Brentford vs Arsenal LIVE: Injured teams clash on New Year's Day as Gunners look to put pressure on Liverpool – Team news and expected line-ups

Arsenal take part in the first Premier League match of 2025 as they make the short trip across London to take on Brentford.

The Gunners are currently third in the table, nine points behind Liverpool, but can reduce the gap to six with a win here.

Kai Havertz scored as Arsenal They beat Ipswich last time at the Emirates, although they were far from convincing.

Of course, they are without Bukayo Saka for at least a couple of months after the English winger had hamstring surgery.

But Brentford It won't be an easy game, as the Bees have only lost once at home all season.

Thomas FrankThe team has turned the Gtech into a real strength and they will seize this opportunity.

Brentford vs Arsenal: predicted lineups

Brentford

The home team has one of the longest injury lists in the Premier League, with 11 players out or doubtful.

Mark Flekken was withdrawn during the draw with Brighton, meaning Hakon Valdimarsson is likely to get his first Premier League start.

Mads Roerslev is the only senior right-back available, while Nathan Collins is likely to have a new centre-back partner.

Ben Mee left that Brighton game with an unspecified injury, so we could see a first top-flight start for Ji-soo Kim.

At left back, Keane Lewis-Potter has been filling in and will continue to do so.

Christian Norgaard is the captain of the Bees, so he will occupy the center of midfield.

Yehor Yarmoliuk could return to the team replacing Vitaly Janelt.

Mikkel Damsgaard has been arguably Brentford's best player this season and will occupy the advanced midfield position.

The top three of Bryan Mbeumo, Kevin Schade and Yoane Wissa are chosen themselves.

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Arsenal

David Raya will be in goal on his return to Gtech after joining the Gunners permanently last summer from Brentford.

Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu are still injured, so we'll probably see Jurrien Timber there.

William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes are the established centre-back pairing.

Myles Lewis-Skelly has performed well at left back but should be rested to give Riccardo Calafiori a chance of starting.

In midfield, Thomas Partey is likely to join Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard.

This will see Kai Havertz advance and Gabriel Jesus drop to the bench.

With Raheem Sterling and Saka injured, Arteta doesn't have many attacking options, so expect to see Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard starting on the wings.

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• Since winning 2-0 against Arsenal in their first Premier League match in August 2021, Brentford are winless in their last five against the Gunners (D1 L4).
• Arsenal have won their last three away games against Brentford in all competitions without conceding a single goal. The last time they won four consecutive away games against an opponent and kept a clean sheet on each occasion against Sunderland was between 2003 and 2008.
• In a run stretching back to a 1-1 draw against Chelsea in November, this is Arsenal's ninth consecutive league game played in London (5 home, 4 away). It is the Gunners' longest run of league games exclusively in the capital in their league history.

Brentford vs Arsenal: What has been said?

Despite losing Saka, Arsenal are still doing well in the title race and Mikel Arteta He is satisfied with the performance of his team.

Speaking after the victory at Ipswich, he said: “In my opinion, we have lost some points that we deserved to have on the scoreboard. Overall, with everything we have been through in the first six months of the season, I think the team is in a good position.

“I am very happy, very happy to win the game, with a lot of the team's performance (especially) with the clean sheet. It is very difficult to win at these parties, many games, many distractions and the team performed and deserved to win the game again.

“The spaces are so small when you look at the statistics and what we produced in the first half, the team is trying everything they can and we didn't give anything away, no shots, nothing at all, which is remarkable. There are always things to improve, to do better but in general the team was very solid.

“With the level there is in this league, you know what's coming. They start pulling everyone forward, very direct, you concede one or two set pieces and you go to defend deep.

“We've done it, without conceding a shot again, so it's more the suffering and the fact that you want to close the game than what they actually generated.”

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• Brentford have won their first league match in each of the last five calendar years. They are also unbeaten in their last six games played on New Year's Day (W4 D2) since a 2-0 defeat at Swansea in 2007.
• Arsenal have only lost their first league game in one of the last nine calendar years (W6 D2), losing 2-1 at home to Man City on New Year's Day 2022.
• Arsenal remained unbeaten in their 10 Premier League London derby matches in 2024 (W8 D2). They scored more than 5 goals in five of those 10 games, as many times as in their previous 117 games.

Brentford vs Arsenal: date and how to follow

This Premier League match will take place on Wednesday, January 1.

Kickoff at Gtech Community Stadium is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

The match will be broadcast on TNT Sports 1.

talkSPORT will have updates throughout the afternoon, while talkSPORT.com will have all the action on our live stream. first division blog.

To tune in to talkSPORT via the website, Click HERE to watch the live stream.

You can also listen through the talkSPORT appon DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.