The Gunners saw their league lead cut to three points on Wednesday when second-place Manchester City defeated Fulham 3-0.

In seventh place, the Bees remain a team in transition under new boss Keith Andrews in his first season in charge.

Brentford used three centre-backs in seven of their first 20 matches across all competitions, including a 2-0 loss at Arsenal on December 3. But Andrews has favoured a four-man back line in the Bees’ last 10 fixtures, earning 19 points from nine league matches.

Mikel Arteta admits it is challenging to prepare for how Thursday’s opposition may approach the game.

“I think it’s happened a lot already this season,” Arteta said of facing teams with a new manager. “You learn the lesson not only with a change of manager but also in anticipating what a manager will do against you. So we focus on ourselves, what we want to achieve, the way we want to play, and how we want the game to unfold tactically.”

Arsenal have won four matches in a row across all competitions, including consecutive league victories against Leeds and Sunderland, with a home League Cup semi-final win over Chelsea in between.

Viktor Gyokeres came off the bench to score twice in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Sunderland, taking his league tally to eight goals in his first Premier League season.

Brentford enter the match on the back of consecutive league wins, 1-0 at Aston Villa and 3-2 at Newcastle, with Dango Ouattara scoring the winner in both matches to bring his league total to five goals. Three of those have been match-winning strikes in his first season at Brentford, following three with Bournemouth last season.