With Brentford sitting in fifth place despite a raft of summer sales and the departure of head coach Thomas Frank, football writer Dan Edwards looks at how the Bees have soared to such incredible heights.
Ahead of the start of the season, many pundits had tipped Brentford as one of the teams who would be battling relegation this season, and for valid reasons, too.
Not only did they lose several key players over the summer, such as Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and captain Christian Norgaard, but they also saw their head coach of seven seasons, Thomas Frank, depart.
Frank steered Brentford to the Premier League for the first time in 2021, and they punched above their weight with league finishes of 13th, 9th, 16th and 10th under the Dane in the top flight.
Frank was understandably linked with roles at clubs competing in Europe, and he left for Tottenham Hotspur.
But six months later, while Spurs sit 14th in the Premier League table, it’s Brentford instead who are dreaming of Europe, with the Bees surpassing all expectations, sandwiched between Liverpool and Newcastle United in fifth place.
So, how have they done it?
Promoting from within
Brentford were still in League One when Matthew Benham became the club’s majority shareholder in June 2012, and under his stewardship they have not only risen rapidly through the leagues but also become one of the leading standard-bearers for the use of data analytics in English football.
Benham has been famed for his methodical decision-making at Brentford, and while some choices regarding management have raised eyebrows, he has been proven correct in the long run.
The Brentford job had many suitors when Dean Smith departed for Aston Villa in October 2018, but Benham decided to hire from within, promoting Frank, who had been Smith’s assistant.
It was a similar story last summer when Frank left for Spurs; Benham had the means to approach respected managers from far and wide, but instead elected to promote Keith Andrews from first-team set-piece coach to the top role.
To call this decision unprecedented is an understatement. Andrews had only joined the club as set-piece coach one year earlier, and had no previous experience as head coach of a football club.
His task now was to keep Brentford in the Premier League despite losing his captain Norgaard, his goalkeeper Mark Flekken, and in Mbeumo (20) and Wissa (19) nearly 60 per cent of last season’s league goals.
Good signings and continuity with tactics
The club replaced their notable outgoings with typically astute incomings - Caoimhin Kelleher has been a noteworthy upgrade on Flekken in goal, Jordan Henderson has added quality and experience in midfield, and Dango Ouattara has offered dynamism, versatility and tenacity in equal measure in forward positions.
There has not been a huge shift in approach at Brentford from one head coach to the next, and Andrews clearly has similar ideals to Frank in terms of the style he believes is best suited to the profile of players at his disposal.
The Bees ranked second for successful long passes per game last season, and they rank third for the same statistic this season.
Their average possession in 2024/25 was 47.8 per cent, and at 46.2 per cent this season, it is in a similar range.
They ranked first for Expected Goals (xG) per shot last season, at 0.14, and Andrews has improved on that number in 2025/26, with their figure of 0.16 clear of any other team.
This means that, based on xG, the average chance of one of their shots finding the back of the net is 16 per cent. Crystal Palace are next-closest, with 13.7 per cent.
Brentford's attacking stats last two seasons compared
| Statistic | 2024/25 (PL rank) | 2025/26 (PL rank) |
|---|---|---|
| Succ. long passes/90 | 25.3 (2nd) | 23.0 (3rd) |
| Ave. possession | 47.8% (15th) | 46.2 (13th) |
| xG per shot | 0.14 (1st) | 0.16 (1st) |
| Fast-break goals | 4 (11th) | 9 (1st) |
| Goals in final 15 mins | 12 (10th) | 13 (1st) |
Brentford are not just similar, but improved.
Andrews has not simply boarded a bus bound for a predetermined destination; he has charted his own course, stamping his authority on Brentford’s style of play.
He has turned the club into the most dangerous counter-attacking team in the Premier League.
While they ranked 11th in the division for goals scored on the fast break last season, with four, they have already more than doubled that figure this season, sitting top of the league rankings with nine such goals.
They ranked 10th for goals scored in the final 15 minutes of matches last season, with 12. Under Andrews they have learnt how to contest games until the final whistle – they have scored 13 goals in the final 15 minutes of play this season, the most of any team.
Defying expectations
Six out of six Premier League writers, including myself, forecasted relegation for Brentford at the start of the season.
There may have been concern outside of the club when Brentford picked up just one win from their first five games of the season, but inside, there was no reason to panic.
“I understand the narrative," Andrews told Sky Sports in September, “and even if I were someone externally not understanding what goes on in the building, I might be of the same opinion as some of these people who have that opinion of us.
“But I'm so confident in the way this club is wired, right from the top. There's a reason this club has got to where it's got to, and that's through good people making very, very good decisions and not just based on the short term.”
Brentford have won nine of their 16 league games since, and it is their home form which has been the backbone of their unexpected push for Europe.
When they beat defending champions Liverpool at the Gtech Community Stadium in October, Brentford were sitting comfortably in mid-table.
Unsatisfactory performances away from home saw them slip to 15th at one stage, but they reacted with 13 points from their next five games, and they now sit within two points of fourth-placed Liverpool.
Andrews channelled his inner Jose Mourinho when sprinting down the touchline to celebrate with fans and players alike when Igor Thiago scored the second of Brentford’s three goals in their victory over Sunderland last time out.
“I've felt a connection with the fans throughout my time here,” Andrews told the club website.
“I'm trying to be very humble about where I've been, where I'm trying to bring this team, and the role I play within this football club”, he added.
Thiago the talisman
If Andrews has been the hero off the pitch, then Thiago has been the hero on it.
The Brazilian missed the majority of 2024/25 due to injury, but he has been a revelation this season.
His brace against Sunderland took him to 16 goals for the season in the Premier League, the most ever by a Brazilian in a single campaign in the competition.
He has been outscored this season only by Erling Haaland, who has 20 goals, and after an unusual fallow period for the Norwegian, Thiago is proving a capable challenger for the Coca-Cola Golden Boot.
It may come as a surprise to some that, at 24 years old, he is a year younger than Haaland.
He is the latest in a line of highly productive centre-forwards at Brentford, following on from Wissa, Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins. This makes the January acquisition of 18-year-old Kaye Furo from Club Brugge all the more intriguing.
Thiago remains uncapped for Brazil, but the Carlo Ancelotti-led national team does not have an obvious option at No 9 for the upcoming FIFA World Cup this summer, and the Brentford striker is making a fine case.
Brentford won’t have it easy in the coming weeks – they will be Liam Rosenior’s first opponent as Chelsea head coach in the Premier League this weekend, with games against Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Newcastle and Arsenal to follow.
But in the form they’re in now, Brentford’s opponents have just as much reason to fear them as the Bees have to fear their opponents.
Andrews’ guidance of the club in his maiden campaign as head coach has been one of the stories of the season – just how far can he take them?