Thomas Frank full of admiration for ‘fantastic’ Declan Rice ahead of Brentford’s clash with Arsenal | OneFootball

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank admits he is wary of facing a midfielder in top form in Arsenal’s Declan Rice on Saturday.

Rice beat Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois with two stunning free kicks in his side’s 3-0 Champions League quarter-final win this week but Brentford will be hoping they can nullify his threat when they come up against the Gunners this weekend.

And Frank says he was hugely impressed with how Arsenal performed on Tuesday.

He said: “It was an unbelievably impressive performance from Arsenal, I actually went to the game to watch it. They truly deserved the win, two fantastic free kicks from Declan Rice.

“The first one was clever, bent around around the wall, you could see there was opportunities for that and the second one is an absolute screamer. Top corner, wow.

“We know they are very good at set-pieces, we knew that before the game and we definitely know it now. We have prepared the whole time for Arsenal with the biggest respect and we expect pressure there but we are confident we can handle it.”

Arsenal are in the middle of a two-legged tie with the champions of Europe so may be looking to rest players this weekend but the Brentford boss has insisted that this does not change their approach.

“I think no matter who they put on the pitch they will be very strong good players,” he said. “I do not know what team they’ll put out but I know one thing, it will be a strong team.

“It will be a difficult game but we believe in ourselves and trust ourselves. We’ve done quite well in the last two games. I think we lost 2-1 in a very narrow game last time, we could’ve potentially gotten something out of that and I think we drew 1-1 the year before.”

Frank added: “Mikel Arteta is a great manager and I think his coaching team has a lot of details and principles for the team and I like what they do.

“They prepare in all areas of the game and are very good at defending.”

The Bees manager also explained that he would be happy about the possibility of Christian Eriksen returning to Brentford, with his contract at Manchester United up at the end of this season.

Eriksen spent a few months with the Bees after his return from suffering a cardiac arrest for Denmark and Frank would love to have him back.

“I had a media session with the Danish media and of course the question came up about Christian because he is a very important player for Denmark and they know the connection between Christian and I,” he said.

“To put a few words on it, Christian is a very good player and we are always open for very good players to join. What he will do in the future I do not know, let’s see.”