🕟 Kick Off: 19:30 GMT

🏟️ Venue: Emirates Stadium

📺 UK Broadcaster: Sky Sports

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Tony Harrington

📹 VAR: James Bell

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Gabriel Magalhães – Thigh/muscle issue picked up on Brazil duty, ruled out of Brentford and expected back around late December 2025.
• Kai Havertz – Ongoing knee problem with a recent setback, not ready for Brentford and targeting a return towards the end of December 2025.
• William Saliba – Minor knock that kept him out vs Chelsea, classed as a short-term issue with a likely return window of the next few days.
• Leandro Trossard – Thigh issue forcing recent withdrawal, described as close to fitness with hope of being available within the next few days.​

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟧🟩🟩🟧🟩

🐝 Brentford Team News:

• Reiss Nelson – Unable to face parent club.
• Fabio Carvalho – Recovering from an ACL injury, no return date.
• Antoni Milambo – Recovering from an ACL injury, no return date.
• Josh Dasilva – Recovering from an ACL injury, no return date.

⚽ Brentford Form: 🟩🟥🟩🟥🟩

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

• Arsenal 1-1 Brentford (12 Apr 2025, English Premier League)
• Brentford 1-3 Arsenal (01 Jan 2025, English Premier League)
• Arsenal 2-1 Brentford (09 Mar 2024, English Premier League)
• Brentford 0-1 Arsenal (25 Nov 2023, English Premier League)
• Brentford 0-1 Arsenal (27 Sep 2023, EFL Cup)​

📖 Match Facts:

• Since their promotion to the Premier League, Brentford have beaten Arsenal once which was their first game in the Premier League. Since then they have managed 2 draws and 6 losses.
• This will be Keith Andrews first match against Arsenal in his managerial career.
• Arsenal will be looking to win their 8th game in a row at the Emirates, with the last team to take points off them at home being Man City in September.

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

Arsenal take on Brentford on what is looking to be a cold and damp Wednesday night in the capital in our 4th game in a row in London. With City beating Fulham as I write this, our lead at the top of the table has been cut to just 2 points, and after we dropped 2 points against Chelsea at the weekend in a hugely unentertaining game, it is vital we get back to winning ways and maintain our buffer to Man City.

Mikel Arteta will be hoping that William Saliba is able to return to the starting lineup against Brentford. The Frenchman travelled with the team to take on Fulham but wasn’t deemed fit enough to make the team. Arteta gave a seemingly positive update on his condition stating that he is days away from a return. We know he likes to play his cards close to his chest, so it remains to be seen whether or not Saliba will be fit.

In other positive news, the game against Chelsea saw the return of Gyokeres and Jesus which comes as a huge boost to our attacking options which have been horribly short recently. As always, injuries giveth and injuries taketh, and we seem to have entered into a defensive injury crisis.

Mosquera and Hincapie started together in the Premier League for the first time in a trial by fire against Chelsea and struggled to live up to what we have come to expect from our usual CB pairing. Brentford won’t be as tough an opponent as Chelsea, so I remain hopeful of a better performance should we see that pairing start together again.