That colossal three-week break is over. It has been an excruciating wait for those who prefer their football of the Premier League rather than international variety. Finally, though, we have the chance for Brentford to pick up where they left off with Saturday afternoon’s trip to Aston Villa.
Get in quick, Bees fans. The top flight may be back, but lovers of ‘that band’ (aka, simpletons) only have a month before their chance to hear ‘The Great Escape, The National Anthem, The Italian Job and many, many more being slowly butchered once more.
“I felt a great disturbance… as if millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced”. Not the destruction of Alderaan in Star Wars but actually the first time Bernie Clifton raised a trombone to his lips and parped along to Seven Nation Army. We could go on. We have many times. We’ll never stop. Brass bands, flags (both: ‘mass display’ and ‘goal celebration’), Mexican waves, fake historic anthems, goal music and general ‘forced fun’ are a poor substitute for actual atmosphere.
We digress, until that moment, the trip to Villa Park sees the first opportunity in a five-game league sequence (visits from Liverpool and Nottingham Forest; fixtures at Hull City and Brighton make up the rest) for Keith Andrews’ side to continue their push for the very top of the pack.
Don’t laugh, the table doesn’t lie. Unbeaten Brentford sit fourth at present and go into this one knowing that victory for Leeds United in the lunchtime game at Arsenal will hand them a glorious opportunity to move second in a table that is now seeing little gaps starting to form between clusters of teams.
That 3-0 defeat of Chelsea the last time we were all together saw the Bees in mercurial form. Relentlessly, inexorably, remorselessly turning the screw and twisting the knife after a ‘cagey’ first-half to eventually blow big-spending Blues off the park. A performance that garnered bucketloads of praise from the pundits ended with Igor Thiago back on the scoresheet and a rapturously received return for Fabio Carvalho ( © The Middlesex Chronicle big book of 80’s alliteration ).
His late entrance to the field (Keith in 88th minute substitute shocker) was followed by a ‘cherry on the cake’ goal. As much for the player, after that lengthy injury absence, as it was the team who turned a mere victory into a humbling of headline-grabbing proportions. Emi Martinez in nets being made to suffer in a way Blues’ fans couldn’t truly appreciate, given their keeper’s past theatrics at the Gtech. Where’s Neal when you need him?
That was then; this is now. Brentford entered the break in fine spirits and whilst it was a brutal shame to see momentum checked by matters outside of our control, the plus points over that period included international debuts for Vitaly Janelt and Michael Kayode. The latter scoring on his debut against Turkey – the first of three caps earned. Also on the goal scorers’ list were Kris Ajer and Mikkel Damsgaard, although the Danes’ injury against Portugal and subsequently missing the Wales game is likely Keith Andrews’ biggest concern.
The press conferences for both sides are due today, and so you never know, we may get some meaningful updates. No, seriously. On the flip side, if the last news on Mathias Jensen is to be trusted, then he should be back in contention once again. His own fine start to the campaign being cut short.
I’m gambling on his being ready and, as such, see a team that lines up as follows.
Caoimhín Kelleher; Michael Kayode, Kris Ajer, Jannik Schuster, Keane Lewis-Potter; Vitaly Janelt, Mamadou Sangaré, Mathias Jensen, Jaidon Anthony, Igor Thiago, Kevin Schade
Aside from Dango’s international absence due to illness, Jaiden Anthony had a magnificent game against Chelsea. To be fair, they all did. The only other possible tweak being Yarmo for Mathias. However, if he is ready, I’d most definitely be looking to unleash Jensen’s genie-in-a-bottle creativity.
As for Aston Villa, it has been a season of change. Players out, players in. Both former Bees – Ezri Konsa (Arsenal) and Ollie Watkins (semi-retirement) – now elsewhere. The team suffering from a slow start, where shots on goal seemed more of an aspiration than an actual thing. That said, they finally returned to winning ways in game five, beating bottom of the table Tottenham (a phrase one can never tire of using) 3-2 and now sit 16th, two points clear of hapless Spurs (a phrase one can never…etc etc)
Aside from anything else, the Villans may have even more incentive to go for it than normal given last season’s 0-1 defeat to 10-man Brentford in the corresponding fixture. A result made all the more painful for them following that excruciating wait to discover that the ball had indeed gone out of play in the build-up to Tammy Abraham’s ‘equaliser’.
Matty Cash is the main injury concern after international duty, and as such, their side is likely to line up:
Zion Susuki, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof, Tyrone Mings, Matteo Ruggeri, Boubacar Kamara, João Gomes, John McGinn, Johan Manzambi, Emi Buendia, Nicolas Jackson
With Peter Bankes on VAR this time around and Craig Pawson ‘in charge ’, I’m sure any tough decisions will be made correctly. Your full team of officials for this one is:
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Assistants: Lee Betts, Mat Wilkes.
Fourth official: Anthony Backhouse.
VAR: Peter Bankes.
Assistant VAR: Ian Hussin.
Come on Craig, prove me wrong!
The traditional 3pm Saturday kick-off is very much the exception rather than the rule these days, so enjoy it whilst you can. That’s the price of Premier League football (unless you are Manchester City, where anything goes… D’oh! Almost made it through without the seemingly obligatory mention).
The away corner is well sold out. The North Stand is currently under reconstruction. Even though the crowd may be down as such, you can be sure the atmosphere will be cracking. Both sides looking to make it back-to-back wins. Brentford in particular, with even more incentive to go for it.
Will Keith look for goals? Can the Bees climb even higher up the table? Might Leeds set the scene early (or will they come close then fall apart)? Bring it on when we can all find out….
Football is back, and doesn’t it feel good?
