Brentford 1-3 Arsenal: Gunners go second with comeback win as Liverpool title lead trimmed
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Arsenal moved back into second place in the Premier League table and cut Liverpool’s title lead down to six points with a rousing comeback win at Brentford. The undermanned Gunners kicked off 2025 in style in an entertaining London derby at the Gtech Community Stadium, which saw a quick-fire second-half double from Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli secure a fourth consecutive win across all competitions after Gabriel Jesus had earlier cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s opener.
Arsenal made four changes from the side that laboured to victory over Ipswich on Friday to close out 2024 in their first match without the injured Bukayo Saka, with Kai Havertz missing through illness amid rumours of a sickness bug in the camp and Declan Rice only on the bench as Raheem Sterling also remained sidelined with a knee issue.
Mikel Arteta handed a first league start to 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri in Saka’s usual position down the right flank, with Merino and Thomas Partey both drafted into midfield and Riccardo Calafiori replacing young Myles Lewis-Skelly at left-back. Brentford, meanwhile, showed two changes from the side that picked up only a second point on the road this season away at Brighton last week, with Mark Flekken fit to start in goal after a knock but the injured Ben Mee replaced by the returning Sepp van den Berg and Yehor Yarmoliuk preferred to Kevin Schade in attack.
Arsenal dominated proceedings and possession early on, but fell behind after only 13 minutes when Mikkel Damsgaard picked off an uncharacteristically sloppy pass from Martin Odegaard in midfield and played in Mbeumo, who ran at Calafiori before sliding a crisp low shot through the legs of the Italian and in past David Raya at his near post.
