The Athletic FC

Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayur Akimwalero.

Arsenal continued to set the pace, but there was a minor scare at the Emirates

as Declan Rice was forced off against Brentford.

So how important is he for Arsenal?

All right, in with us today.

We've got Art De Walshé, who was at the Emirates for the 2-0 win over Brentford and also

Carl Anker as well.

Art, Arsenal now, what, 18 games unbeaten after seeing off Brentford on Wednesday,

now that's 15 wins and three draws.

Macar Marino once again, is he a midfielder? Is he a striker? I mean, just

give the man his medals now. Yeah, I think when you look at how this year, in terms of 2025, as

the calendar year has progressed, his role has just got bigger and bigger as it's come on. And

going into the Brentford game, I think there was a legit debate about whether he

would start again up front because Victor Yoccas is now fit again.

But he started and scored after 11 minutes yet another header.

I think he's scored more headers than anyone in the Premier League this calendar year.

So you can see he's just

got the smell for it at the moment. And I think with the record that you mentioned, the Unbeaten

record, I think the good thing about it so far has been as, it's kind of crept up on people.

I don't think there's been much focus on that because Arsenal have just been able to kind of

put the run together rather than focusing on have they lost the game or not.

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