Brentford caused a one of biggest opening day upsets in premier league history after Bees defeated Arsenal 2-0 in season opener.
Here is the key stats from the game.
- Brentford FC’s starting XI have just three previous Premier League appearances between them – Ivan Toney (2) & Sergi Canós (1) – the fewest for a starting XI since Reading’s starting line-up had zero PL games between them in August 2006 vs Middlesbrough. Inexperienced.
- Brentford will be the 50th different team to play in the Premier League, and the 10th from London. Just 11 of the previous 49 participants have won their first ever game in the competition (D15 L23).
- This is the fourth time Arsenal have been involved in the opening game of a Premier League campaign, winning the other three against West Brom (2008-09), Leicester (2017-18) and Fulham (2020-21).
- Brentford’s Community Stadium will be the 60th different ground to host a Premier League match. So far, Arsenal have won at 53 of the 59, with only Liverpool (57) and Man Utd (54) winning at more.
- Sergi Canós is the first Brentford player to score for the Bees in the top-flight since Len Townsend in May 1947 against Sunderland, 27,110 days ago.
- Sergi Canós is the second Spaniard to score the first goal of a Premier League season, the other being Michu in 2012-13 for Swansea City against QPR.
- Christian Nørgaard has scored his first goal in 86 league appearances, last netting for Brøndby IF against FC København in the Danish Superliga in November 2017.
- Arsenal have started a league campaign with a defeat against newly promoted opposition for the first time since 1976-77 against Bristol City at Highbury.
- Brentford will end tonight top of the English top-flight for the first time since September 1, 1946, a gap of 74 years & 346 days, the biggest ever gap for a club topping the top-flight, breaking Notts County’s record (58y 251d between December 1924 and August 1983).
- 15 different players have made their Premier League debuts in this match (12 for Brentford, 3 for Arsenal) – excluding 1992-93, this is the joint-most in any Premier League match, along with Crystal Palace against Norwich City in August 2004.
- Arsenal will end tonight bottom of the Premier League for the first time since August 9th 2015, when they went bottom after losing 2-0 to West Ham United.
- Arsenal had 22 shots without scoring against Brentford, their most without finding the net in a Premier League match since December 2017 against West Ham (also 22).
