Brentford

Brentford boss Thomas Frank has been speaking to the media before Wednesday's Carabao Cup game against Newcastle (kick-off 19:45 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• On team news - "everyone is available from the Chelsea game" - Thiago "has trained and it's positive - I'll make an assessment on Wednesday."

• Paris Maghoma had a minor injury but "is ready again."

• He said Brentford "will be absolutely on it" and reiterated that he will be fielding a "really, really strong team," despite the Bees facing three games in seven days.

• On the schedule he said: "Us and Crystal Palace are the only teams in the quarter finals that have to play three games in six days, the other six teams, the bigger clubs - are playing in eight or nine days, which might be a coincidence? Maybe the EFL or Premier League can answer that."

• He also said the club tried to change the date of this Saturday's fixture at home against Nottingham Forest to the Sunday, "but they were not willing to help with the short turnaround - it is what it is."

• He admitted Newcastle "are the favourites, but we fancy ourselves." Also adding that they have "top players and are well-coached - I'm pretty sure we'll know what they'll come with, and I'm also pretty sure Eddie and his team will know what we'll come with."

• After beating the Magpies 4-2 less than two weeks ago he said tomorrow's game "will be completely different. We will face a team that will come flying out for a late kick-off under the lights. They will take no prisoners and will go after us - but we are ready."

• On what will decide the game: "I'm convinced we'll score - it's just if we're good enough defensively."

Follow all of Tuesday's Carabao Cup news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Ian Westbrook
Fan writer

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Frustrating but encouraging is my verdict on Brentford's first Premier League defeat at Chelsea.

While there is no doubt the in-form Blues dominated the match and deserved to win, I still feel that we could have got something out of it.

This was very different to some of this season's other away performances - from which we have only a single point.

There was a defensive determination about us, which, for example, was missing in the first half of the recent defeat at Aston Villa. One major reason was the reassuring presence of captain Christian Norgaard in midfield.

But we also changed to a 3-5-2 formation and doggedly stuck to our task of repelling wave after wave of Chelsea attacks before the break.

We grew into the game in the second half and for a spell had the Blues rattled - creating two good chances to equalise.

Having not taken them, we then went on to concede the crucial second goal - but with Bryan Mbeumo's late reply, there is no doubt Chelsea were on edge during the seven minutes of stoppage time.

We did ourselves proud, and that elusive first Premier League away win will come soon if we continue to play like this.

The display will give us confidence for arguably our biggest game of the season so far - Wednesday's Carabao Cup quarter-final at Newcastle.

Thomas Frank has always taken the cup competitions seriously and has spoken before about wanting to go deep in them and ultimately win a trophy for the club.

What an achievement it would be to follow up last weekend's Premier League win over the Magpies with victory at St James' Park.

Find more from Ian Westbrook at Beesotted podcast, external

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We asked for your thoughts after Sunday's Premier League game between Chelsea and Brentford.

Here are some of your comments:

Chelsea fans:

Dan: Fantastic performance for 89 minutes. Again, concentration cost Chelsea a clean sheet. What I don't get, though, is the red card. Cucurella just needs to walk away. He's got what he has come for and he goes and gets a red card for getting into a silly pushing game against a Brentford player. That could be costly to Chelsea's title-chasing ambitions. By the way, we aren't in the title race. We are just making things interesting.

David: Young team, they simply need a calm head out there and the message from Maresca to kill off games, rather than sending seven to score with five minutes left. Good performance against a very tricky team.

Mathew: Really happy to get the win at home. We played really well. I'm happy to see Cucurella and Jackson score but it's just a shame we couldn't keep a clean sheet. It's also good to end our poor streak against Brentford. Really good to see Tyrique George, Josh Acheampong and Samuel Rak-Sakyi in the matchday squad - hopefully they start on Thursday.

Brentford fans:

Mahir: Really tough team to break down... with 11 of them behind the halfway line. Good luck to them playing that way.

Benedict: Still don't understand how we are so poor away. Admittedly it's against top two side in Chelsea but we remain unbeaten at home. Don't know what the mindset is with the players at this stage in the season.

Highlights and analysis from Sunday's four Premier League fixtures, plus the best of the action from the rest of the weekend.

If you missed Match of the Day 2, catch up now on BBC iPlayer.

And you can watch Saturday's Match of the Day here.

Listen back to the weekend's full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Liverpool 2-2 Fulham

• Nottingham Forest 2-1 Aston Villa

• Brighton 1-3 Crystal Palace

• Man City 1-2 Man Utd

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Brentford captain Christian Norgaard speaking after the loss: "Of course it's disappointing but we didn't give up. We created chaos at the end."

On his chance: "It makes it hard to fall asleep tonight. You think I should have done this. It's one of them where you wish you could turn back time and do it differently.

"Chelsea away is never going to be an easy game. It wasn't the likely one to change our away form but it will come. It's not on our minds. We're in a good position."

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Brentford boss Thomas Frank has been speaking following today's defeat: "We played a very good game here. We were unlucky not to get a draw. Some big chances we missed in the end.

"We managed for the 90 minutes to go toe to toe with Chelsea, especially in the second half. A draw would have been fair.

"Chelsea are a very good team, well coached, very good players. They spent a few quid on the squad. They're playing with confidence. Credit to them for pushing us back in the first half.

"Second half we were more aggressive and played higher. You could see how much trouble we caused them by how much they celebrated 2-0 and at the time.

"They are right up there in the title race. They're very good.

"It was a very competitive game with two teams who wanted to win. It can get heated."

Were you at the game or following from elsewhere?

Have your say on Chelsea’s performance

What did you make of Brentford’s display?

Come back to this page on Monday to find a selection of your replies

Read the report and follow reaction

There are two Premier League games kicking off at the unusual time of 19:00 GMT on Sunday, and we will bring you all the key moments from both.

• Chelsea v Brentford

• Southampton v Tottenham

Follow all the action and reaction here

Chris Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League games this season, against a variety of guests.

For week 16, he takes on darts star Stephen Bunting, who is a Liverpool fan.

Sutton's prediction: 2-1

I really admire the job Thomas Frank has done with Brentford because, under him, they have evolved as a team and grown as a club.

But this is another pretty obvious prediction, because the Bees are awesome at home and useless away.

I really can't see past a Chelsea win here, with Cole Palmer's Panenka penalty against Tottenham illustrating how high their confidence is.

The way they are playing, they are definitely title contenders, no matter how many times their manager Enzo Maresca denies it.

It will be odd for fans to have a game starting so late on a Sunday night, but the Premier League have caved in to teams who want a bit of extra rest after playing in Europe on Thursday.

I'm not sure the Premier League have thought this through, and they might have opened a can of worms here.

All teams like to complain about not getting enough rest, especially over Christmas, so the Premier League probably need to come up with a minimum time period that teams should have between games, and stick to it.

Bunting's prediction: 3-1

Chelsea are looking really good, Palmer is one of the best players in the Premier League and they always have a strong bench if they need it too.

Read the full predictions and have your say here

Joe Nelson
BBC Sport journalist

Brentford boss Thomas Frank has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against Chelsea (kick-off 19:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Midfielder Vitaly Janelt is back for the Bees: "Everyone from the last game should be available. Janelt should be available and involved in the squad tomorrow, so that's positive. [Kristoffer Ajer] was on the bench so he is also ready and available to start."

• However, Mathias Jensen and Gustavo Nunes must wait longer for their respective returns: "Mathias Jensen, unfortunately, is a couple more weeks until he is ready, so that is a bit of a blow - he's an important player for us. Luckily, other players have been stepping up for us, like [Yehor] Yarmolyuk against Newcastle. Gustavo Nunes - the update there is that it will unfortunately be a while. He played the behind-closed-doors game against Cardiff City, and he had that stress fracture in his lower back, which hasn't healed as well as we wanted it to."

• Frank believes opponents Chelsea could be the best team in the Premier League at the moment: "I expect an interesting game with two good teams. They are maybe the best team in the Premier League right now. They are maybe even more in form than Liverpool, even though they are top of the league. They are playing incredible football and are well coached. [Enzo] Maresca has done a top job so far with his coaching staff and they look extremely dangerous. They have so many threats going forward and have top-quality players all over the pitch."

• The Brentford manager confirmed that the Bees requested to move Sunday's match because of Wednesday's upcoming Carabao Cup trip to Newcastle: "I think 7pm is a bit odd. In general, I don't care if we play 11am or 10am - we do what we do when it is the TV people who pay our mortgages. We asked for it because of the Carabao Cup quarter-final away to Newcastle on Wednesday and then we asked if we could move the Nottingham Forest game to the Sunday."

• He affirmed the importance of the EFL Cup to his team: "We are proud of being in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals and we know the European sides are playing more games. It's just how we make it fair for all clubs in the EFL Cup to have the same amount of days to rest and recover. How are the Premier League and EFL wanting us to prioritise the EFL Cup, which we want to, when they are making these sorts of decisions?"

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

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Brentford have won all three of their Premier League away games against Chelsea. The last team to win four consecutive top-flight away games against the Blues were Leeds United (six between 1973 and 1991).

Image source, Getty Images

Brentford have won all three of their Premier League away games against Chelsea. Leeds United were the last team to win four consecutive top-flight away games against the Blues (six between 1973 and 1991).

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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It is always a temptation to talk about the big sexy clubs with all the supporters and most of the money.

Manchester United, with their 75,000 capacity, are one of seven clubs with more than 50,000 punters turning up every week, paying vast amounts for the privilege. The turnover of these behemoths can be three or four times the size of smaller clubs.

‌It is worth re-emphasising every now and again the fantastic jobs being done by the Premier League's 'B' teams. By 'B' teams I mean Brighton (seventh), Bournemouth (eighth) and Brentford (ninth).

‌Brentford's Gtech Community Stadium can squeeze in about 17,500 souls and they are all being royally entertained, winning 22 out of the 24 points available to them at home.

‌Bournemouth are arguably even more impressive. Their tiny Vitality Stadium can only seat 11,500, yet there they sit comfortably above the likes of Tottenham, Newcastle and Manchester United.

In comparison to others who regularly lose eye-watering sums of money on expensive players that fail to impress, these clubs are staggeringly well run.

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Ian Westbrook
Fan writer

Image source, Getty Images

The past week has perfectly summarised Brentford's season so far - brilliant at home but struggling away.

The midweek defeat at Aston Villa, which followed the demolition of Leicester, was another disappointing performance on the road, with only one shot on target.

Contrast that with six efforts on target against the Foxes and eight in Saturday's excellent 4-2 win over Newcastle and it seems that the Bees are like a different side when we leave Gtech Community Stadium.

It is really hard to put a finger on the reasons for this contrast. Thomas Frank made more team changes than usual for the Villa and Magpies games, as he carefully managed minutes for certain players.

We still tried to play in the same attacking way on Wednesday, as we always do away, but it was again less effective.

The Bees have the best home record in the Premier League with 22 points from eight games, while our 26 goals scored is nine higher than anyone else.

However, away from home nobody has won fewer points than our solitary one from seven matches, in which we have only found the net five times.

Our home record is really going to be put to the test in January, when we consecutively host Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool.

There is no reason why we cannot give all three a run for their money, but it is crucial to sort out our away form in case we do not.

A great place to start would be down the road at Chelsea in a bizarre Sunday evening kick-off, although, given our three previous Premier League wins there, the in-form Blues will be out for revenge.

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Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton says the difference in Brentford's home and away form this season has been "staggering", after the Bees recorded yet another home win over Newcastle United.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club, Sutton said: "Brentford would have been top of the Premier League with their home form, but they would have been 19th with their away form.

"The way they have evolved through the Premier League era has been fascinating, particularly in the past few seasons. They have just evolved tremendously.

"But that discrepancy between their home and away form is still a little bit of a head-scratcher."

Former England international Andros Townsend added: "When I was at Luton last season, Brentford were the team we were looking at. When they came up, they were probably similar to Luton, where everyone looks at you and thinks: 'Straight back down.'

"But then they surprised everyone and they have just built and evolved, year on year, to a point where now you don't even talk about Brentford in terms of getting relegated."

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 Newcastle.

Here are some of your comments:

Brentford fans

Paul: Best home performance of the season, particularly in the second half. Bees have been great home, not so good away. This performance was full of attacking flair and skill and was well deserved against a good team. Frank has the team playing confidently and without fear and I was very proud to be a Bees supporter.

David: Went for first time in five years as I live miles away. I'm used to seeing Brentford in the lower leagues and have seen over 800 games in my 61 years of watching Brentford. This is in my top five games ever.

Mel: This team makes my heart pound! It's a pleasure to watch the Bees achieve some astonishing home performances and set records! Full credit to the squad for their flexibility, professionalism and teamwork equally supported by brilliant club management.

Kev: Newcastle edged the first half but in the second we were unplayable and demolished them. Danger from everywhere. Just an away win or two from being real contenders.

Newcastle fans

Wardy: Another dreadful away performance. No shame in losing to a vibrant energetic Brentford but we lacked energy and didn't press as one. The defence was a shambles, backing off and giving way too much time on the ball. Nowhere near good-enough attitude and no point just turning up for the big games. Need to sort themselves out before this season is a write off.

Michael: Too many poor players like Dan Burn, Fabian Schar, Nick Pope, Joe Willock, Miguel Almiron and Sean Longstaff. They can do better than Howe... great tactical genius? I don't think so! I'd start looking for a better coach.

Roger: We are slightly better than the Steve Bruce team and are on a par with the side under Rafa Benitez. Mid-table mediocrity beckons I'm afraid. Too many players only show up for home fixtures.

Geordie: This inconsistency is really starting to bite now. While some individuals in the team are certainly not performing, the regular topsy-turvy games are a collective problem and that, ultimately, comes down to coaching. These persistent stale performances are a management issue and Eddie will know this. It's what he does before January - when desperately needed reinforcements can be brought -will be the key to our season. Provided it's not too late by then.

Highlights and analysis from Saturday's four 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:

• Crystal Palace 2-2 Man City

• Man Utd 2-3 Nottingham Forest