Brentford

Brentford boss Thomas Frank has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game at Everton (15:00).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Frank expects to have Ethan Pinnock, Yoanne Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo all available after withdrawing from their respective international squads while summer signing Igor Thiago will be in the squad for the first time since suffering a serious knee injury in July.

• Kristoffer Ajer has been ruled out with an ankle injury: "Kristoffer will still be out for this game. It’s not a long one but I don’t know how short it will be. No setbacks, going forward but not as fast as we wanted."

• Long-term absentee Rico Henry still does not have a timescale for his return.

• On Mbeumo being linked with Liverpool and Newcastle this week: "Not thinking about it. I'm very happy when players are linked with other clubs because it means they are doing well. I know Bryan very well and he's a professional player, very good at focusing on training. No complaints."

• Frank is excited to visit Goodison Park for a final time: "Iconic ground. So much history. For me as a foreigner coming to the Premier League playing it is one of the grounds I enjoy the most. No matter what, the fans, the ground and everything around it is amazing. It is up to us to keep the noise down."

• On the challenge posed by Sean Dyche's side: "They are extremely solid. They had a tough start but one defeat in their last seven is very good. Sean is a fantastic coach and he always makes his team very difficult to play against. I expect a completely even game."

Follow all of Thursday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Brentford and Cameroon forward Bryan Mbeumo, 25, is of interest to Liverpool and Newcastle. (Sun), external

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Brentford have lost all five of their Premier League away games this season. Only in 1924-25 and 1961-62 (both nine) have they lost their opening six or more away matches of a league campaign.

Meanwhile, Yoane Wissa has scored seven goals from just 15 shots in the league this season, with his conversion rate of 47% by far the highest of any player to have had at least five efforts on goal.

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There has been some pressure on players carrying an injury going into international breaks with their national side because you are contracted to these clubs and that is where your income is.

But, for me, as a player I had a similar mindset to Harry Kane that I would always be available - injured or not injured. I would have injections when I was on international duty just so I could represent my country because it meant that much.

It is difficult, however. If you look at Jack Grealish and Pep Guardiola's comments, he has a point because the forward has not been able to play for Manchester City because of injuries. So if you have been sidelined for three or four games, I would agree that you are then not fit and available to go on international duty.

But when you look at some of the other players, ones who have been playing and being managed by their club, then I do not see it being different to being played and managed by your country.

From the club's side, when they are competing at such high levels in the Premier League, you can understand why they would want their players to be rested and get fully fit again over the two weeks, rather than having to come back straight into a hectic period of fixtures.

I kind of get it from both points of view but, as a player, if I am half fit and being played by my club, I would be fully available for my national team.

It is really difficult with the pressure that is on the players, though. I would not look at it as a decision players have made solely.

Fara Williams was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson

Brentford have joined London rivals Fulham in chasing Botafogo and Brazil striker Igor Jesus, 23. Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest are also interested. (TBR), external

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Earlier, we asked you who scored Brentford's first Premier League goal of the 2024-25 season.

The answer is Bryan Mbeumo, who netted in the 2-1 win over Crystal Palace on 18 August.

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When it came to adjusting to the departure of Ivan Toney, Brentford had the advantage last season of his ban giving them a chance to look at building a team without him.

While he was banned there were already rumours about him leaving and I think that period, even though they were not getting the results, gave them the chance to build and accept a team that did not have him in it.

They have started really well this season- particularly Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa - scoring a lot of goals, and a lot of early goals.

What I really like about Thomas Frank is he finds different initiatives to strengthen his team.

Even when they first came into the Premier League and they had a set-piece coach. That was new for everybody but now we are seeing so many of the top teams adopting this.

Through their early goals this season, he has probably identified that as an area where they can punish teams in a way they were not really doing last season. It is impressive and something they have clearly worked on.

Defensively, this is an area now he will likely want to improve. The fact they are scoring so many, they are almost getting away with conceding as many goals as they have been. While these high-scoring games are nice for the neutral, Frank will want to change that.

But he is a very good manager and good managers can work with any level of player.

They can get players to buy into what they want to do and that is something that he does. He is well respected at the club and when you have players on board, it is a cliche, but anything is possible.

Fara Williams was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson

Who scored Brentford's first Premier League goal of the 2024-25 season?

Answer will be revealed at 17:00 GMT

With only four points separating third and 13th, we do not normally see that many teams in this type of mini league.

Normally, you might have the teams in a pack around the top four or five and then another pack underneath that with your relegation pack as well, so the fact there is so many teams in it at this stage is making it different.

From the mental side of competing in that, you look at Manchester United who have struggled so much this season and are sitting 13th. If they get a win, it can shoot them right up the table. They are in a position to think they are only a few points off the Champions League places' and that is good.

But it can work both ways.

Knowing the points are so close can keep you strong, keep you competing and have that competitiveness because you know a result can jump you up. But on the flipside, you could easily go from seventh down to 13th in one weekend or from third down to 10th.

How you deal with it depends on the manager, the players and also the psychologists within the group. Psychology in sport is really important for whether you see the situation as a positive or a negative.

Whether it stays like this all season is hard to say as there have been some really inconsistent performances and results. The most consistent team is the one sitting at the top.

I do not know what the rest of the campaign has in store for these sides because all the teams seem to be able to take points off each other this season.

Fara Williams was speaking to BBC Sport's Nicola Pearson

Leicester defender Conor Coady speaks to BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club about the impressive form of Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo, who "can do absolutely everything" and is "an absolute nightmare" to play against.

Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer or listen on BBC Sounds

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is weighing up for a move for 22-year-old Dutch defender Sepp van den Berg, who joined Brentford from Liverpool last summer. (Football Transfers), external

Want more transfer news? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Henry Brownsey
BBC Sport journalist

There were plenty of memorable numbers across the weekend's Premier League football...

1 - How many games it took Brighton's Matt O'Riley to open his account in the top flight.

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250 - How many appearances Bruno Fernandes has now made for Manchester United, registering a combined 155 goals and assists in this time.

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4 - Consecutive defeats for Pep Guardiola's Manchester City side, and the first time he has had such a losing run in his managerial career.

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28 - Points Liverpool boss Arne Slot has earned in the Premier League in his first 11 games in charge - the joint-most of any new manager.

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80 - Seconds between Bournemouth going 2-1 up and Mikkel Damsgaard equalising for Brentford.

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1:48 - How long into the game Pablo Sarabia put Wolves ahead against Southampton - becoming the club's earliest Premier League goalscorer.

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22 years, six months, two weeks and three days - The amount of time Ipswich Town had gone without a Premier League victory before Sunday's win at Tottenham.

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Ian Westbrook
Fan writer

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Well, that was another boring afternoon at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday...

Once again Brentford showed how good we can be going forward, but also how careless we keep being at the back.

Given how poor we were both at Fulham and in the first 20 minutes of this game, to come back well to beat an in-form Bournemouth side was a great result, especially going into an international break.

Our goals included another one straight from a kick-off, this time Mikkel Damsgaard finally scoring his first Premier League goal just 21 seconds after we had restarted from the Cherries' second goal.

It is never easy watching the Bees though and when Bournemouth hit the bar in the 96th minute, it was another head-in-hands moment for us fans.

However, Yoane Wissa is once again showing what a clinical striker he is, and record signing Igor Thiago will not just walk into the side when he is finally fit again.

A word of sympathy for Mads Roerslev, currently one of our two fit full-backs and the recipient of a lot of criticism from fans after unwittingly playing a part in Fulham's winner last Monday.

Thomas Frank defended him to the media on Friday, but then took him out of the firing line by putting him on the bench on Saturday.

Roerslev has been a steady and generally reliable performer in five-and-a-half years at Brentford, usually filling in for someone else.

So I wonder what he thought when Sepp van den Berg, his replacement at right-back on Saturday, handed the Cherries' their first goal with a poor backpass.

I am sure that both players will bounce back from these incidents.

Find more from Ian Westbrook at Beesotted podcast, external

On BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, former Premier League striker Chris Sutton speaks about a Brentford side that is "great to watch" and praises front pair Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa.

"If you're a Brentford fan and where they were a few years ago, to now be watching a team reminiscent of the Harlem Globetrotters on their own patch - they're in heaven watching their team at home," said Sutton.

Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer or listen on BBC Sounds

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We asked for your thoughts after Saturday's Premier League game between Brentford and Bournemouth.

Here are some of your comments:

Brentford fans

Ian: Another end-to-end game at Gtech Community Stadium and Yoane Wissa was on fire! The first half was a good Premier League game and the second half continued in the same vein. Two teams outside the top six who are making their mark in the Premier League.

Paddy: If we weren't so leaky in defence, we would be up fighting for European competition. Ben Mee has been sorely missed, though despite that, the never-say-die attitude saw us through. It is that mindset that is so attractive about our club. Go Bees!

Nick: We attack a team and score more than them. We try to defend and we lose. Just keep attacking! Their manager says they were better…3-2 says we were.

Bournemouth fans

OIiver: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Replace Kepa Arrizabalaga with Mark Travers who has been outstanding for us in back-to-back performances against arguably the two most formidable opponents in the league. Overall, the Cherries were exciting to watch and full of their now characteristic flair. Unfortunately, so were Brentford.

Adam: If I was Travers, I’d be desperately searching for a way out of this club. Two stellar weeks between the sticks against two fantastic teams, and he gets dropped at the first opportunity for a bang-average keeper with a trendy name. We should’ve won that game but instead we’re bemoaning the keeper.

Paul: Well we've had some poor goalkeeping from Neto, but this one is certainly in the same league, full of basic errors. He must be being picked on his past performances. Why take our young goalkeeper out when he's clearly performing with much more effort. Highly paid players think they command a place in the team, not to earn their place on merit.

Former Premier League striker Alan Shearer praised Mikkel Damsgaard for his performance in Brentford's victory over Bournemouth on Saturday:

"When we were working with Thomas Frank in the summer [at the Euros], he said to us that there is a lot more to come from Damsgaard. You're seeing more of that this season and he was excellent [against Bournemouth].

"He always wanted to get the ball forward. He kept Brentford on the front foot and got them into forward positions. He set Brentford off so many times.

"He has started nine games this season - he only started seven in the whole of last season. If he can stay injury-free, he will play a huge part in what Brentford are doing."

Listen to the full analysis on BBC iPlayer

Highlights and analysis from Saturday's six Premier League fixtures.

If you missed Match of the Day, you can catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

Listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Wolves 2-0 Southampton

• Brighton 2-1 Man City

Ben Collins
BBC Sport journalist

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Yoane Wissa scored twice as Brentford twice came from behind to beat Bournemouth and cement their status as this season's Premier League entertainers.

Only one team has conceded more goals at home than Brentford (11), yet the Bees have the league's best home record having earned 16 points from a possible 18.

That's because they have scored 18 goals from six games at the Gtech Community Stadium, with the scorelines in the past three being 5-3, 4-3 and 3-2.

The Bees now have two of the league's top six goalscorers in Wissa (seven) and Bryan Mbeumo (eight), and Brentford fans should expect them to keep coming.

Manager Thomas Frank admitted it took 20 minutes for his team to get going against Bournemouth, but as long as they keep winning, he says he would rather they win 5-4 than 1-0.

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Thomas Frank spoke to BBC Match of the Day after Brentford's victory against Bournemouth: "We are in the entertainment business but phew. The first 20 [minutes] we were not good, Bournemouth were better than us. We gave them the first goal, but they also had one or two chances. Then I think we really grew into the game and did well for the rest of the half.

"Second half I thought we were the best team, quite significantly. They scored from a well-combined short corner and there was one cross at the end that we struggled with. Besides that, we didn't give anything away and scored two top goals."

On his team's fightback: "I was so happy. We had a tough Monday night [at Fulham]. I ask for 'bounce-back mentality'.

"We make it very entertaining for the fans. We feel well at home, it's a fortress. We are so dangerous going forward."

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Brentford forward Yoanne Wissa spoke to BBC Match of the Day after Saturday's victory against Bournemouth: "It's nice. We're in an entertainment business so we like to entertain every game. Of course, we'd like to do it in a better way, be 3-0 then done. But this is the Premier League, this is why we love it. I'm very happy with the win today."

On his goals: "The first was a throw-in, and we know that on set-pieces we have to try to score every time. There was a header, then a second header. I was on the back post and just sent it back to where the ball came from.

"The second was perfect play from us. Vitaly [Janelt] gave me a delicious ball and I just tried to do the best I can do. You need to have composure and confidence, and today I'm happy to help the team win."

On his team's fightback: "We knew we had a poor performance against Fulham and today was a bounce-back mentality. You could see after the first 20 minutes there was a lack of confidence. The goal helped us to bring [up] a level and the last 20 minutes [of the first half] was much better.

"Five minutes after half-time we conceded again and a minute later we scored. This is our mentality, just to keep going and do our best to make the fans proud."