It wasn’t the start to their 2021/22 Premier League campaign that Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal side were looking for, but Brentford were good value for their English top-flight debut win.
The north Londoners were beaten in just about every facet of the match and that’s a damning indictment on where the Gunners are as a squad a present.
It’s left former club legend, Martin Keown, questioning Arsenal’s recruitment policy, both in terms of the players being acquired and the transfer fees that are being paid for them.
Compared to the Arsene Wenger reign, it’s like chalk and cheese.
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“What Arsenal need is people who can defend. You look at it now and Vestergaard was available and he’s on his way to Leicester. He’s 6ft 4 or 6ft 5 and I’m pretty certain he’d be dealing with those balls coming into the box so recruitment is all important,” he said to Stadium Astro and cited by Metro.
“There were other central defenders available, at £50m he could still probably prove to be a good signing but you’ve got the likes of Andersen signing for Palace.
“So, you take your chances. Of course the manager is part of that and you’re then hoping they are going to put the performances in and you need a central defender for all occasions and tonight that showed a glaring weakness in Ben White’s game.”
The problem that Arteta has is that the squad’s current struggles aren’t something that can be solved overnight.
It will require a great deal of effort on everyone’s part, and depending where the Gunners are at 10 games into the season, the Spaniard might not get the time he needs to see things through.