‘He was knackered’: Pundit says one Arsenal player looked absolutely spent vs Brentford

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Arsenal beat Brentford on Wednesday evening, and one of the key stories to come out of the game was the return of Emile Smith Rowe to the side.

The England international has barely played over the past 18 months due to a combination of injury and not being selected by Mikel Arteta.

Smith Rowe got his chance on Wednesday, and he looked good against the Bees, at least to begin with.

Indeed, while Smith Rowe looked bright in the first-half, his powers waned in the second-half as the pace of the game seemed to catch up with him.

Speaking on the Handbrake Off Podcast, Adrian Clarke has been discussing Smith Rowe’s performance against Brentford, and he says that the midfielder looked exhausted in the second-half of this game.

Smith Rowe looked exhausted

Clarke shared his verdict on the midfielder’s performance.

“I thought he looked good, he had a lot of the ball in the first half, he wasn’t just making the safe passes, and in this match he took that mantel. The goal he almost scored was majestic. He was like a mini-Odegaard, he played on the right of centre and did what Martin would have done. The only shame was that he blew up fitness wise, and he was absolutely hanging in the second-half. He was knackered. When it’s your first half for 499 days, that’s not surprising. Personally I’d like to see him get a 90 in for the U23s or something,” Clarke said.

Can’t blame him

Smith Rowe did look tired on Wednesday, but it’s really hard to blame the midfielder for looking leggy.

The youngster, quite simply, hasn’t played enough football over the past 12 months, so it’s understandable that he was a bit rusty this week.

Luckily, it sounds as though his injury issues may now be behind him, and he should be able to kick on from this performance and hit the heights he showed before his injury on a consistent basis.