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Football London
Football London
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Bobby Vincent

Ian Wright issues brutal Arsenal verdict as Brentford inflict opening day pain on Mikel Arteta

Ian Wright has slammed Arsenal for not matching Brentford's intensity in their opening day defeat to the newly-promoted club.

The Bees, who were playing their first-ever match in the Premier League, scored in the first half and second period to shock the Gunners in the first match of the season.

Sergi Canos handed Thomas Frank's team the lead at the Brentford Community Stadium on 22 minutes, before Christian Norgaard ended all hopes of a fightback from the visitors with a goal late into the second half.

Arsenal have spent almost £75million so far this summer, but it was the same old issues for Mikel Arteta in defence and Brentford took advantage.

Former Gunners striker Wright took to Twitter following the 2-0 defeat and was pretty brutal in his honest verdict of what went wrong for the north London club on Friday night.

He tweeted: "But for real though. It's the opening game of the season and you can't match the intensity?!!!

"You know for months what we gonna be up against! [sic] Pre-match I said we'd be happy with a draw! A draw!!

"That's where we are! But to not even match them? Just passing sideways. Kmt [kiss my teeth].

"And take nothing away from Brentford!! Better team. Better plan. Better execution."

Ian Wright was not happy after Arsenal's defeat on Friday evening (@IanWright0 on Twitter)

Wright also posted a tongue-in-cheek tweet where he shared a picture of 'how it started' versus 'how it's going'.

Ian Wright was not happy after Arsenal's defeat on Friday evening (@IanWright0 on Twitter)

Arsenal boss Arteta, when addressing the media after the defeat, opened up on his disappointment and also had a message for the travelling supporters.

Arteta said: "Well, we are very disappointed to start the way we did the season.

"We did not get the result that we wanted or the performance that we wanted.

"First of all [I want to] thank them [the fans], because of the support they have given to the team from the travelling fans who were here.

"And after that apologise for the result and we know that we have to improve.

"We have two big games coming up right now and we need a different performance to get a different result."

Arsenal are in action again in eight days' time when they welcome Chelsea to the Emirates Stadium for their first home match of the new campaign.

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