Thomas Frank press conference: Arsenal vs Brentford preview

There is “no new injury news” for Brentford as “everyone who was available for Chelsea is available again”.

Frank added: “The three guys who are getting closer – [Aaron] Hickey, [Igor] Thiago and Gustavo [Nunes] – are progressing and going in the right direction. Gustavo is the closest of the three. Let’s see.”

The Bees boss hopes his side can “play as offensive as possible” when they face Arsenal, however, has acknowledged they will “need to defend a bit” against the Gunners, adding: “Hopefully we can be as much as possible in the middle and high pressure.”

Frank was at their opponent’s Champions League match against Real Madrid in midweek and called the 3-0 win an “unbelievably impressive performance”.

On defending against Declan Rice’s free kicks: “The second one was particularly difficult to defend but, of course, you could avoid giving the free-kick away. For the first one, I hope our wall would be a bit different, so he can’t get around that side. That would be my expectation. But let’s just avoid giving fouls away.”

He said that “no matter who Arsenal put on the pitch that it will be a “difficult game”.

Frank added: “We believe in ourselves and trust ourselves – we’ve done very well the last two times we’ve been there – 2-1 last season, we could’ve got something out of it, and 1-1 the year before.”

On Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta: “A great manager, they’ve got a lot of details and principles they’ve put into the team, and I like what they do.”