Ivan Toney's return to action is only a couple of months away, but meanwhile Brentford are literally giving it their best shot without the prolific England international.

Fresh from the Bees' 3-0 win over Burnley at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, boss Thomas Frank heralded a "well-deserved" first home win of the season and praised his electric front three of Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Neal Maupay.

Maupay fed Mbeumo who crossed for Wissa to score Brentford's first-half opener before Cameroon international Mbeumo slammed home a left-footer from outside the box, on the hour mark, to make it 2-0. Saman Ghoddos then buried a sensational half-volley on 87 minutes to seal victory.

Frank rightly hailed his attacking trio as "very sharp" and the Bees' 23 shots on goal, to Burnley's six, tell the tale of an impressive front-foot performance - 15 of those shots coming in a first half that their head coach afterwards described as "close to perfect".

The Bees peppered the target against Vincent Kompany's Clarets and Brentford’s numbers this season show they are far from shot-shy these days.

There is plenty of mileage left in the season, but Brentford currently average 15.1 shots per game in the Premier League compared to 11.6 in the 2021/22 campaign and 10.7 last term.

Brentford average more strikes on goal per game than the likes of Arsenal (14.6), Newcastle (14.1) and Chelsea (13.6) and actually lead the division for shots from set-pieces (54) while ranking joint-top for shots inside the six-yard box (22).

Questions were naturally asked about how Brentford would fill the Toney-sized hole in their attack this season, but Wissa has answered many of them and in addition to his three goals the DR Congo international has led the line with aplomb.

The 27-year-old striker is a genuine threat and only Erling Haaland (34), Marcus Rashford (33), Mo Salah (30) and Ollie Watkins (29) have had more shots than him (28) in the top flight this term.

With five goals already to his name this season, Mbeumo has managed to pick up the slack in a goal-scoring sense while maintaining his creative edge: he also ranks fourth in the Premier League this season for accurate crosses (19).

A stat that underlines just how well Wissa and Mbeumo have stepped up this season is that only three Premier League strike pairings have managed more than the Brentford pair's combined tally of eight goals: Haaland/Álvarez (13), Isak/Wilson (11) and Salah/Núñez (10).

With Maupay now looking very lively after his return to west London, the future looks bright and Brentford's improved output in open play gives further cause for optimism.

Despite ranking first in the league for shots from set-pieces in 2023/24, 71 per cent of Brentford’s goals this season have come from open play and they are one of only seven top-flight teams to hit double figures from this phase of play (along with Brighton, Newcastle, Man City, Villa, Spurs and West Ham).

With their set-piece stats still strong, the signs are that Brentford - who have previously relied on their dead-ball expertise - have added more free-flowing ingredients to their game this term.

Factor in Toney's firepower come January and the results could be explosive!