Arsenal’s Double Gameweek 26 got off to an underwhelming start for many, with the clean sheet busted and two players owned by fewer than 2% of Fantasy managers grabbing the Gunners’ only attacking returns.
Here are a few takeaways from the Brentford Community Stadium.
WHY SALIBA MISSED OUT
William Saliba (£6.1m) was a surprise absentee when the teamsheets were released in west London.
The relatively good news for Saliba’s owners (unless they have a mega-haul waiting to auto-sub on…) is that it was only illness, not injury, that ruled him out of the Gunners’ first Gameweek 26 clash.
You’d imagine he’d return for next Wednesday’s clash at Molineux, if not Sunday’s visit of Wigan Athletic.
“This morning, he wasn’t feeling good so he’s ill, and he’s at home.
“Yep, [hopefully just short-term].” – Mikel Arteta on William Saliba, speaking ahead of kick-off
Kai Havertz (£7.3m) was also missing. A muscular injury may rule him out until early March.
“After the game that we played against Sunderland, he felt a little niggle. We need to wait and see how long he’s going to be out for.” – Mikel Arteta on Kai Havertz, speaking ahead of kick-off
SAKA RETURNS – BUT NOT EARLIER THAN ARTETA ANTICIPATED
While there was some bad news on the fitness front, Arsenal were boosted by three others returning.
Leandro Trossard (£6.8m) shrugged off a minor scare to retain his place, while Bukayo Saka (£9.8m) and Martin Odegaard (£7.8m) were among the substitutes after brief spells out. Odegaard came on at half-time, while Saka emerged for the final 20 minutes.
“Because with the way, especially that they were pressing, I think we needed another kind of profile to generate many more problems for them around those areas, and I think he [Odegaard] came on in the pitch really well and the team had another gear and more threat to arrive to the areas that we wanted to do and that decision.”
“I think [Eze] had moments and it’s not easy when you move to a new club. It’s always like this, and when you play against a team that is like this and the ball is a lot of times not on the floor and you have to be constantly breaking the play and do that, especially for attacking and creative players, it’s more difficult.” – Mikel Arteta on why he took Eberechi Eze off for Martin Odegaard at half-time
Reports had suggested the north London derby was Saka’s intended return game but Arteta said the winger was on schedule.
“That was the timeframe, more or less.” – Mikel Arteta when asked if Bukayo Saka had returned ahead of schedule
He’ll eat into Noni Madueke‘s (£6.8m) minutes one way or another against Wolves next Wednesday, even if he doesn’t start.
This was Madueke’s fifth straight start in all competitions, the last four of which haven’t lasted beyond the 70th-minute mark. As with Leeds, however, he made the most of his time on the pitch. Here, it was a well-directed header from Piero Hincapie‘s (£5.1m) cross.
As for Saka, he returns at exactly the wrong time: after the Double Gameweek deadline, with a Blank Gameweek 31 on the horizon, and with many of us moving on to other midfield targets, be it the similarly priced Cole Palmer (£10.6m) or cheaper alternatives.
RICE TO BELATEDLY GET BONUS?
As you’ll see from our revised breakdown of the Bonus Points System (BPS), Declan Rice (£7.6m) could be on for a bonus point when FPL refresh the scores next Wednesday.
Rice has risen from 21 BPS (the number you currently see in FPL) to 23 BPS, drawing him level with Sepp van den Berg (£4.5m) in third.
Rice and Gabriel Magalhaes (£7.1m) almost combined for an opener early on Wednesday, the latter seeing a close-range header blocked. It was a ‘nearly’ evening for Rice in general, with a near-certain assist for Viktor Gyokeres (£8.8m) denied by last-ditch intervention from the excellent Michael Kayode (£4.5m).
Rice and Gabriel at least banked DefCon points, the Brazilian racking up his second-highest contributions total of 2025/26 as the Bees caused havoc.
While Gabriel captainers/Triple Captainers will bemoan the three points, he at least gets a stab at redemption against Wolves. He was very nearly on a big fat zero, having diced with danger while on a booking.
IMPRESSIVE BRENTFORD’S FAVOURABLE FIXTURE SWING – BUT IS IT A GOOD THING?
Make no mistake, Brentford were well worth their point on Wednesday.
Were it not for Gabriel Martinelli‘s (£6.8m) 93rd-minute big chance, Arsenal’s first shot in half an hour, the Gunners would have posted their lowest xG of the season:
“We’re pretty good team, aren’t we? We’re constantly growing, I think – in fact, I know. We’re playing in a fearless manner. Will that always give us the result we want? Obviously not, but as long as we continue to strive towards that, it just fills me with pride. The way I watch the team, the way I watch the individuals attack it and embrace the challenge and just get after teams. So, yeah, [Arsenal] are an unbelievable team and we’ve gone toe-to-toe with them tonight.” – Keith Andrews
And now, the fixtures get much, much better for Brentford. Ticker-topping, in fact, right the way up to May:
A good thing, right? Maybe…. maybe not.
A quick look at Brentford’s results against the bottom half this season doesn’t make for great reading:
That’s 14 points from a possible 39 against the teams currently 11th and below. The Bees have gained 26 points from a possible 39 against the top half.
Is their style of play (quick transitions, back-to-front passes) more suited to games against the bigger teams? Given the recently documented struggle for goals against low blocks, it seems so. It’s a challenge Keith Andrews will have to overcome very quickly.
SCHADE TO RETURN IN GAMEWEEK 27 – BUT DOES HE IMMEDIATELY RECLAIM HIS PLACE?
Igor Thiago (£7.0m) blanked for the fourth time in five matches but quite how is a mystery.
He topped the shot count at the Gtech, seeing two great opportunities saved by David Raya (£5.9m) – the efforts were too close to him, in truth – and then blazing over another big chance later in the game.
Keane Lewis-Potter (£4.8m), playing ‘out of position’ on the left wing again, demonstrated his eye for goal by nodding in an equaliser. He’s earlier missed a good chance with another header.
Lewis-Potter’s goalscoring display begs the question: does Kevin Schade (£6.9m) get straight back in the team? Schade returns from a three-match ban in Gameweek 27; the last game is served in Monday’s FA Cup tie.
Dango Ouattara (£5.8m) had to be patient to get his chance after returning from AFCON, spending his first two matches back from Morocco on the bench. Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.6m) and Mathias Jensen (£4.9m) had been in such good nick during Dango’s absence that the Burkinabé winger didn’t get an automatic recall.
Similarly, we’ve seen the form of Kristoffer Ajer (£4.4m) and then Sepp van den Berg (£4.5m) rewarded at centre-half. The hitherto almost-nailed Nathan Collins (£5.0m) was benched for the third straight league game here.
Given how good this collective performance was, Andrews may well go unchanged against Brighton in Gameweek 27.
