Preview: Brentford v Arsenal | Pre-Match Report | News

We kick off 2025 with a trip to Brentford (5.30pm UK) looking to end New Year’s Day the way it started – with a bang.

As usual, the capital’s skies will be illuminated by fireworks as Big Ben chimes, and we’ve made ourselves comfortable in our home city over the past few months as this will be the ninth consecutive league game we’ve played in London – the longest such run in our league history.

We remained unbeaten in all 10 of our derbies in 2024, but we head to the Gtech Community Stadium looking to put a dent in the joint-best home record in this season’s Premier League, with no club securing more points or scoring more goals than the Bees have on their own patch.

Un-bee-lievable home record

Thomas Frank will be desperate that 2025 will see his side marry up their incredible home record with games on their travels. 22 of Brentford’s 25 points have come at their home ground, with 25 goals plundered in nine games. Meanwhile, no team has taken fewer than the mere two points achieved elsewhere, which levels out with the Bees languishing in the bottom half of the table.

Inconsistency has been a big problem as they’ve yet to win successive league matches this term, and they head into this game with one win from six December fixtures. A 3-1 loss at Aston Villa was followed by a 4-2 success against Newcastle United, but Chelsea won a west London derby 2-1 at Stamford Bridge before the Magpies gained revenge by ending their progress in the League Cup at the quarter-final stage.

Just before Christmas, high-flying Nottingham Forest became the first team to inflict Brentford to a home loss this term as well as prevent them from scoring on home turf, while last Friday saw Frank’s injury-ravaged squad side claim a 0-0 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion. That was just their second clean sheet of the campaign, but they’re the only side yet to register a shutout at home in the Premier League this season.

What the managers say

Arteta: “Our minds have to be on what we have to do and recover because not only now, but in the next three to four weeks with so many games in different competitions, we need to be right there.

“We will watch the [Ipswich] game back and then I will watch the training session that we always do, and have a feeling of what is the best team to start and what is the best team to finish the game, in relation to what the position is, as well and individual moment of each player.”

Frank: “Arsenal are the best set-piece team, not only in the Premier League but in the world right now. They are so aggressive and they are well-coached – but we are also good at set-pieces and we will be ready.

“We are good at defending corners. As far as I know, we have only conceded from one corner so far – which was a short corner against Bournemouth – in the Premier League this season. We know we need to play our ‘A’ game; not just in set-pieces but with every aspect of the game.”

Team news

We will again be without Bukayo Saka and Raheem Sterling as the former has undergone hamstring surgery, while Sterling has a knee problem – the same thing which continues to keep Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu out of action.

Gabriel Jesus and Jurrien Timber must avoid picking up a booking in this game to escape a one-match suspension, which would see them miss Saturday’s trip to Brighton.

Frank was dealt three blows against the Seagulls last time out with three players going off injured. While Christian Norgaard’s problem will see him return in time, goalkeeper Mark Flekken is touch-and-go, while Ben Mee will be out with a muscle injury.

They add to an already bursting treatment room that sees Ethan Pinnock (hamstring), Kristoffer Ajer (ankle), Igor Thiago (joint infection), Gustavo Nunes (back), Rico Henry (knee), Aaron Hickey (hamstring) and Josh Dasilva (knee) all sidelined, but Sepp van den Berg and Mathias Jensen have recovered from the groin and thigh issues that caused them to miss Friday’s game.

TALKING TACTICS

Adrian Clarke: Frank switches his style and formations regularly. He’s gone with a back four in 14 of their 18 matches, but reverted to five at the back at Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea, as well as against Newcastle at home.

Brentford are the best finishers in the division, converting 17% of their chances, and much of that is down to star forwards Bryan Mbeumo (34%) and Yoane Wissa (33%) who are ranked first and second among players who have scored at least five times. Wissa is an adaptable and expert finisher from close range, while Mbeumo, cutting inside from the right has one of the deadliest left feet in the Premier League.

Outside of the stellar forwards, attacking midfielder Mikkel Damsgaard has five assists to his name and is proving to be a terrific all-round attacking midfielder. In addition to creating the second-highest number of chances for Brentford, he also ranks second for tackles and duels won. He is technically excellent, but also full of industry.

They are not brilliant on the counter, registering just four shots from fast breaks – the lowest figure of all 20 top-flight teams. So, their main threat will come from transitions higher up the pitch, and from sweeping moves in the wide areas.

The Bees have won the greatest number of aerial duels in 2024/25 so aiming hopeful crosses into the box is unadvisable. However I would anticipate us having a relatively large share of possession, and as Mark Flekken has been forced into more saves than any other custodian, I expect us to fashion plenty of opportunities.

Facts and stats

We have won our last three away games against Brentford in all competitions without conceding a single goal. We last won four consecutive away games against an opponent while keeping a clean sheet each time against Sunderland between 2003 and 2008.

Brentford have won their first league game in each of the last five calendar years. Meanwhile, we have only lost our first league game in one of the last nine years, going down 2-1 at home to Manchester City on New Year’s Day 2022.

We remained unbeaten in all 10 of our Premier League London derby matches in 2024 (W8 D2). We scored 5+ goals in five of those 10 matches, as many times as we had in our previous 117 such games.

Brentford have won just one of their last 12 Premier League London derbies.

Bryan Mbeumo has been involved in 14 goals in his last 15 Premier League London derby matches (12 goals, 2 assists), while Kai Havertz has had a hand in eight goals in his last eight such games in the competition (6 goals, 2 assists).

Yoane Wissa has scored in seven of his last eight home Premier League appearances (9 goals and a further 2 assists).

Match officials

Peter Bankes will take charge of this match, having overseen our League Cup win at Preston North End back in October – the sixth occasion we have won in his nine Gunners games. He last oversaw Brentford a couple of weeks ago when they were beaten 2-1 by west London neighbours Chelsea.

In his 10 Premier League games this season he has shown 42 yellows, two reds and four penalties – three of which came in the Wolves v Bournemouth game last month.

Referee: Peter Bankes
Assistants: Eddie Smart, Nick Greenhalgh
Fourth official: Thomas Bramall
OUR: Graham Scott
Assistant VAR: Neil Davies

Recent trips to the Bees

Since winning 2-0 against us in their first-ever Premier League game in August 2021, Brentford are winless in the last three meetings in all competitions at the Gtech Community Stadium, two of which came last season as we recorded a pair of single-goal successes on their patch.

Kai Havertz grabbed an 89th-minute winner to secure the points back in November 2023 on our last visit, while two months earlier Reiss Nelson scored to secure a passage to the fourth round of the League Cup. The season before saw us claim a 3-0 success thanks to goals from William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus and William Saliba.

Live coverage

Tune into Live From N5 just before kick-off to hear live commentary of the game provided by Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke, who will guide you through all the action if you’re out and about.

You can also find out which broadcasters are showing the game live wherever you are in the world.