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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Charlotte Coates

Brentford boss Thomas Frank makes Liverpool claim over Arsenal 'missing link'

Brentford boss Thomas Frank has admitted his admiration for Arsenal's progression this season and compared it to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side.

Mikel Arteta's side are the current leaders of the Premier League by five points and could be on course to lift their first title in nearly 20 years.

Frank will take his Brentford side to the Emirates Stadium on Saturday as they look to inflict a second defeat in a row on the Gunners ahead of their crucial clash with Manchester City on Wednesday night.

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The 49-year-old has worked wonders for Brentford after guiding them to promotion in 2021, and they now sit seventh in the league.

"I think it’s big credit to Arsenal, I think maybe it was [William] Saliba who came back this summer [from his loan with Marseille]. He was maybe the missing link," Frank said. "With [Oleksandr] Zinchenko and [Gabriel] Jesus, I think that was three important players [who weren't at Arsenal last season].

"With that, [Gabriel] Martinelli, [Bukayo] Saka and also [Martin] Odegaard, even that he is a little bit more experienced. You know, they are a year older, one more year in that culture, that group, that style of play.

"And it is all just clicking. It is almost like Liverpool. I don’t know what position they finished before they became champions [in 2020]. But that season they became champions, wasn’t that the season where [Virgil] van Dijk and Alisson came? More or less.

"So just two missing links and then ‘boom!’ that completed the jigsaw. That’s just perfect. Maybe it’s a little bit the same here."

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