Ben Burgess became a fan favourite at Griffin Park during the 2001/02 campaign, netting 18 goals in 51 appearances while on loan from Blackburn Rovers. In total, Ben led the line for ten clubs during a 14-year career.

Now a teacher in Lancashire, Ben still keeps a close eye on the Bees and will be providing his thoughts ahead of each game this season.

World Cup

The greatest sporting event on the planet should see the best players in the world pitting their wits against each other.

Instead, we will be witnessing a World Cup shoehorned in the middle of a domestic season, which could potentially cause problems for Premier League players and even their managers.

The World Cup is the pinnacle and players will have arguably one chance to play in it while at their peak. Is that in the back of their minds going into this weekend's final set of fixtures? Have these thoughts been plaguing them for weeks?

Already we face a World Cup without stars such as Reece James, Paul Pogba, N'Golo Kante, Diogo Jota, Ben Chilwell, Pedro Neto, Paulo Dybala and Gini Wijnaldum.

Yes, there have always been players forced to miss major tournaments, but that was down to serious injuries. With the opening World Cup fixture coming just two weeks after the final Premier League game, something as innocuous as a strain could see players missing out on something they’ve dreamed about for their whole lifetime.

Look out for some strange results this weekend!

The Robot

One player definitely not attending the World Cup this year is Erling Haaland. A player of his calibre should be on the biggest stage but, unfortunately, he couldn’t fire Norway to Qatar.

As a Manchester City fan, and football fan in general, I’m looking forward to seeing him play live this weekend.

As much as he can ruthlessly destroy a team, I think the Brentford defenders will be secretly hoping he plays. As a sportsperson, it’s always good to test yourself against the best.

Whenever I was drawn against Premier League teams in cup competitions, I would pray that they played their best players.

There was always a sigh of disappointment when the opposition's starting line-up was shared with us in the changing room if the main players had been rested.

No one would care if I scored against a 19-year-old centre-back, but they would if I did it against the likes of John Terry.

I am sure Ethan Pinnock and Ben Mee will be relishing the opportunity to keep the world's best striker quiet.

A lot has been made of Haaland’s lack of touches or involvement in general play but, in this City team, that’s not his job.

Most of his best work is done off the ball. His movement, strength and desire to get in the box is phenomenal. As defenders are watching the ball, he makes opposite movements away from them. His one-touch finishing is devastating.

To make the job even harder for the opposition, he has the best passer of the ball the Premier League has ever seen in Kevin De Bruyne, supplying him. After last week’s heartbreaking equaliser at Nottingham Forest, the Bees will be hoping for a positive end to the first half(ish) of the season.