Flying start to fourth Premier season
Brentford 2, Crystal Palace 1; 18.08.24
The story of Brentford’s first game of the Premier League season might be subtitled ‘The man who wasn’t there’. The undoubted star of Thomas Franks’ squad during the past three mixed-fortunes terms in the top-flight is Ivan Toney, withdrawn from among of those about to take on the visiting Londoners – a jolly decent gesture from Brentford – presumably just in case a suitable suitor should find him or herself at a loose end this sunny afternoon.
There being a lull in progress to higher up the tree of football life, the next chapter of Brentford’s latest England international’s chronicle is yet to be writ large, even if he is certain soon to depart through the door marked Exit.
Saudi is a possible destination it is said, but in the meantime, for the rest of the team, there was the more urgent matter of a season opener to be disposed of.
Full marks, then, to a line-up looking suspiciously like one that shared the spoils with Palace at the Gtech Stadium about a year ago, right down to Toney’s absence. (Indeed, Palace had yet to be beaten by the infamous Hounslow bus stop in all encounters, which added a certain frisson to the day’s proceedings.)
Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, the do-it-yourself strike duo that has replaced Toney with some success, plus Kevin Schade supplying speed of foot and in the air, started well against a Palace outfit that looked strong in defence but less so up front. A bit like Palace’s set-up for the game in reverse, of which more later.
It was the visitors who came a whisker of going ahead after 26 minutes when Eberechi Eze curled a penetrative shot in off a post. Brentford and the home supporters breathed easier when referee Sam Barrott awarded a free-kick to the Bees for an illegal tackle on Nathan Collins and revealed that his whistle had sounded milliseconds before the ball crossed the goalline. No goal, said the official and was a real gent in apologising for his lapse in the speed of reaction department.
And worse was to come for Palace just three minutes later when Mbeumo curled his shot inside a far post after Wissa had feinted a threatening run away from the penalty area that seemed to bamboozle the defence. Slick thinking from the Bees’ pair.
The visitors didn’t roll over and let the Bees tickle their tummies, but a fizzer of a shot from Kevin Schade looked a winner until it ran clear across the face of Dean Henderson’s goal on it way somewhere else. If nothing more, it signalled the Brentford winger’s arrival back in business after injury.
Palace also scored what wasn’t a goal – offside by a street – before the real thing came along after 56 minutes. Marc Guéhi shot goalwards as Mark Flekken attempted to unscramble a melee, only for Ethan Pinnock – otherwise his reliable self – to settle the matter with his protruding knee. One all, even if in a manner Bees’ got them both!
Mikkel Damsgaard was the pick of Frank’s substitutions as Brentford set out to find a decider, but it was Wissa who put the finishing touch to a ball Henderson nearly finger-tipped away, only for this half of the Bryan/Yoane partnership to squeeze it home.
The front line therefore emerged with top marks, especially for Wissa and his impersonation of a runaway train. Midfield? Satisfactory. But the defence was struggling too much, too often – Ben Mee, probably still not fully fit, was a welcome sight when was subbed with just a minute or two to play.
What do you think? I asked my mate Charlie.
‘Three points in the bag,’ said the pragmatist.
Brentford: Flekken; Roerslev, Collins, Pinnock, Ajer; Janelt (sub Damsgaard 74m), Jensen (Onyeka 84), Norgaard; Mbeumo (Mee 90), Wissa (Carval 84), Schade (Lewis-Potter 74).
Crystal Palace: Henderson; Muñoz, Richards (Saar 84), Andersen), Guéhi; Mitchell, Wharton, (Lerma 74), Hughes (Doucouré 84), Kamada (Ayew, 70), Mateta (Édouard 46), Eze.
Farewell Ivan the terrific
Brentford 3, Southampton 1; 31.8.24
It was perhaps unfortunate for Southampton that the Bees should entertain the newly-promoted club on such an auspicious occasion. Brentford had lost to Liverpool at Anfield – no shame there – but the Saints were far from marching on following goalless League defeats by West Brom and Newcastle and now were taking on the Bees as they waved goodbye to star striker Ivan Toney. He was watching the game here before bowing out and heading off to his new home, the Saudi Arabia club Al-Ahli. But first there was the matter of, hopefully, disposing of Southampton and earning three points to push them up the League table.
Come the final whistle against Brentford, the visitors found themselves propping up the Premier League with only Everton below them. And there was only one goal – a late, late show – as reward for their efforts in three matches.Don’t ask for whom the bell tolls – even if Brentford couldn’t ring it more than once in the first half, Southampton, for all their energy, looked lost when trying to penetrate a defence more resolute than of late.
Yoane Wissa’s shot-on-the-turn would have been no more than the home crowd expected had it been directed elsewhere than into the arms of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale, making his debut after losing out in a high-class competition with ex-Brentford David Raya at Arsenal.
It was about then that a diversion appeared in the shape of a lone pigeon; yes, a pigeon, all on his own, pecking at the grass and showing every sign of being happy not to fear the football as long as the footballers left the pigeons alone. Which seemed to be fair enough, especially as at that time there appeared to be a chronic dearth of pigeons in and around the Gtech.
Brentford’s first goal came a couple of minutes before the break, when Kevin Schade fired a cross-shot that beat Ramsdale only to rebound from the far post. Mbeumo, idling in open space until then, carefully resubmitted the ball back to the goal upright, but this time just inside it.
Once play resumed, so did Brentford’s opportunistic pressing and Southampton’s occasional foraging into the opposition’s goalmouth, if they made it that far.
Centre-forward Adam Armstrong tried valiantly to make enthusiasm make up for his lack of height, while the physical Ben Brereton Diaz was a bruiser of a striker. Goodness what the pigeon made of him.
And so to the next goal, one more to Bryan Mbeumo’s taste, one suspects. This time it was Mattias Jensen who supplied the ammunition for a beautifully placed goal, sent into a space where Ramsdale wasn’t absolute certain there was one.
Wissa, Bryan’s partner in goal-plunder since Toney moved on, snatched the third, driving the ball and his body over the line at a post. He and Mbeumo have developed a knack regarding working in tandem, with one determined to match the other in scoring. A neat combination trick if you can pull it off.
In a late flurry, Southampton staged a wave of attacks and with no more than two minutes left Yukinari Sugawara scored a perfectly decent goal, mildly irritating for most of the Bees and a bit more so to Mark Flekken as he saw his clean sheet bite the dust.
What is likely to be Ivan Toney’s last appearance at the Gtech Stadium – barring social occasions and odd friendly matches – was suitably celebrated by the the two players who have benefited from much of his inheritance.
Most fitting was that the three goals were shared by Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, who flourished when playing with and learning from him. Thomas Frank paid fulsome praise and damp eyes were the order of the day.
‘That’s all very well,’ said my mate Charlie, ‘but who’s going to do something about that pesky pigeon?’
Brentford: Flekken; Janelt (substitute Lewis-Potter 75m), Pinnock, Collins; Ajer (Roerslev 39); Damsgaard (Fabio Carvalho 82), Norgaard, Jensen; Schade (van den Berg 75), Wissa, Mbeumo.
Southampton: Ramsdale; Stephens, Harwood-Bellis (Dibling 56); Bednarek; Walker-Peters, Aribo (Lallana 82), Downes, Smallbone (Mateus Fernandes 46); Sugawara; Brereton Díaz, Armstrong (Archer 46).
Bill Hagerty is a contributing editor to the Chiswick Calendar website.
Bill Hagerty is a contributing editor to the Chiswick Calendar website.