Another of Saturday’s Gameweek 35 matches to bring you now as we look back on Brentford 3-0 West Ham United.
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NEVER A 3-0 GAME
The scoreline suggested a comprehensive, convincing win for Brentford but the reality was that this was an end-to-end humdinger that could have gone either way, at least until a needless penalty concession that effectively killed the game at 2-0.
West Ham hit the woodwork on three occasions, twice through Taty Castellanos (£5.5m) before half-time. Crysencio Summerville (£5.5m) rattled the bar later in the match.
Pablo (£5.4m) had a great early chance to take the lead before Brentford did, while a Konstantinos Mavropanos (£4.5m) equaliser was chalked off for a marginal offside. Jarrod Bowen (£7.8m) shot tamely at Caoimhim Kelleher (£4.8m) when well placed, as well.
West Ham were a bit unfortunate with the opener, too, with Mavropanos putting through his own net.
“The first half was a little bit helter-skelter at times. I felt like the opportunities they created, some of which were our own doing… I thought the second half, we managed the game better.” – Keith Andrews
At the other end, Igor Thiago (£7.4m) wasted a one-on-one, the dangerous Dango Ouattara (£5.8m) twice fired narrowly wide, Mikkel Damsgaard (£5.6m) should have punished a wandering Mads Hermansen (£4.2m), and Keane Lewis-Potter (£4.8m) and Sepp van den Berg (£4.5m) had good headed opportunities in quick succession.
Just to prove how tight the match was, the xG was 0.86-0.80 at the point that El Hadji Malick Diouf (£4.1m) rashly chopped Dango down. Igor Thiago scored from the spot, bagging his 22nd league goal of the season, and that was pretty much that. Damsgaard rubbed salt into the wounds with a late third.
Above: Igor Thiago owes a debt to his two wingers, particularly Dango, who have won seven penalties between them in 2025/26
“First half was good, really good, really positive. We concede from a cross, but we react well, we play good. The game was flowing, we were in control. We created a lot of situations, hit the post, all these details. So, at half-time, we were positive that the game was going to change and things would come to our side.
“The second goal hurt us. We lost composure. We lost organisation. Rushing.” – Nuno Espirito Santo
TRICKY GAMEWEEK 36 FIXTURES NEXT
All in all, a decent advert for the attacking assets on show, even if some of them came away empty-handed.
Bowen, while again quiet on the goal threat front (no big chances since Gameweek 24!), could have banked his customary assist when Taty hit the post from his corner. The England international supplied a game-high four chances in all.
How Taty didn’t score beggars belief; he had a match-high five shots. Summerville, perhaps not at his best since returning from injury, was a bar’s width away from scoring. Even Mavropanos showcased his own set-piece threat with that disallowed strike; that would have been four goals in six had he stayed onside.
Thiago and Dango did deliver points for their owners via the penalty, and there were further chances besides.
A word on Lewis-Potter, too, who assisted Brentford’s third goal. He has been very impressive from left-back since returning to the side in Gameweek 30:
Above: Defenders sorted by expected goal involvement (xGI) over the last six Gameweeks
Now, though, these two sides have the trickiest tests of all in Gameweek 36:
A week to consider benching Thiago and Bowen, perhaps, or even more – these two are second and third for transfers out ahead of Saturday’s deadline.
At least there’ll definitely be ‘something to play’ for in Gameweek 37 (ergo almost certain starts for the two), which we can’t say about their respective opponents that week.
