Matt “The Allard” Allard and Jacob “The Gowler” Gowler are back for the first Beyond The Breakdown of the season, and there was plenty to pick through – an unbeaten start, two genuine scalps in Tottenham and Chelsea, three draws against sides who’ll be scrapping in and around Brentford come May, and enough underlying numbers to keep Jacob busy for an hour. Here’s ten things we took from it.
1. Unbeaten after five, and the numbers say it’s not a fluke
Ten goals from 9.9 xG – third highest in the Premier League – with 3.82 of that from set plays, again the best in the division. Brentford are creating the chances the eye test says they are, not riding a hot streak. “So very good,” said Jacob, “want to stay there, get higher if you can.”
2. Nobody wants to credit Thomas Frank, but the whole league’s playing like him now
Matt and Jacob spent a good ten minutes on the Premier League’s broader shift away from possession-as-gospel towards winning the ball in transition and attacking before the opposition can reset – which, as Matt pointed out, is exactly what Brentford have been doing for years. “It just feels good after five years of people telling me that Brentford need to hold more possession to stay in the Premier League,” he said. Jacob agreed the influence runs deeper than anyone admits: “I do think Thomas Frank was very influential in that, although I’ve never seen anyone admit that.”
3. Janelt has quietly become the team’s legs, not just its defensive conscience
Mathias Jensen’s long-term absence has pushed Christian Nørgaard – sorry, Janelt – into a deeper, more mobile role, forming a back three alongside the centre-backs and covering extraordinary ground doing it. He leads the Premier League in interceptions and defensive contributions and is third for overall distance covered. “That third in distance covered for Janelt shows a lot of legs,” Matt noted, with Jacob adding it’s not just the positional drop but the sheer volume of covering he’s doing across the pitch.
4. KLP and the left wing have swapped roles with the right from last season – and it’s working
Keane Lewis-Potter is now the one bombing forward into the front five rather than the other, more direct option out wide doing it – third in the league for crosses, leading Brentford in expected assists at 0.79. “We’re using KLP to do that much more than Kayode this season,” Matt observed, “whereas last season it was Kayode doing these sort of random charges.” Jacob put it down to KLP’s delivery creating the kind of chaos you’d normally only get from a long throw or a corner.
5. The Tottenham performance was about Brentford being excellent, not just Spurs being bad
Yes, Tottenham were poor – Kinsky’s distribution was “awful” and Richarlison didn’t win a single aerial duel all match – but the underlying numbers tell their own story: 3.87 xG to 0.57, sixteen interceptions, and a debut platform performance from Mamadou Sangaré that Jacob called “unbelievable” – two interceptions, seven ball recoveries, and a work rate that had him beating Conor Gallagher to loose balls time and again.
6. There’s a pattern forming: lose Jensen or Damsgaard at the ten, lose control of the game
Both hosts kept circling back to this one. Against Tottenham, Yarmoliuk’s ten-minute cameo as the number ten coincided with Brentford losing their grip on a game they were already winning comfortably; against Leeds, something similar happened in reverse. “I think we struggle when we haven’t got a Damsgaard or a Jensen on the pitch,” said Matt, and Jacob agreed it’s become “a bit of a thread throughout the season” worth keeping an eye on.
7. Schade’s wonder goal masked a growing – and deliberate – lean towards the left
Brentford attacked down their left-hand side 49% of the time against Chelsea, with Jacob unconcerned by the imbalance: “I think it’s almost an obvious place to go… he does a better job than Thiago does if you’re going to put it down the middle.” That’s before you even get to the goal itself against Bournemouth – first-touch control and an instant finish rated at just 0.03 xG, the kind of strike that looks routine and absolutely isn’t.
8. Schuster has gone from emergency cover to a genuine selection headache
Thrown in with barely any preparation, Jannik Schuster has been outstanding – leading the Premier League in clearances per 90 and picking up an assist against Chelsea from a corner routine that wasn’t even meant for him. Paired with the recovering-pace of Kristoffer Ajer, the two have become, as Jacob put it, “by default our best centre-back partnership” – which makes life awkward for Nathan Collins and Van den Berg whenever they’re fit again. “How do you drop Ajer?” was Jacob’s sharper question than the obvious one about Collins.
9. Dropping Sangaré for Chelsea wasn’t a demotion – it’s what a deep squad is for
Both hosts were unsurprised to see Sangaré left out against Chelsea after his tracking-back issues against Sunderland and Bournemouth, with Yarmoliuk and Janelt both rated more reliable at covering the half-space runs a mid-or-low block requires. “This isn’t the end of Sangaré,” Matt was quick to stress – just Brentford using the squad depth to solve a specific problem for a specific game, with every expectation he’s back in soon enough.
10. Villa are there for the taking, Liverpool are still finding their shape, and Hull is for the romantics
The numbers back Villa being there to be beaten – bottom for shots, touches in the box and aerial duels won, and leaking possession more than anyone in the league. Liverpool remain a work in progress as their new arrivals bed in, Florian Wirtz included, while Hull – title of the podcast’s most anticipated away day – have conceded only four goals from 7.39 xG largely thanks to an excellent goalkeeper. Jacob went for four points from the next three games; Matt backed Brentford for seven. Either way, nobody’s betting against staying unbeaten.
Catch the full episode of Beyond The Breakdown by clicking one of the embedded links above or from wherever you get your podcasts, follow Jacob’s Bees Breakdown on X, and head to beesotted.com and his Substack for the full written breakdowns – plus the paid passing maps and pressing charts over at xgstat.com if you want to go even deeper into the numbers.
