Two concerned sets of fans descended on west London after what they had witnessed from their respective teams on the opening day of the season. Now there is one.
Never before had Brentford played a competitive match here without Thomas Frank at the helm and there are bound to be doubts over his unlikely, inexperienced successor, Keith Andrews. This win over last year’s Champions League quarter-finalists deserves to allay a fair portion of them.
The club-record signing, Dango Ouattara, provided the only goal on debut, but it was team-wide praise of “spirit”, “character” and “resilience” Andrews highlighted when expressing his pride in their performance.
Any neutral might have identified Aston Villa as the better footballing team for large periods after a notably slow start. The visitors dominated possession by a considerable margin (76% to 24%), and the game was overwhelmingly played to their tune. But time on the ball is worthless without finding a way to score.
Their impotence high up the pitch is evident. Unai Emery has admitted there is “still work to do” in the final week of the transfer window and this defeat will only have strengthened his desperation to bolster his attacking ranks. How he will have wished he had any of Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey, Marcus Rashford or Marco Asensio to turn to off the bench. All four have left since the end of last season and no amount of huff or puff came even vaguely close to blowing Brentford’s resolute defence down.
Having mustered three shots in their drab goalless draw with Newcastle last Saturday, Villa did threaten more here, at least numerically, with 17 attempts – their most without scoring in a Premier League match since October 2022. That two were on target told a story.
“We have to perform with the players we have,” said Emery. “It’s enough players to get enough performances for this season. But this week is the last week for the transfer window. We have some circumstances that are not helping us. My message is keep calm, move on and work in the same way we are doing.”
Brentford’s well-drilled performance was testament to a man still taking the first baby steps of his managerial career. Convention suggests Brentford could find themselves in a relegation scrap after losing their inspirational manager, captain and best player, while Yoane Wissa continues to be excluded on match days as he does all he can to force a move away.
A pitiful defeat at Nottingham Forest adhered to that narrative, but four changes to the starting XI yielded significant improvement. If this is what Brentford will look like this season then they should be all right.
Battling for everything on his first start, there is an unmistakable sense Jordan Henderson will be instrumental to all they do, hurrying, harrying and bellowing his way to midfield dominance. Add to that the hugely influential attacking duo of Mikkel Damsgaard, absent from the Forest defeat for the birth of his child, and debutant Ouattara. Both had the ball in the net in the opening half, albeit only one goal stood.
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Ouattara’s goal was route-one perfection, started from the boot of Caoimhin Kelleher, helped on by Igor Thiago’s halfway-line header and completed by the former Bournemouth man after beating Pau Torres in a foot race. The returning Emi Martínez managed to keep out his first effort, but the ball ricocheted off Matty Cash and back into Ouattara’s path for him to slot home at the second attempt.
Damsgaard was denied what would have been a wonderful goal just before half-time when his thunderous finish into the roof of the net from 15 yards was ruled out for a questionable foul on a flapping Martínez – under minimal pressure from Nathan Collins – in the buildup.
Brentford naturally retreated deeper as the match wore on, but Kelleher was scarcely troubled. “The overriding emotion is pride,” said Andrews. “I spoke a bit before the game about the identity of our team. I felt we saw that in abundance.
“Spirit and connection among all players. The togetherness of the group. It was filled with character and resilience. Those are things you need in this league. Our players delivered the out-of-possession gameplan pretty impeccably.”
