Toney put up a dominant display at the Emirates
Ivan Toney was one of the standout performers in the disappointing draw between Arsenal and Brentford at the Emirates Stadium last weekend. Early on in the game, Toney created a big chance for Rico Henry when the visitors hit their hosts on the break, but the full back couldn’t sort out his feet in time to do anything meaningful with the ball.
Toney had four shots on the day, with a 50 percent accuracy.
Toney’s shooting against Arsenal
The first shot was supposed to be match opener for Brentford as he smashed the cross bar after receiving a carefully threaded pass from his strike partner, Bryan Mbeumo. The second attempt from Toney was rather speculative, smashing in a surface-to-goal piledriver from close to 30 yards but Aaron Ramsdale was on hand to make a routine save. Toney’s third shot was very close, missed by a lick of paint but his fourth shot was the most telling, as it turned out to be the equalizer, making Arsenal drop two valuable points in their bid to win their first title since 2004.
Toney was also a colossus in the air, winning 86 percent of his duels (12/14). Ten of those 12 duels Toney won were against William Saliba, who clearly struggled all game long against the English forward. He was substituted in the 89th minute for Kevin Schade, after a good day’s work for his team, but we are appalled to learn about what happened after the game.
Shortly after the game, Toney was subjected to racist abuse on social media, prompting the Brentford hierarchy to release a statement,
We are disgusted and saddened that Ivan has had to deal with this yet again.
We will not tolerate it and we will do everything we can to pursue the individuals involved.
Ivan was subject to similar abuse in October last year, and the perpetrator is now facing the consequences in court.
How many times does this need to happen?
We call on football fans everywhere to relish the competition and rivalry that exists between us, but to respect and embrace our differences and celebrate the diversity that exists throughout the Premier League.
There is no room for racism.
Arsenal took to Twitter to show solidarity with Brentford on the matter, and in all honesty, its quite unfortunate to see Toney go through this ordeal again this season. Arsenal themselves, are no strangers to these trolls, with Bukayo Saka, alongside Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho suffering vitriol and abuse following their shortcomings from the penalty spot in the European Championship finals against Italy last summer.
Football is a game that is universally enjoyed by everyone, and its a game that promotes a lot of good things, which we as fans, love and have become accustomed to. Friendships and relationships have been established because of the beautiful game and the camaraderie that is been expressed from individuals sharing the same ideas and thoughts have grown exponentially.
However, issues like racism creates barriers that makes things hard for those on the end of it and we can only hope that it stops. The players will still bend the knee before kickoff and show their support but we as fans have to do our bid to show the same support, because nobody is supposed to be on the end of such abuse.
I trust the tech folks to do their bit to catch the perpetrator and pass him through the full course of the law, but we stand with Ivan Toney and everyone else that has been on the wrong end of racial abuse.
Sayonara.
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