Frank rues Brentford’s defensive mistakes

Thomas Frank admitted Brentford’s defensive mistakes were costly in their 3-1 defeat at home to Arsenal. 

Having gone ahead through Bryan Mbeumo’s goal, the Bees went in level at half-time after failing to clear their lines, enabling Gabriel Jesus to head in after a Thomas Partey effort had been saved.

A poorly-defended corner allowed Mikel Merino to put Mikel Arteta’s side ahead in the second half, before Gabriel Martinelli latched on to a weak header from Nathan Collins to seal the result.

Boss Frank said: “I felt that we overall performed well. I’m very pleased, especially with the first half, but also I think the second half was not too bad, just there were three big moments in the game we didn’t do perfect and we face a team that are one of the two best teams in the league right now and they had the equality and punished us.

“I thought we were brave – that was a big thing to [try to] win the game. I thought we were good in phase one [of possession] and relatively easily played out of their pressure and found some good positions.

“I thought we were good with the high pressure and the man to man [pressing] and we defended well low.

“Scored a brilliant goal but need to do better if you want to beat Arsenal.”

Brentford are now winless in their past five matches across all competitions.

They will travel to Southampton on Saturday to take on the side currently sitting bottom of the Premier League table, and Frank is confident his team will be back on form soon enough.

He said: “I go into every game believing we can win, and the way the team played today they believed they could win.

“But the reality is we were facing a team that is competing for the title and is maybe better player for player – so it’s not a massive surprise that we lost to them.

“I look at the performance. If we perform like we did today, and be even better in the big moments, then I’m confident we will win games soon.”