Danny Welbeck issues reminder to Unai Emery as Arsenal survive late scare against Brentford in League Cup

Well, at least they turned up at The Emirates and gave it a better go than Vorskla Poltava. Trailing by two goals and seemingly on course for a hiding, Brentford briefly threatened to battle their way back into this entertaining Carabao Cup tie, only for Arsenal’s big guns to combine late on to see Unai Emery’s side win 3-1.

Don’t let the scoreline deceive you. After a thoroughly encouraging first-half, during which Danny Welbeck’s two goals put Arsenal in complete control and the club’s youngsters shone, Emery was left wringing his hands on the touchline after Alan Judge’s superb second-half free-kick breathed new life into Brentford and their 8,500-strong army of travelling supporters.

But they ultimately failed to take their late chances and Arsenal heaved themselves over the line. Chasing the game, Brentford brought on Neal Maupay and Saïd Benrahma. Arsenal could afford to turn to Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette, the pair combining for the decisive third goal, which came deep into injury-time. After the match, Emery admitted that it had been closer than it probably should have been.

“They're a very good team, very organised, tactically very good with their movement,” he said of Brentford, currently sitting seventh in the Championship. “They had a lot of chances and options in the attacking moments. In the end, the result was very important for us. Today, all things happened in the 90 minutes, but that is good as we continue to improve.”

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It’s a similar conclusion to the one Emery arrived at after the 2-0 win over Everton last weekend. Once again, Arsenal failed to maintain their intensity for a full ninety minutes, instead forced to ride their luck for an uncomfortably prolonged period. Once again, they got away with it to win by two goals. There are of course valid criticisms to be made but the upshot is this team already possesses a resilience that was sorely lacking last season. Six consecutive wins and counting.

Despite the constancies this was a much changed Arsenal team, with Emery making the most of another precious opportunity to see those on the fringes of his starting XI in action. Of the nine changes it was unsurprisingly Welbeck who most advanced his claim for a regular starting spot, extending his impressive run of form under Emery having come so close to leaving the club in the summer.

It took the England international just five minutes to open the scoring, courtesy of a superb piece of play from Mattéo Guendouzi. Having recently dropped to the bench in favour of Lucas Torreira the teenager reminded Emery of his quality with a sublime cross into the box from a short corner, which Welbeck gratefully headed home.

That goal steadied Arsenal’s nerves after a hairy opening minute which saw Bernd Leno inexplicably try to one-up Petr Cech by miscontrolling a routine back pass into his own net. Almost in slow motion, the ball bobbled wide. And yet Emery’s utter insistence at having his goalkeepers building up play from the back was quickly vindicated by Arsenal’s second goal, which Leno played an important role in.

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With Brentford pressing high up the pitch, Leno resisted the temptation to punt the ball long under pressure, instead drifting a pass out to Stephan Lichtsteiner out wide. And so began a slick counter-attack that flowed from one end of the pitch to the other, which culminated in Alex Iwobi releasing Nacho Monreal out wide, his cutback across the box steered home by Welbeck.

Tellingly, Arsenal’s defenders opted against sprinting forward to join in the celebrations, instead turning round to embrace their goalkeeper.

Watching on from the dugout, Dean Smith knew that something had to change. “There were a few words at half-time,” he later admitted. “I think that first goal knocked some of the stuffing out of us. We just didn’t play with the intensity I wanted in the first-half. I said to the player we could go out and either sit behind the ball and lose 2-0, or go and ask a question. That’s what we did and we forced a very good team into making some mistakes, and almost took them to penalties.”

Despite all that motivation, it still took a moment of outstanding individual brilliance to truly make Brentford play as if they could achieve something here. Step forward Alan Judge. His eyes presumably lit up when he saw Guendouzi naively hack down Romaine Sawyers just outside the box and, from the way he purposefully seized the ball, there was precious little doubt over who was on set-piece duty.

And nor should there have been. He succeeded not only in getting his free-kick up and over the ball, but also past Leno’s outstretched palm. Suddenly, Brentford believed.

Roared on by their 8,998 supporters — two overly-enthusiastic fans had by now been kicked out for an exceptionally tentative pitch invasion — Brentford poured forward. Sergi Canos went close with a driven shot having tip-toed his way into space in the penalty area. Yoann Barbet drew a fine save from Leno. And Judge failed to take a good chance to go from hero to legend.

Understandably spooked, Emery turned to the first-team regulars twiddling their thumbs on the substitutes bench. And Ramsey and Lacazette duly combined for that all important third. With Brentford’s players all thrown forward, the pair pelted forward on the counter-attack. Ramsey wisely stepped over the ball and Lacazette collected it, drilling a fine finish beyond Luke Daniels to make sure of the win.