Truth be told, I actually rather enjoyed the first week or so of the internationals. In the wake of that famous Chelsea victory, it felt nice to have a short break from club football, safe in the knowledge that an extended international break would mean one fewer to have to endure this autumn and help reduce our ever-lengthening list of Bees players administered to A&E.

However, that feeling of enjoyment was not to last another week as the lack of a football fix hit hard, only England to peak my excitement and our visit to Aston Villa seemingly ever further away. Yet, here we finally are with the internationals firmly behind us – thank goodness – and with the chance to really kick on following our excellent start to the campaign. I dare say I have summed up every Brentford fan’s last three weeks in two paragraphs.

After all we have been put through, were there any major positives at all for our Bees away on international duty? Well, as it turns out, there most certainly was.

We will start with our Danish ‘De Bruyne’, Mikkel Damsgaard. He arrived to much fanfare in the summer of 2022 – his magnificent free kick against England in the semi-finals of the Euros still fresh in everyone’s minds. However, it has often felt like he has never quite hit those heights during his stop-start time in TW8.

Over the last year or so, Mikkel has appeared to be particularly inconsistent, he has been muscled out of his usual number 10 position by fellow Dane, Mathias Jensen, and has had to become more acquainted with the bench rather than providing goals and assists out on the field. Even with Jensen out injured at the start of this season, Damsgaard has still looked unable to finally stake his claim to that number 10 role, with his passing radar seemingly malfunctioning, combined with the fact he has often been easily bypassed in midfield at times by opposition teams. The caveat to that is he was superb against Chelsea and was one of our best players on the pitch that night.

There is no doubt about it that something has obviously clicked for him during the last few weeks. Over the course of the international break, he started 3 out of 4 games for Denmark, under the stewardship of ex-assistant coach to Thomas Frank, Brian Riemer. He provided 2 goals and an assist. Both his goals were stunners too – firstly came a magnificent free kick away to Norway, before a beautiful curled finish into the far corner at home to Portugal – and were yet another example of the quality and composure we know Mikkel has, but perhaps haven’t seen consistently enough in a red and white shirt. Nevertheless, it is still a great sign to see Mikkel refind some form and with Jensen’s return from injury this weekend, it gives Keith Andrews a real headache.

Michael Kayode’s first ever call-up to the Italy squad was much deserved after endearing himself to the Brentford faithful with a long list of fine performances over the last year and a half, and he took his opportunity with gusto, playing over 200 minutes for the Azzurri during the break. His composed finish gave Italy a 3-1 lead in Turkey and he defended admirably against France’s world-class attack to help earn his country a point in Paris. The Italian media went into raptures following his standout performances, with Gazzetta Dello Sport, one of Italy’s main sports media outlets, writing that Italy will become great again with Kayode in the side and going further to say he is now their first choice at right back. Huge praise for yet another brilliant purchase by Phil Giles and Co.

It has now been 5 years since the Norwegian defender, Kris Ajer, joined the Bees from Celtic. Over those 5 years, Ajer has constantly struggled to string a run of games together without getting injured – it has often been said among the Brentford faithful that it has felt like he is made of glass at times. It must also be said that despite his large size, he is still maddeningly ineffective at set-piece situations. Yet, the most disappointing thing is when he has been able to stay injury-free and play a run of games like he is now, he has looked dependable, solid and is, in my opinion, our best centre-half at the club – he is sorely missed whenever he can’t play. He has featured in every match of our league campaign to date and has proved to be a very reliable figurehead at the back, especially with the loss of Nathan Collins and Sepp Van den Berg to injury. In what was an underwhelming international break for his country, he provided a moment of magic with a brilliant take-down and cultured finish into the far corner to stun the partisan crowd at the Dragao in Portugal. It was most definitely among the best goals scored during the international window. For me, he must continue to start at the back this season. Although, who he is paired up with at Villa Park this weekend is anyone’s guess?

Kevin Schade, a man who has also had an excellent start to 26/27, started both Germany’s first two games away to the Netherlands and at home to Greece – a well-earned reward for Kevin’s recent step up in form. His compatriot and long-serving midfielder, Vitaly Jenalt, also earned his first German cap against Serbia and it was nice to see him finally recognised by his country after several years of hard graft and effort with the Bees.

Caoimhin Kelleher came up strong again for the Republic of Ireland, earning a clean sheet and captaining his side in games against Israel and making a series of impressive stops against Austria in Dublin.

Ji-soo Kim, Hakon Valdimarsson, Aaron Hickey, Mamadou Sangare, Dango Ouattara, El Hadji Malick Diouf and Jannik Schuster – almost a whole team – were also called up by their countries in another sign of how far we have come as a club in the past few years. It is barely believable to have so many players away on international duty and is yet another reason to be proud of our amazing club.

Onto our trip to the second city this Saturday. Our heroic 1-0 victory with ten men up there last February was without doubt one of our best results since our return to the top flight and was our first ever win at Aston Villa, at our twelfth attempt. Interestingly, we have won our last three games against the Villans in both league and cup – both our league wins last season coming via goals scored on the counter, which may perhaps be the way we look to attack this time around too.

Just like last season, Villa have endured a difficult start to their campaign. However, a much-needed win against a sorry Spurs side just before the break may well prove to be the start of a mini-renaissance after a Newcastle-esque plundering of their top talent during the summer.

In Unai Emery, they have one of the best managers in world football and still have quality players right across the park. They have also lost both their home games so far in 26/27 to Arsenal and Forest at a now three-sided Villa Park, with its North Stand being redeveloped to help take the capacity to over 50,000.

It will most definitely be another tough test and I would snap your hand off for a point, but I also strongly believe that we have a very good chance to take all three back to West London.

So will it be the classic case of you wait 90 years for a win at Villa Park, only to find that two come along at once, in the same calendar year? With the way we are playing at the minute, I wouldn’t bet against it.

COYB!!!

Matthew Milne