pépé managed to in the full 90 minutes. There are few positives to take from Arsenal’s season opener, but one is that their best player looks relatively unaffected by the events of this summer and prepared for another season of heavy lifting. Hopefully there will be a few more helping hands in future weeks.

Reiss Nelson

To be clear, Nelson has not been included here due to his performance on the pitch against Brentford, which was rather unimpressive. He is one of Arsenal’s winners simply because he was on the field. Ahead of the match, a clip from a recent interview Arteta did with ESPN Brasil circulated in which the manager admitted that things had not worked out with Willian and that he had not fulfilled the expectations placed on him when he arrived at Arsenal. Arteta’s team selection was consistent with that answer, as the Brazilian did not make the matchday squad. Nelson, who effectively lost almost all of his Premier League minutes to Willian last season, came off the bench on Friday night for his first appearance in the competition since November 2020. While he is still fourth in the pecking order behind Saka, Pépé, and Gabriel Martinelli, it looks like the Hale End product has climbed over the former Chelsea winger and back into relevance in the squad moving forward.

Losers

Pablo Marí 

Another match, another poor performance for the Spanish center-back. Marí appeared utterly out of his depth against Brentford, constantly caught out by the Bees’ speed up front. His insecurity in possession playing out from the back encouraged the Bees to press him frequently, resulting in some nervy moments. Additionally, Marí’s role in Brentford’s second goal was almost laughable; the former Flamengo man missed his header for a Brentford throw-in into the box, playing a significant part in the ball bouncing and falling to Christian Nørgaard to slam into an empty net. Frankly, Marí was so bad that it detracted from Ben White’ performance too, as Arsenal’s marquee signing spent much of the evening scrambling to cover for his defensive partner. At this point, it’s a fair question to ask whether the Gunners are better off with Rob Holding at left center-back until Gabriel returns from injury. Marí currently looks like a player who couldn’t find a European club to take him only a few seasons ago.

The Right-Backs

Entering the match, Arsenal boasted four players capable of featuring at right-back: Hector Bellerín, Cedric Soares, Calum Chambers, and Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Chambers earned the start tonight, while Bellerín didn’t even make the matchday squad. But in the 82nd minute, Arteta chose not Cedric, not Maitland-Niles, but Nuno Tavares to come on in place of the starting right-back. After bringing in Cedric to serve as cover to Bellerín, refusing to sell Maitland-Niles to Wolves, and deploying Chambers at right-back for much of last season, Arteta looks to have concluded that he would rather rely on his backup left-back than any of the players who actually play the position. It is a terrible look for the underwhelming quartet; while on paper Arsenal have four right-backs, in reality they have none.

Edu Gaspar

If we’re being honest with ourselves, Arsenal have begun the new season with a starting XI that is not any better than the one they ended last season with, and there is a chance it might even be worse. Ben White has come in for David Luiz, providing essentially a like-for-like replacement at center-back. In the right-back position, Bellerín is practically unplayable, and Chambers is beginning to show his limits defensively. In midfield, Xhaka has yet to be upgraded on as he starts aging out of his peak. Martin Ødegaard is back at Real Madrid (although the likelihood of his return has strongly increased recently), leaving Arsenal a man short in the creative midfielder department. Up front, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette appear doomed to continue their decline from last season. While Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga have impressed, they are too green to be treated as players who improve the first eleven. The fact of the matter is, Arsenal have not increased the quality of their squad over the course of the transfer window. The blame for that largely lays at the feet of Edu, the club’s technical director. Once again, the former player has failed to do his job and execute an adequate transfer strategy before the conclusion of the window. To quote Jesse Pinkman, he can’t keep getting away with it. Edu has yet to prove that he is competent or even trustworthy, and if he cannot build a team that doesn’t inspire a frown on the face of Ian Wright, he needs to leave his post yesterday.

If you enjoyed this article, follow me on Twitter @dopegooner.