Arsenal's final game before the first international break of the season against Brentford will go ahead, although the kick-off time has been changed.
It will also be the Gunners' first match since beating FC Zurich in the Europa League after last weekend's round of Premier League fixtures were called off as a mark of respect following the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday September 8th and the game against PSV Eindhoven subsequently being postponed.
However, there had been some uncertainty as to whether Arsenal's trip to the Brentford Community Stadium would be postponed as well given that the Queen's funeral will take place on Monday. But it was announced by the club and the Premier League that the fixture has received the green light to go ahead at a slightly earlier 12pm kick-off time.
READ MORE: How Mikel Arteta has evolved Arsenal squad since humbling Brentford defeat last season
"Our Premier League away fixture against Brentford on Sunday 18 September will go ahead at an earlier kick-off time of 12pm GMT," a statement on Arsenal.com reads. "The earlier kick off has been agreed following discussions between the Premier League, the Metropolitan Police, Brentford and ourselves, after the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II."
The confirmation means the Gunners face the Bees away from home for the first time since the opening game of last season where a dejected Mikel Arteta was left to sum up what went wrong in the 2-0 defeat: "It’s a very disappointing night. We needed to start in a very different way," the Spaniard said.
"The performance in the two halves was different. In the first half, we had periods where we weren’t ourselves. We got in trouble pretty easily in different ways with the long balls and the second balls. We were very disappointed with that. We reacted in the second half after going 1-0 down, when the crowd was right behind them.
"We created a lot of situations but not enough threat or shots on target to win a football match. When you concede a goal on a long throw, it then becomes a big task. Congratulations to Brentford on what they did, on what they’ve done to be where they are and for the fantastic crowd that they have right behind the team."
Now, Arsenal did manage to gain a measure of revenge in the reverse meeting at the Emirates Stadium during the second half of the season - perhaps thanks in part to an interesting pre-match team talk from Arteta that centered around Ivan Toney - but the Bees are an entirely different prospect on their own patch.
Already this season Thomas Frank's side have scored 10 goals at home - a record only bettered by two teams across the entire division in Manchester City (14) and Liverpool (12) - which includes embarrassing Manchester United 4-0 last month and putting five past Leeds United last time out.
In Toney, Brentford have the joint-third highest goalscorer in the league and he will be a constant threat to the Arsenal defence all afternoon - just like he was a year ago when he was too much to handle for a back-line that consisted of Calum Chambers, Ben White, Pablo Mari and Kieran Tierney, with Bryan Mbeumo also looking dangerous with a couple of goals to his name as well.
Fast forward 13 months and it's likely that White will be the sole survivor as William Saliba (£27m), Gabriel Magalhaes (£27m) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (£32m) - three players who have cost the Gunners £86m in transfer fees - are in line to make up a new-look defence for the club's return to west London.
Much was made of Arsenal's defending against Man United almost a fortnight ago and there were lapses in concentration in games beforehand that ultimately didn't prove too costly. But coming up against a Brentford side that is very direct and has found their scoring touch, it could turn out to be the biggest test for Arteta's new-look defence to date.
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