Arsenal vs Brentford Timeline & H2H Stats

Brentford aren’t really a London club, even if the press still insist on matches between them and the likes of Arsenal being referred to as ‘derbies’. Certainly the Gunners have got enough other clubs to worry about with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Fulham. If you start adding the Bees in the mix then you’re really pushing the envelope of what can reasonably considered to be a match between city rivals. There is also the fact that Brentford and Arsenal weren’t in the same division as one another very often, meaning that the matches between them were few and far between in an historical context.

Although Arsenal managed to wrestle back control of the fixture the longer that the two teams were in the same league, things didn’t start all that well for the Gunners when they played outside of the cups. The first two times that Arsenal and Brentford met were in the FA Cup, albeit thanks to the fact that the first game ended in a draw and the second one was a replay. That draw between the Bees and the side known as Woolwich Arsenal at the time was on the 13th of December, 1902, with the Gunners then dismissing them 5-0 in the replay four days later. There was then a 33 year wait before they faced each other again.

A Matchup of Swinging Dominance

Modern day football fans, completely unaware that the sport existed before the turn of the millennium, let alone prior to the advent of the Premier League, might just assume that Arsenal have always been the dominant force when it comes to matches against Brentford. In reality, however, the Gunners struggled to get a win on the board in the wake of the 1902 FA Cup spanking. The next time that the sides went up against one another was in the November of 1935 when they were both in the First Division, with Brentford winning 2-1 in a home match. It was the start of a period of dominance over the London-based club.

The next six matchups saw Brentford win four times and draw twice, with Arsenal failing to pick up three points in any of their games against the Bees. It took until 1939 for them to register their first win in the league, with that being the start of the London side’s period of dominance. Across the next ten meetings, Arsenal won seven of them, with two draws and just one defeat to speak of. One of the games came in the League Cup in the 2018-2019 season, giving Brentford a taste of what life would be like back in the top-flight when they eventually returned there three years later, with the Gunners winning the tie 3-1.

Arsenal’s Full Match History Against Brentford