(Football news) Arsenal secured a 3-0 victory over Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium with the result sending Mikel Arteta’s team back to the top of the Premier League table. With captain Martin Odegaard injured, Fabio Vieira made his first league start and scored on his full debut in the 49th minute to seal off a majestic win for the Gunners. William Saliba opened the scoring for Arsenal, capitalising on a Bukayo Saka corner in the 17th minute while new signing Gabriel Jesus doubled his team’s advantage in the 28th minute. 

In team news, Brentford featured Kristoffer Ajer for the first time this season while Ivan Toney, who scored a hat-trick against Leeds two weeks ago led the line up front. As for Arsenal, Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko were sidelined due to injuries which meant that Fabio Vieira made his first start while Thomas Partey featured in the starting lineup. The Gunners also created a new Premier League record when 15 year old academy player Ethan Nwaneri was introduced in stoppage time, becoming the youngest ever player to feature in the competition. 

Speaking after the match, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was asked about Nwaneri and the Spaniard replied “It was a pure gut feeling. I met the kid and I liked what I saw. He has trained a couple of times with us and I had a feeling yesterday that if the opportunity came I would do it." Speaking about the match, Arteta said “The natural thing to do is to describe what happened here last year as a really bad day. The way I describe it is as a character-building day. A team has to evolve and go through those moments together. 

“A team can give up, question everybody and blame other people, or it can look in the mirror, take the lesson and move forward. Today, obviously, you have seen a very different team. This is what we wanted. We talked before the game that we had the opportunity to back to the top. Yesterday, they took it away from us, but we wanted it back. We had to show that desire from the first minute and we have done it." 

Brentford boss Thomas Frank said “I think we performed quite well, but if you want to win against a team that is flying, you can't concede the first goal from a set-piece, you can't concede the second one like we did. We talk about [Martin] Odegaard being out, but then they put in a £35m player [Fabio Vieira] instead. That shows their quality and I respect that. It was a well-deserved win for them. You can see how hard they worked. 

“You can see how they celebrated the first goal, in a huddle, so they had clearly spoken about how difficult a place it is to come here, and they showed us a lot of respect, which I'm pleased with because it means we have done something good. I think they will do brilliantly. I think they compete for the title now." 

Also read: Fulham beat Nottingham while Villa get a crucial victory over Saints