Following a midweek defeat to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup, Brentford return to Premier League action on Sunday with a trip to Nottingham Forest. The game kicks off at 2pm and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
This fixture produced no shortage of drama last season, with four goals – including two in the final 15 minutes - shared evenly between the sides at the City Ground.
Thomas Frank’s Bees have taken six points from as many games so far this season, while Forest are one point better off having played the same number of matches.
Pre-match Analysis
Alex Lawes, Playmaker Stats: Brentford and Forest - two sides who share the desire to be efficient
Taiwo Awoniyi v Bryan Mbeumo
Back-to-back defeats since the international break means Brentford come into this one with a solitary win in six games this season, although Thomas Frank hailed a "bounce-back performance" in the narrow Carabao Cup loss at home to Arsenal midweek.
The spirited display against the Gunners followed an out-of-character 3-1 loss to Everton last weekend.
The Bees created just 1.04 expected goals in their 3-1 loss at home to the Toffees, conceding 2.03 expected goals against – both numbers way out of line with their 2023/24 season average and their stats over the entirety of last season.
Frank and supporters will therefore be keen to put that match down as anomalous and to trust the process that has underpinned the club's success over recent seasons.
Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, have had to travel to Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City already this season so their league tally of seven points is an impressive showing from Steve Cooper’s men.
The two teams operate in very different ways in the transfer market with Brentford more studied and precise, while Nottingham Forest have earned a reputation for a more scattergun model with a far greater turnover of players.
The seemingly even nature of this match, based on the league table, could be summed up by the pragmatic nature of both managers. Both Frank and Cooper have gone about their managerial careers simply maximising the best of the players they have at hand.
Neither would be described as ideologues but good, problem-solving coaches that have led their respective sides to overachieve for different reasons; Frank with the resources available and Cooper given the chaotic squad construction at the City Ground.
Those similarities can be seen with the style of play and the desire to be efficient and direct in transition with the two teams often playing a back three with a rotating front three that play very ‘vertically’, constantly seeking to get at the opposition.
That direct approach is shown in an array of individual stats, too, with two of the top four players for most aerials won this season being from these respective clubs: Ethan Pinnock and Scott McKenna.
One key difference between the two sides is the preference for where they seek to attack. Brentford have had the most shots from inside the six-yard box this season (15), ahead of both Manchester City and Arsenal, with no team taking fewer shots from this range than Forest (5).
The two sides both rank highly for clearances, though, with both in the top four – which could indicate a fairly tense and low-scoring affair with Brentford aiming to target Forest's danger area and the visitors intent on negating that threat.
With two goals already scored on the break this season, Forest’s major threat is likely to come on the counter. However, this Brentford side can comfortably soak up pressure themselves and there is therefore the potential for the two teams to cancel each other out.
We would vouch for a cat-and-mouse affair on Sunday!
Scout Report
Forest seek to evolve following Premier League survival
There was plenty of romance about Nottingham Forest returning to the Premier League after a 23-year exile last term, but it wasn't nostalgia that followed them around as they came back to the top table.
Instead, it was the club’s quite extraordinary transfer business, which saw them recruit 29 first-team players across two windows, that dominated the headlines.
The incredible squad turnover was, maybe correctly, blamed when things took an early turn and the Forest slipped into the relegation zone in September, where they stayed until January.
Head coach Steve Cooper seemed to be under intense pressure as a result, but he was actually rewarded with a new contract in October with the foresight that things would improve, given his track record at Swansea in the two seasons prior.
The risk paid off for owner Evangelos Marinakis, even if Forest’s away form was disappointing to say the least. They won one, drew five, lost the other 13, scored 11 and shipped a whopping 44, which represented an average of 2.3 goals conceded per game.
In late May, Cooper’s side beat Arsenal 1-0 at the City Ground to take the title away from the Gunners once and for all - and also secure survival in the Premier League for themselves. “I’m really proud,” he said afterwards. “But if I’m honest, it just gives us a chance to keep building.”
When the new season started, it looked as though, with four new first-team signings, Cooper’s squad was a lot more settled than it had been the year before. But that thought was premature. In the last nine days of the summer window, six permanent signings arrived, with four more coming in on loan, including former Liverpool forward Divock Origi from AC Milan.
Nottinghamshire Live’s Sarah Clapson touches on the fact Cooper has said this season is about improving his team’s style of play, whereas the focus last year was, essentially, keeping their heads above water and avoiding a swift return to the Championship. Signings like Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi will certainly aid that focus.
They have already started to put that in practice, scoring in five of their opening six league games and collecting seven points along the way, which has put a decent amount of distance between themselves and those in the lower reaches of the table.
Beating Chelsea and giving Arsenal and Manchester United a run for their money will have inspired plenty of confidence that keeping their eye on the ball should result in a less anxiety-inducing campaign.
To a degree, Forest now have a more settled squad, but, more importantly, a much better idea of what it takes to succeed at the top once again. They will be hoping for a less dramatic ride this time around.
In the Dugout
Steve Cooper
Steve Cooper started his football career after a trial at Wrexham in 1998, but he did not make it to the first team, so long-term manager Brian Flynn suggested he think about pursuing a career in the dugout, rather than on the pitch.
As he studied for his badges, he continued to play and turned out for TNS, Rhyl, Bangor City and Porthmadog.
At the age of 27 in 2007, Cooper became one of the youngest individuals to earn the UEFA Pro Licence, which permitted him to manage in any top-flight division, as well as in European competition.
That said, he still needed to build up a reputation in coaching, despite his impressive start. He became Wrexham’s head of youth development and, from there, things progressed at a rapid rate.
In September 2008, he was brought in as a youth coach at Liverpool. Three years later, he became the manager of the Reds’ academy and another four years after that, he was appointed England Under-17s boss, having previously worked as a coach educator at the FA and taken charge of the U16s the year before.
In 2017, his side – which included the likes of Phil Foden, Morgan Gibbs-White and Marc Guehi - finished as runners-up at the U17 Euros, before lifting the U17 World Cup later that year.
Cooper was given his first chance in senior football coaching in the summer of 2019, when Swansea City handed him a three-year contract. At the end of the 2019/20 season, his side were defeated 3-2 on aggregate by Brentford in the Championship play-off semi-final, before losing 2-0 to the Bees at Wembley the following year, too. Shortly afterwards, he left the club by mutual consent.
Two months after leaving Swansea, Cooper was appointed as Chris Hughton’s successor at Nottingham Forest.
He drastically changed the outlook for the club and ultimately paved the way for a return to the Premier League after 23 years away, before securing a 16th-place finish last term.
Team News
Frank delivers Damsgaard injury update
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, head coach Thomas Frank delivered an update on the injured Mikkel Damsgaard.
Damsgaard has been absent since the Bees’ 3-0 victory over Fulham on 19 August.
“He saw a knee specialist and had a minor operation this week,” said Frank.
“Everything looked good in terms of the bigger parts that we could be worried about and that’s positive.
“They cleaned the knee and hopefully that’s the bit that will help him. We hope he will be back soon, but there is no timeframe. We will see how things settle down and then we will see how close he is.”
Kevin Schade (hip) and Rico Henry (knee) have also had surgery this week. Schade will be out for several months, while Henry is likely to miss the remainder of the 2023/24 season.
Ben Mee, Shandon Baptiste and Josh Dasilva also remain sidelined.
The Gameplan
With Nottinghamshire Live's Sarah Clapson
Sarah Clapson, Nottingham Forest correspondent for Nottinghamshire Live, explains how Steve Cooper is likely to set up his side on Sunday:
“He changed formation against Manchester City and returned to three at the back but, in the previous game, he went with a four and I think he will probably stick with that again.
“This season, Cooper has been really keen for them to progress as a club, but also in terms of the style of play and being more attack-minded.
“With the players they have brought in, like Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi, and with Morgan Gibbs-White still in the team, there is a real attacking threat there and they have got a decent base to build on. They will try to get on the front foot and use their pace, and they can play counter-attacking football for that reason.
“I think he will probably switch to a 4-2-3-1 for the visit of Brentford because that seems to be the root he wants to go down.”
Read the full interview with Sarah Clapson here
Match Officials
Paul Tierney the man in the middle on Sunday
Referee: Paul Tierney
Assistants: Neil Davies and Scott Ledger
Fourth Official: Darren England
Video Assistant Referee: Michael Oliver
Paul Tierney first officiated in the Premier League in August 2014.
He has refereed four games this season, showing 16 yellow cards and one red.
Tierney took charge of 34 games last term, including the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Manchester United in June 2023.
His last Brentford assignment came in April this year: the Bees’ 2-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.
Last Meeting
Brentford 2 Nottingham Forest 1 (Premier League, 29 April 2023)
Substitute Josh Dasilva struck in stoppage-time to complete Brentford’s turnaround against Nottingham Forest.
The away side looked set to earn a huge three points in their relegation battle, holding the lead as the clock ticked past 80 minutes thanks to Renan Lodi’s close-range goal late in the first half.
But Ivan Toney’s free-kick snuck past Keylor Navas for his 20th goal of the Premier League season before Dasilva sparked wild celebrations at Gtech Community Stadium with his winner.
The goal was all of Dasilva’s doing, the attacker driving inside Morgan Gibbs-White and then flashing a shot beyond Navas at his near post to register back-to-back league wins for Thomas Frank’s Bees.