Brentford: sixth, one defeat in nine and plenty of draws

Brentford are sixth with 14 points and one league defeat in nine under Keith Andrews. Players to know, the Benham model and what comes next at Brighton.

Brentford have lost one league game in nine and the table still makes them look ordinary.

The Bees are sixth on 14 points: three wins, five draws and a single defeat, 2-1 at home to Liverpool. Today's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest was their first league victory since 18 September, and it arrived with a helping hand. The Guardian notes both goals took heavy deflections off Forest's Nikola Milenković, and Forest had 15 shots to Brentford's six. The season numbers are kinder: 16 scored and nine conceded across nine games.

Andrews and the group

Keith Andrews is in charge and Nathan Collins is captain. The names to know:

Kevin Schade, three goals and two assists, the one forward who is reliably on.
Igor Thiago, two goals from a chance profile that suggests more were available. His expected goals total is above four, according to the Fantasy Premier League data.
Caoimhín Kelleher, a goalkeeper with three clean sheets already.
Mamadou Sangaré, the £41m summer arrival from Lens.

Money, as Brentford do it

Matthew Benham owns the club, and Cliff Crown is chairman. The model has not changed, and it is the reason the club keeps surviving the loss of stars: buy before the price is obvious, sell at the top, and spend big only when the profile fits. This summer's headline bills were Sangaré (£41m), El Hadji Malick Diouf from West Ham (£35m) and Jaidon Anthony from Burnley (£15m), per Wikipedia.

Brentford announced Indeed as their principal and front-of-shirt partner in April. That sort of commercial deal is how a 17,250-seat ground competes with clubs three times the size.

A season in draws

The shape is clear. Brentford opened with a 3-0 win over Spurs and added a 3-0 win over Chelsea in September. Around those wins came the draws: at Leeds, at home to Sunderland, at Bournemouth, at Aston Villa (2-2) and at Hull (1-1). Five draws from nine is a pattern, the Guardian counts 12 in the 18 league games before today, and Brentford are only two points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.

The League Cup ended on Wednesday with a 3-2 loss at Sunderland.

What to watch next

Brighton away on Sunday 8 November at 14:00. Two clubs with similar models and very different returns so far: Brighton are third and have scored 24 league goals, the most in the division.

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