Goals from Mikel Merino and substitute Bukayo Saka saw Arsenal overcome a stubborn Brentford side 2–0 at the Emirates, restoring their five-point lead over second-placed Manchester City.
While Mikel Arteta resisted the temptation to make wholesale changes, he was pleased with the impact of Ben White, who started his first Premier League match since the opening day of the campaign.
The full-back delivered a pinpoint cross for Merino to head home after 11 minutes and looked solid throughout on the right flank, as the Gunners kept a clean sheet for the first time in four games.
“Personally, I think I’m very, very happy for him as a human being,” said Arteta when asked about White’s performance in his post-game press conference.
“I think the rest of the team is the same [pleased for him] because he’s a player who has always played for us, and sadly, because of the right reasons, he wasn’t playing that much because Jurrien was excellent, and he was out for a while, and then he needed to earn his place.
“But his attitude has been so positive, so good. Then when you are ready and you’re given the opportunity, you take it like he did today. So I’m very happy that we have him back in the best version of himself as well, and we’re going to need him because he’s a tremendous player.”
Merino and Saka both had chances to finish the game in the latter stages before the England winger finally found a way past / through Caoimhin Kelleher in stoppage time.
“I think we had three big chances to score the second one,” reflected Arteta.
“We didn’t do it, and then when we were going for the second one, the game became a little bit open. We started to be a bit late in certain moments in the high press, they break it and the pitch is stretched. Then we needed to be a bit more compact.
“But I think we went through that period really well when we started to take the ball and do what we had to do with the ball to bring the momentum down, bring the composure and the ball to the areas that we wanted to attract them and to use the open spaces that they left and score a second goal.”
Having opted to field Merino up front despite Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus waiting in the wings, Arteta was delighted to see his compatriot produce another influential display. His goal – a perfectly judged header that skipped off the turf into the roof of the net – was executed with real quality, and his tireless work set the tone for the team.
“He was immense again I think today. The way he scored the ball, super smart. His timing, the way he wins the position and execution.
“But after his overall performance, with the ball, without the ball, I remember an action that he passed the ball to Martin [Odegaard] in behind. Martin doesn’t chase it, he makes 40 metres to chase it to the corner flag and goes back, wins the ball back. He is everywhere and his goal with that really good momentum at the moment and he makes the team much better.
On why Merino is thriving as an attacker, he added: “It’s curiosity and his will to learn and probably his will to help the team. He knew that we had a major problem from the beginning of the season.
“We lost Viktor, Kai was out and Gabriel Jesus was out. So we needed a solution. He did it last year really, really well. I think this season he’s probably taking it to another step because he’s able to do even more things. So I think the team is really grateful and he’s enjoying it.”
The only downside to the evening was two new injury concerns. Cristhian Mosquera was forced off in the first half and replaced by Jurrien Timber, while Declan Rice appeared to suffer a calf issue late on.
“We have to wait and see,” said the manager when asked about Mosquera’s injury.
“It’s probably the knee or ankle. We don’t know. He could not really tell us exactly how it was, but he wasn’t able to continue.”
As for Rice, he provided a similarly vague update: “He could not carry on playing, so we have to wait and see tomorrow what happens.”
