'There's nothing worse than thinking your team are a little bit soft. Brentford have looked at them and thought, "yeah, we'll have you" and that's the worst feeling.
'Arsenal fans will go away from here tonight thinking "we've been bullied"', was Gary Neville's assessment of Arsenal's 2-0 defeat to Brentford on the opening night of the 2021-22 campaign.
Mikel Arteta's side travelled to Thomas Frank's then-newly promoted Brentford team and were taught a comprehensive lesson of preparation and application.
One game into the new season, knives, in some quarters, were already out for the Spaniard and two subsequent defeats at an aggregate score of 7-0 did not do much to stem the tide.