A matter of days since the sides’ last meeting, Brentford welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers to Gtech Community Stadium on Friday night (7.15pm kick-off) for an Emirates FA Cup third-round encounter.
Wolves have won the FA Cup four times, most recently in 1960, while the Bees’ have reached the quarter-final of the competition on four occasions.
Pre-match Analysis
Brentford and Wolves must shuffle the pack in the absence of international stars
A big weekend of FA Cup football is here to usher in the New Year, but a raft of Premier League stars will savour other flavours of cup magic in January - with a trio of Wolves players away on international duty ahead of their third-round clash against Brentford on Friday evening.
Wanderers’ top scorer Hwang Hee-chan has joined up with South Korea for the Asian Cup, while Rayan Aït-Nouri (Algeria) and Boubacar Traoré (Mali) have jetted off with dreams of winning the Africa Cup of Nations.
Brentford, for their part, will need to shuffle their pack in the absence of AFCON-bound Yoane Wissa (DR Congo) and Frank Onyeka (Nigeria). Saman Ghoddos is also unavailable, having been selected by Iran for the Asian Cup.
Gary O'Neil's Wolves enter the contest on the back of three consecutive Premier League wins: a 4-1 victory over the Bees sandwiched between an impressive 2-1 win over Chelsea and a 3-0 success over Everton last time out.
Sacked by Bournemouth at the end of last season, O'Neil has made an impressive impact since taking the reins at Molineux and his challenge now is to maintain Wanderers' momentum - and roll with the punch of losing star man Hwang.
'I'm gutted we're losing Channy, he has been a massive part of what we've achieved. But I am also excited to see who in our group can deal with it,' said the Wolves head coach after their recent win over the Toffees.
With 10 goals and three assists to his name, Hwang has provided Wolves with a genuine attacking edge this season, but Pedro Neto's return to fitness has come at exactly the right time, as has fellow forward Matheus Cunha starting to add end product to his game.
Portugal international Neto has only played 11 Premier League games this season, but sits joint-third in the division's assist charts having already supplied seven this term - only Mohamed Salah and Ollie Watkins (both eight) have laid on more goals.
Former Atletico Madrid forward Cunha, meanwhile, has six goals and five assists this term in the top flight - the Brazilian (42) behind only Man City's Jeremy Doku (44) for successful dribbles this season and also ranking second for progressive carries into the final third.
Architects of their own downfall, to some extent, in their aforementioned loss to Wolves over Christmas, Brentford will look to avoid further mistakes at the back as they look to end a run of five defeats on the spin.
Notably, Brentford have made 10 errors which have resulted in a shot from their opponents this season - more than error-averse Aston Villa's four, but less than the more error-prone Tottenham Hotspur and Sheffield United (13 apiece). Wolves have made nine, for info!
The enforced changes in personnel coupled with the two sides' contrasting form at the moment make Friday's clash an intriguing one, a certain novelty bestowed by the fact it will be the first-ever FA Cup tie between the two sides.
Scout Report
O’Neil and Wolves surpassing pre-season expectations
Wolves played out another season of relative mediocrity in 2022/23, finishing 13th after scoring only 31 goals in the Premier League - their lowest tally since the 1983/84 First Division campaign (27).
Until just after last Christmas, they were prime relegation candidates after picking up 13 points from their 18 games to the turn of the year. They were second bottom by this point - and had already sacked Bruno Lage in October as a consequence of a miserable first few months.
The Portuguese was replaced by former Porto, Real Madrid and Spain boss Julen Lopetegui, who had first been linked with the job at Molineux six years earlier.
There was still a lack of consistency after domestic football restarted, but the Spaniard ultimately delivered the results to secure a place safe in the middle of the pack, leading to a sixth straight season back in the Premier League.
“I don’t want to forget the second part of the season,” said Lopetegui after the season’s conclusion. “It was fantastic to be out of the relegation zone three matches before the end.
“Maybe it has been a little miracle, but now we have to learn for the future. Maybe one miracle is possible, but two? No. That’s why you have to improve and do your homework.”
A hectic summer followed. To comply with financial fair play regulations, Wolves had to sell their best assets this summer, including Rúben Neves to Al Hilal and, of course, Nathan Collins to Brentford. Matheus Cunha and Boubacar Traoré’s loan moves have become permanent, but the club were otherwise greatly restricted.
Then, six days before the curtain-raiser against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Lopetegui departed after his contract was cancelled by mutual consent.
The search for a new boss lasted only a day, with Gary O’Neil installed two months after leaving Bournemouth but, as Wolves writer Liam Keen told us last month, on paper, this was not seen as an upgrade.
Yet O’Neil has won most of his doubters over with the way things have panned out so far.
Results-wise, they struggled at the start, with four defeats in the first five leaving them in the familiar surroundings of the relegation zone.
But things have picked up greatly since September, with the 25 points taken from the last 15 games resulting in a comfortable mid-table spot and a top-half finish not out of the question.
Wolves have already scored 30 goals in the Premier League; just one shy of last season’s total of 31.
That suggests an element of entertainment has returned to Molineux after two pretty conservative campaigns.
In the Dugout
Gary O’Neil
Gary O’Neil is a familiar face for the majority of English football fans, having played in either the Premier League or the Championship for the entirety of his 19-year career.
The former England Under-21 international played more than 500 games for the likes of Portsmouth, West Ham United and Norwich City, and won promotion from the second tier a remarkable four times.
He only retired from playing the game four years ago, having finished at Bolton Wanderers in May 2019 (after winning their Player of the Year award), and then been unable to find a club to prolong his career with after an Achilles injury.
O’Neil’s coaching career began in August 2020, when he worked as the assistant to Liverpool Under-23 boss Barry Lewtas and, six months later, he was drafted in as first-team coach at Bournemouth, after Jonathan Woodgate’s appointment.
Woodgate departed the Vitality Stadium that summer, but O’Neil stayed on to work under former West Ham team-mate Scott Parker and, when Parker left shortly after promotion back to the Premier League at the start of the 2022/23 campaign, he was appointed as head coach last November after three months as caretaker.
The 40-year-old kept the Cherries in the top flight for another season, securing a 15th-place finish, five points above the relegation zone, but was sacked in June in favour of Andoni Iraola.
O’Neil was appointed as Wolves boss on 9 August.
The Gameplan
With the Express and Star’s Liam Keen
Liam Keen, Wolves writer for the Express and Star, explains how Gary O’Neil is likely to set up his side at Gtech Community Stadium:
“It will be a back five and then, depending really on how much recovery O'Neil can give the players in the week leading up to the game, it is about choosing available players from there.
“It is difficult to say who may or may not play, but someone who could do with a start would be [Pedro] Neto. He played 15 minutes or so against Everton and looked sharp even though he was coming back from injury.”
Read the full interview with Liam Keen here
Team News
Dasilva to return for FA Cup clash
Josh Dasilva will be in the squad for Friday's game, Brentford head coach Thomas Frank confirmed in his pre-match press conference.
The midfielder has been out with a hamstring injury since the 3-0 win over west London rivals Fulham at the end of August, but Frank has stated that the 25-year-old will be back for the cup clash on Friday night.
When asked about injuries ahead of the match at Gtech Community Stadium, he said: "Since the last game against Crystal Palace, the same players will be available from then.
“The good news is that Josh Dasilva is ready to be in the squad, so that's positive.”
Frank added: “Josh is a fantastic team player, whether he is starting or he is coming on. He's got that ability to score, make assists or make decisive actions offensively.
“He’s been a big miss that we have not had for basically the whole first half of the season.”
Match Officials
Harrington the man in the middle for FA Cup clash
Referee: Tony Harrington
Assistants: Daniel Robathan and George Byrne
Fourth official: Keith Stroud
Video assistant referees: Rebecca Welch and Jarred Gillett
Tony Harrington has taken charge of eight games this season, showing 34 yellow cards and one red.
Harrington last refereed a Brentford fixture in April 2021. The Bees ran out 5-0 winners against Preston North End at Deepdale.
After becoming a select group 1 referee in June 2021, Harrington officiated his first Premier League game on 16 December 2021.
Last Meeting
Brentford 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 4 (Premier League, 27 December 2023)
Goals from Mario Lemina, Hwang Hee-chan (2) and substitute Jeanricner Bellegarde consigned Brentford to a 4-1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
A breathless first half at Gtech Community Stadium saw three goals scored in the space of three minutes. Lemina rose highest to head home Pablo Sarabia's cross, before Hwang added a second moments after the kick-off after intercepting Nathan Collins’ backpass.
Brentford responded two minutes later through Yoane Wissa, but Hwang scored his second goal – and the visitors’ third – on 28 minutes.
Wolves wrapped up the points with 11 minutes left on the clock as Cunha intercepted Collins’ pass to Vitaly Janelt and squared for Bellegarde, who rolled beyond Flekken.