I will write some brief notes on all 20 teams this week, we can discuss them individually in more depth after the first international break, by which time we will have early game stats and the transfer window will be closed. Today , I can kick off with the game which starts the new season and that is the Friday fixture which sees Brentford host Arsenal .

 

Lionel Road is a sell out, the floodlights will be on, Griffin Park was always intimidating at night games and we can expect that to continue, the crowd will be buzzing and well lubricated (almost everyone I have spoken to is taking a day or half day off work) and the stadium will be jumping ! It is a new stadium and most supporters have only seen one or two competitive games, but the acoustics appear good and the crowd are still very close to the action which will help the Bees.

 

I think that all of you reading this got to see the lengthy pre-season notes I wrote on Brentford and last Thursday I updated those with ...........

 

 

The Wissa deal was officially confirmed yesterday and it is another exciting signing. He has long been pursued by the Bees and will add to options, including formation wise and increase the goal threat. He missed much of the pre season action at Lorient and was in quarantine, so we can expect him to be a little behind fitness wise and I doubt we will see him on Friday, but you can name nine on the bench , so who knows !

 

I am not sure that Brentford have completed all their transfer business yet and having done so well trading in the last 5-6 seasons, it is incredibly exciting to see what they can do in the £8-£12m range and I am talking for football and the Premier League, not just supporters. They beat Valencia 2-1 in their final warm up game, it doesn't mean much, but it was without Ivan Toney who picked up a small knock in training, it was said to be precautionary and he is expected to start on Friday.  The rest of the squad look primed and ready to go !

 

Arsenal have lost to Chelsea , Tottenham and Hibernian in pre season, drawing with Rangers and whilst I have just said friendlies mean nothing, surely they would have liked to come into the new season with at least one win and certainly not by losing to their biggest rival. They made a big summer signing paying circa £50m for Ben White (he will be asked to play a very key role in playing out from the back, but might need a few weeks to get fully up to speed with team mates) , but they are hampered by the loss of loanees who played a lot of minutes last season, another injury to Thomas Partey and wunderkind Bukayo Saka has to overcome his penalty issues from the summer and far more experienced players have struggled to do so in the past. The Gunners improved over the closing months of last season statistically, but will be without several of those players, still feel in transition under Mikel Arteta who will want and needs his team to press more and higher , as almost no one pressed less than the Gunners last season. Arteta cannot seem to decide if he wants to play a high defensive line or not and at heart he is a very conservative coach and when something different doesn't immediately work, he reverts back and takes the (too) cautious approach. We can be 100% certain that Brentford will know far more about the Gunners than the other way around and I think that Arsenal will be better in a month than they will be right now and my head says 1-1 draw, but value off level ball for the Bees, although that could be my heart "talking" ! Therefore, I will split the difference ..........