Wednesday & Thursday = Recovery

On Wednesday night the Elmore first team travelled to Axminster Town and came away 3-1 losers.  The team is showing inconsistency and may not have recovered from that injury I saw when the game was abandoned back in August. Four defeats and a draw is not good, the two wins coming in consecutive matches against Plymouth Marjon and Holsworthy.

Brentford took on Bristol City and earned a 1-1 draw. The BBC reported it like this:

Bristol City scored a late equaliser to extend their unbeaten run in the Championship to nine matches as they drew at Brentford.

Josh Dasilva's superb curling left-footed effort into the top corner put the Bees ahead with 27 minutes left.

It looked as though Brentford would win back-to-back games for the first time this season until Andreas Weimann's 87th-minute equaliser, the Austrian heading home Jack Hunt's deep cross.

The hosts almost won it in the 90th minute, but David Bentley made the last of several fine saves to tip over Henrik Dalsgaard's deflected cross.

The point sees City move up to seventh in the Championship, a point off the play-off places, while Brentford stay in 15th position.

An even first half saw both sides have chances to score - Bentley saved well from Julian Jeanvier after 17 minutes with Antoine Semenyo clearing Ollie Watkins' effort off the line from the resulting corner.

At the other end, David Raya had to be at his best to save Kasey Palmer's effort after Semenyo had intercepted Rico Henry's pass and started a three-man break just before half-time.

City boss Lee Johnson replaced Semenyo and Taylor Moore with Famara Diedhiou and Niclas Eliasson at half-time, but it was Brentford that took control after the break.

Bentley made more good saves to keep out Sergi Canos, Christian Norgaard and Watkins before Dasilva broke the deadlock.

On Thursday night the depression was lifted as a young Arsenal team took on Standard Liege who put a few good moves together but these usually ended with the ball being passed into touch. Gabriel Martinelli looks like a quality purchase as he scored the first two goals early in the first half. One was a deft flick with his head and the other was a well placed shot into the corner of the net. Joe Willock repeated the shot for the third goal and Dani Ceballos forced the fourth goal home with his studs.

The Arsenal first team appears full of fear but here were the youngsters playing freely and enjoying their football. An odd selection was Ainsley Maitland-Niles picked to play up front. I think Unai Emery has recognised a footballing talent but has no idea how to utilise him.