Mikel Arteta’s side are once again atop the Premier League standings as they routed Brentford, 3-0, Sunday afternoon. 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri made history as he became the the younger-ever player in the Premier League.
Vieira made his first PL start with Martin Odegaard out with injury.
Interestingly enough, of the 19 players who scored on their first start for Arsenal in Premier League play, Vieira is the first in club history to have found the back of the net from outside the box.
Arsenal’s prior visit to Brentford resulted in a 2-0 loss on the opening day of last season. This time around, though, things were much different — not only in the result, but also in terms of the pace and focus on the pitch.
“The natural thing to do is to describe what happened here last year as a really bad day,” Arteta said, reflect back to last season’s loss against the Bees. “The way I describe it is as a character-building day. A team has to evolve and go through those moments together.”
How one responds, however, is a true mark of their character and potential.
“It was a well-deserved win for them,” Brentford manager Thomas Frank said of the Gunners. “You can see how hard they worked. I think they will do brilliantly. I think they compete for the title now.”
Arsenal were without both Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko. Brentford saw Kristoffer Ajer in the lineup for the first time this season.
“A team can give up, question everybody and blame other people, or it can look in the mirror, take the lesson and move forward,” Arteta said after exacting revenge on last season’s loss. “Today, obviously, you have seen a very different team. This is what we wanted. We talked before the game that we had the opportunity to back to the top.”
Following a three-goal cushion, Arteta decided to give Nwaneri a chance on the pitch to make history.
“It was a pure gut feeling,” Arteta said when asked about Nwaneri. “I met the kid and I liked what I saw. He has trained a couple of times with us and I had a feeling yesterday that if the opportunity came I would do it.”
What were most of us doing at 15 years and 181 days of age?
Arteta and Arsenal alike have had an absolutely tremendous start to the season, with the manager earning manager of the month for August. Even the legendary manager, Arsene Wenger, referred to this team as having “no weaknesses.”
Arsenal won the possession battle 64-36, with seven shots on target compared to just two for Brentford.
“I think we performed quite well, but if you want to win against a team that is flying, you can’t concede the first goal from a set-piece, you can’t concede the second one like we did,” Frank summed up for Brentford.
“We talk about [Martin] Odegaard being out, but then they put in a £35m player [Fabio Vieira] instead. That shows their quality and I respect that. It was a well-deserved win for them. You can see how hard they worked. You can see how they celebrated the first goal, in a huddle, so they had clearly spoken about how difficult a place it is to come here, and they showed us a lot of respect, which I’m pleased with because it means we have done something good. I think they will do brilliantly. I think they compete for the title now.”
Only Erling Haaland (12) has been directly involved in more Premier League goals than Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus so far this season; Jesus’ tally is up to seven with four goals and three assists.
There’s a bit of a gap in league play due to the international break. Following that, Brentford will be away against Bournemouth on 1 October. Arsenal will host Tottenham that same Saturday.
