It was a night that Arsenal’s defenders will want to swiftly forget.
After weeks of build-up, the Gunners were outmuscled and out-fought by newly promoted Brentford, as they were beaten 2-0 at the Community Stadium.
Mikel Arteta has spent big on improving his side’s defence, signing Nuno Tavares for around £6.5million and Ben White for a club-record £50m fee.
However, while the former only came off the bench, the latter struggled under the intense pressure of Bees striker Ivan Toney.
Sergi Canos opened the scoring in the first-half, before Christian Norgaard put the game out of reach with a header after the break.
And while White struggled, he was by no means the worst part of Arsenal ’s defensive unit.
Calum Chambers came in for some heavy criticism for his performance, with Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher both singling out the right-back in their post-match analysis.
But it was arguably Pablo Mari that was the worst of the bunch, with the Brazilian looking well off the pace alongside his new partner White.
Mari’s lack of pace was regularly exposed and the Brentford forwards appeared to pinpoint the 27-year-old as an area of real weakness.
Arsenal supporters won’t be too delighted to hear that his appearance on Friday night cost the Gunners around £1m, according to reports in Brazil.
Globo Esporte claim that as part of the package that saw the defender join the club from Flamengo in June 2020, the Brazilian club have a series of appearance-related add-ons.
They report that as he chalked up his 20th appearance for the club, a clause was triggered, leaving Arsenal with a bill of €1m (£850,000).
The payments won’t stop there however, the article adds that Flamengo are in line for another million for every 10 appearances he registers, up to a total of €8m.
Those clauses, along with an additional payment this summer in the region of €5m could see the total outlay reach €16m before his contract expires.
It’s a deal that is becoming increasingly poor value for money, with the likelihood now being he will come out of the side in place of either Rob Holding or Gabriel Magalhaes.
Gabriel is set to miss the first few months of the season after suffering a knee injury whilst on Olympic duty with the Brazilian national team.
Arsenal offered an update on the defender last week, which read: “Right knee. Gabriel sustained an injury to his right knee whilst with the Brazilian Olympic Squad.
“Gabriel continues to be assessed and is aiming to be back in training by early September.”
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