Brentford secured a point on the road away to Brighton and Hove Albion in a tough game on the south coast, in a clash that saw the Bees' 23-year-old goalkeeper Hákon Valdimarsson make his Premier League debut.

Mark Flekken had been busy before an injury saw him replaced by Valdimarsson towards the end of the first half. During that first 36 minutes, Flekken made six saves after the Seagulls made a bright start at the Amex.

The big Dutchman is used to being called upon though as he moved up to 85 saves in the league this season, more than any other Premier League goalkeeper by 21 with Leicester City's Mads Hermansen the closest on 64. That record also extends to Europe's top five leagues where Osasuna's Sergio Herrera joins Hermansen on 64 saves.

Flekken's injury meant the introduction of Valdimarsson for his first Premier League appearance. The highly-rated Icelandic shot-stopper had played twice so far this season in the Carabao Cup, with his Bees debut including a penalty save as he denied Colchester United's Jack Payne from the penalty spot in the 82nd minute back in August.

With Brentford much more solid in the second half against Brighton, Valdimarsson didn't need to be called upon as much as Flekken was in the first third. In total, the 23-year-old had to make just two saves for the remainder of the game.

Brighton had been threatening down the wings though with Valdimarsson needing to make two claims on crosses of the nine that the Seagulls had delivered.

While it's a small sample size, Valdimarsson's crosses stopped percentage of 22.2 per cent is way ahead of the average in the league. Indeed, Ipswich Town's Arijanet Muric is at the top of the division in that regard over a larger sample, having stopped 15.5 per cent of crosses, putting him ahead of Arsenal's David Raya and Chelsea's Robert Sánchez (13.5 per cent). For reference, Flekken is on 6.6 per cent crosses stopped, which puts him somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Valdimarsson's bright start to the Premier League earned him praise from Thomas Frank who highlighted the goalkeeper's composure, bravery, and build-up play - but that should come as no surprise considering how well the shot-stopper had done in Sweden previously. In particular during the 2023 Allsvenskan, which was no doubt the kind of performances that tipped off the Brentford scouts.

During that 2023 campaign, Valdimarsson made 74 saves in total, ranking him seventh in the division, albeit while playing for title-challenging Elfsborg, who lost the title to Malmö on goal difference that season.

It's perhaps better then to look at the save percentage, where Valdimarsson finished second with 77.9 per cent - a stat that helped him finish the season with 13 clean sheets in total - the most of any other goalkeeper in the league that campaign.

It had been a long time coming but Valdimarsson's debut showed that Brentford shouldn't have to worry if Flekken will be unavailable for the upcoming games, even if this is part of a busy January period that sees the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City and Liverpool visit Gtech Community Stadium, where the Bees are always so strong.