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The 23-year old made his first start for Arsenal in nearly 500 days.
Arsenal winger Reiss Nelson has revealed that England international Emile Smith Rowe is one of the best players he has ever played with after the 23-year-old marked his 100th appearance for the Gunners.
Nelson opened the scoring with a tidy finish into the bottom right corner to beat Brentford and set up a fourth round clash with West Ham United in the Carabao Cup.
The Gunners could have easily scored a couple more goals had they taken their chances before the break.
Smith Rowe had a huge opportunity to find the net for Arsenal, but Mark Flekken pulled off a brilliant save to deny the 23-year-old Englishman.
It would’ve been the perfect way for Smith Rowe to mark his first start in nearly 500 days, but sadly, it wasn’t meant to be last night.
“I am really pleased, but I know he’s going to be upset because he done a nice bit of trickery in the box and should’ve scored a hundred percent,” Nelson told Arsenal.com.
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“But he’s a great player, great lad and one of the best players I’ve played with, been through the whole rankings with him, so congrats on your 100th game mate!”
Smith Rowe missed a large part of last season because of an injury, and he didn’t start a single game in the entire campaign as a result.
Having previously managed just 25 minutes across the first eight matches of the campaign, the 23-year-old played 82 minutes at Brentford before being replaced by Martin Odegaard.
Meanwhile, boss Mikel Arteta was delighted with Smith Rowe’s performance, but sounded a note of caution about the midfielder’s fitness levels.
“I think he had really good moments in the first half, and the game was much easier for him, the way he was developing with his qualities, and the game we started to play after five or ten minutes in the second half, and then after he was struggling more,” Arteta said.
“Physically, he’s still not there to play 90 minutes, we have to bear in mind that we have four or five players in that field and that was big concern for us today in the line-up, because we have seven at Colney that are not fit now.”
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Asked why he was substituted, Arteta added: “He did [pick up a knock] but it wasn’t because of that, we had to manage his minutes. His load has seen a big spike in the last two weeks as well, and he was struggling to finish the game, the same with Reiss [Nelson].”
Arteta was delighted with Smith Rowe’s performance, but sounded a note of caution about the midfielder’s fitness levels.
“I think he had really good moments in the first half, and the game was much easier for him, the way he was developing with his qualities, and the game we started to play after five or ten minutes in the second half, and then after he was struggling more,” Arteta said.
“Physically, he’s still not there to play 90 minutes, we have to bear in mind that we have four or five players in that field and that was a big concern for us today in the line-up, because we have seven at Colney that are not fit now.”
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