After a sublime win at champions Manchester City, Nick gives us his 5 best Bees from Matchweek 15 and updates his top 5 players over the season.
Brentford fans thinking it would never get better on the road than Chelsea ‘away’ will need to reset their expectation levels after what was, quite possibly, our most incredible result of all time.
Manchester City, the Premier League Champions. Pep’s all conquering side worth close to £1bn. The team that had won 16 on the bounce at home and for whom the behemoth that is Erling Haaland had already scored 18 times in their 13 fixtures prior to this one. A squad of which five players will now be joining up with Gareth Southgate and his England World Cup hopefuls. That Manchester City.
Then there’s Brentford. 19/1 outsiders to win the game prior to kick-off. Unfancied. The latest lambs to the Ethiad slaughter.
Ivan Toney snubbed for Qatar despite his rich vein of form and wonderful fitness. The goals flying in and the appearances for the Bees as regular as anybody could display. We all have our thoughts on this – mostly that Southgate got it so woefully wrong with his been there, done that faces-by-numbers selection. A squad so middle of the road it could double up as the white lines on a newly laid bit of tarmac. What Ivan must have felt on Thursday is probably impossible for anyone to truly quantify. See also: Rico Henry with only one left back selected for the squad and cover expected to come from out of position players.
Make that… potential lambs. A 2-1 win for Thomas Frank’s team one which has shaken up not just the league table but the entire football community. A result so unexpected for anyone outside TW8 that even Mr. Southgate would likely have spat out his tea in shock. It was, quite simply, the most stellar performance ever seen by a Brentford side. Club legend Gary Blissett seeing his 1989 heroics in the FA Cup finally becoming our second-best result against the blue side of Manchester.
Honestly, there aren’t the words to do justice to just how well Brentford played.
Anybody fearing more of the same after the midweek reverse at home to Gillingham in the League Cup couldn’t have been further off the mark.
Instead of the sideways passing and ball retention that followed our early goal in that one, The Bees were on fire from the off. Rico Henry and Frank Onyeka bursting through. The visitors taking the game to their illustrious hosts. Ivan coming close. Zanka, part of a three-man backline, shutting down De Bruyne. All this before, on 16 minutes, who else but Ivan Toney there to do his thing.
Raya played it long. Mee headed it through the eye of the needle on to the head of Toney who, despite the very close attention of Qatar bound Aymeric Laporte, made no mistake in steering it past Brazil’s World Cup ‘keeper Ederson. Yessss. The impossible becoming possible. Brentford ahead and, you have to say, great value based on the balance of play.
It was a moment to match the most unexpected of those we’ve experienced in the last ten years. Pure, unfiltered dreamland. Despite the magnificence of the moment, there can’t have been anyone who could possibly have imagined how it would not only be surpassed but become the stuff of modern-day football legend.
Before all that though, it was City’s turn. Pinnock. Janelt. Mee. Mee. VAR and again VAR. Phew!! Raya with a great stop from Foden on 40. City with all the pressure but an actual goal looking as likely as belly laugh in an episode of Mrs. Brown’s Boys (come on, it’s been a while).
Then, with just seconds of time added on left, heartbreak. Gut wrenching pain. The dam finally unable to resist that incessant City pressure and Foden fired an absolute beauty high into the top corner past David Raya.
Oh football. You fickle mistress. You brutal tease. Dangling the carrot then whipping it away. The joy of going in to half-time a goal up replaced by reaching a sucker punch of Nottingham Forest proportions to the unmentionables and the scores level.
It was a beauty, to be fair. The technique quite something. If Ivan had already shown how short-sighted Gareth Southgate had been, Foden further underlined his own credentials and showed just how worthy of a place on the plane he was.
Our chance had come. Our chance had gone. Surely, now, there was only one result? The City steamroller bound to take full effect when the teams remerged. Oh football. How we love you. How the expected doesn’t, necessarily, always transpire.
The home team pushed. Pressured. Attacked. Moved the ball around with laser like precision. Sharp incisions through the Bees time and again but that Holy trinity of central defenders – Zanka, Mee and Pinnock – holding firm. Christian Norgaard joining the party to add further defensive steel in his traditional holding role. The tide held back and then slowly starting to turn.
There was Rico playing a beauty in to Ivan, only to see the ball whipped away just moments prior to what would have been the sweetest of connections in front of the rampant Bees’ faithful.
David Raya remaining alert. Another fine stop, this time from Portuguese World Cup man Joao Cancelo and the Bees were still alive. Zanka and Roerslev locking it out.
Five minutes, and a staggering ten of stoppage time, to go. Josh Dasilva thrown in to the breach once more. The blast of war blowing. The sinews stiffened and the blood summoned. Fair nature disguised with hard-favour’d rage.
Or, as yours truly noted to Mrs. Bruzon – we’re going for it. He’s lining up Josh to have a shot from distance.
It was better than that.
97 minutes gone and Josh not so much lined up for the shot as cutting down the flank, squaring it to Ivan and there was the goaaaaallllllll. Grown men wept. Tears of joy fell. The dreams heard all the way back in TW8. Brentford 2-1 up. Just minutes to go. Unbridled passion erupting everywhere. A Bacchanalian orgy of celebrations.
At the same time, the spectre of the City Ground still placing an icy hand on the shoulder. The brutal prospect of last second capitualation a pain we know only too well. The hulking presence of Haaland lurking menacingly. If anybody was going to get the goal. If anyone was going to ruin the fairytale ending. The giant squashing our plucky Jack. We all knew it was going to be him.
Yet, yet… Brentford broke again. The ball fell to Ivan. The chance for the hat-trick. To bury the game as neatly as a Mafia hit man disposing of a troublesome witness. He should have scored. On reflection he may feel he could have scored. It would have been a hat-trick to eclipse even that against Leeds United. He won’t give a flying monkey about not taking the chance. Not when the final score is tallied because there the goals ended. A final 90 seconds of stress absorbed – we’ve been through it so many times yet it never gets any easier – and the game declared over.
The joy unlike anything, and I mean anything, ever experienced in the red and white stripes. From those in the ground to the fans in local pubs and even those of us watching from our sick beds (curse you, Covid – of all the games to be ruled medically unfit for) the moment was one we’ll never forget.
Wherever we were watching from. It truly was the best ever. The doom and gloom from the bedwetters prior to kick off and after Nottingham Forest returned with interest. The life of a Brentford fan yet again proving to be that most curious of enigmas. Get humped by Aston Villa. Outplay the best team in Europe.
And so to the real reason for being here: Star player and top five performances. Whilst it would be easy to give a nice ‘kop out’ of five to everyone, that won’t really help the season long quest. Besides, there was one man who outsiders may have felt had something to prove but let his on-pitch performance do all the talking…..
Brentford Player Ratings from Matchweek 15 (vs Manchester City)
1st (Star Man: 5 points) – Ivan Toney
Are you watching Gareth Southgate? We all asked it on Thursday. We all asked it before kick-off. The pundits all asked it at full time.
Five shots, all on target. Two goals. If not two fingers up to the England manager it was very much a case of point proven. City chock full of World Cup squad members. Toney the man who’ll be watching it on TV but demonstrating, yet again, how ridiculous a decision that was.
We’ve seen all season how good Ivan has been. We’ve all seen the game and the highlights.
Ivan, despite the pain he must be feeling, diplomatic to the extreme and refusing to be drawn on that decision making process.
As for City, he nailed it at full-time. “They’re humans. Humans can lose games.” It’s all about taking the opportunity on the rare occasion it arises and, my word, didn’t he do just that? An incredible performance from an incredible talent.
2nd (4 points) – Zanka
Ridiculously strong. If Frank’s a tank then Zanka was a Panzer, Sherman and Abrams rolled in to one. Nobody even close to getting past him.
The ball being headed, poked or played clear with refreshing precision. One of the few Danes in the Brentford squad not going to Qatar but, like Ivan, showing his worth against the most illustrious of opponents.
A late scare in the box with Cancelo looking for penalty actually proved to be the most perfectly timed of movements and the City man earning a yellow card for simulation
3rd (3 points) – Ethan Pinnock
So calm. So strong. A spring-loaded forehead steering the ball clear and away time after time after time.
The three centre back formation, normally an indication we’d be sucking it up all game long, this time around absorbing all thrown at them and then directing the ball forward.
One can’t underestimate the quality of the opposition or the amount of pressure coming their way from a side that finished the game with 75% possession and 25 shots. Yet only one went in. Compared to our two.
4th (2 points) – Rico Henry
On any other day he’d likely have been star man or second. He was THAT strong.
Running on from beginning to end he set the tone early with a burst down the wing and ball in. He never stopped.
There was one that found Ivan at 0-0 that may well have seen us take the lead even earlier. There was a tackle. There was the ball played out of defence. He came ‘that’ close to setting up a second goal whilst, like Zanka, his fleetness of foot and silkiness of touch saved the Bees on multiple occasions.
5th (1 point) – David Raya
It could have been Ben Mee. It could have been any of them. Yet it was David Raya, the last line of defence, who kept us alive when all else had been beaten.
David who was as composed as you like. Who was quick off his line to intercept on the edge of his box. Who pulled off several dynamic saves, pushing the ball wide and away. Rodri left cursing as the second half progressed. Whose distribution showed that there is a place for a long ball forward rather than ti, ti, tiptoeing it around the backline.
Brentford Player Ratings – Top 5 Players Overall (after Matchweek 15)
All of which means that with the World Cup break upon us and Brentford 10th in the Premier League, our standings see Ben Mee hanging on to top spot (30) but Ivan Toney right on his tail in second (28) . David Raya is third (25), Rico Henry fourth (22) and Mathias Jensen fifth (19).
1st – Ben Mee (30 points)
2nd – Ivan Toney (28 points)
3rd – David Raya (25 points)
4th – Rico Henry (22 points)
5th – Mathias Jensen (19 points)
Will Gareth Southgate regret his selections? Will Brentford pick it up where we’ve left off? With sixth placed Liverpool just three points ahead, is European football a possibility? Bring on Boxing Day, bring on Tottenham and bring on the return of the premier League.
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2022-23 Brentford Player Ratings – Matchweek 15 by Nick Bruzon
