I wanted Arsenal to try to push Liverpool in the title race but boss Mikel Arteta clearly knew something I didn’t, resting his players against Everton last weekend and then demolishing Real Madrid the way they did.
Arteta will make changes again here, before Wednesday’s second leg at the Bernabeu, and the fact it won’t be the Gunners’ strongest side makes this quite hard to predict.
Brentford are very capable but I have a feeling the Gunners will still have enough to win, even though they are prioritising Europe now.
Sutton’s prediction: 2-1
Yizzy’s prediction: Brentford are not a team to underestimate, so because our focus will be on Real, this is an interesting one. They will give it a good go and although I still think we will win, you could see the same scoreline going the other way if we take our foot off the gas too much. 2-1
Yizzy on Arsenal’s prospects: When you look at how much Arteta has changed at the club as well as with the team since he was appointed at the end of 2019, it is incredible.
I feel like now is the time we are really seeing that work paying off. We have arguably got one of the strongest 1st XIs in the world, and have balanced out all the things that we have needed over the past 10-15 years.
We have nailed a consistent top-four finish, and I don’t think that is ever in doubt under Arteta any more. We are ready to go and start winning some stuff, hopefully starting with the Champions League this season.
The only thing we still need is a striker. I don’t know who might be available but the three names I’ve been thinking about are Alexander Isak at Newcastle, Viktor Gyokeres at Sporting and Lautaro Martinez at Inter Milan.
I’ve been a fan of Martinez for a while. I’ve not followed Gyokeres as much but he is so consistent, and it feels like he is destined to play for a massive club.
