Two concerned sets of fans descended on west London on Saturday after what they had witnessed from their respective teams on the opening day of the season. Now there is one.
Never before had Brentford played a competitive match at the Gtech Community Stadium without Thomas Frank at the helm, and there are bound to be doubts over his unlikely successor Keith Andrews. This lion-hearted win over European-standard opposition deserves to allay a fair portion of them.
Any neutral may well have identified Aston Villa as the better footballing team for large periods of the match. The visitors dominated possession by a considerable margin (76% to 24%), and the game was overwhelmingly played to their tune. But the best team does not necessarily win, and Brentford were fully deserving of all three points, which came courtesy of club-record signing Dango Ouattara on his debut. Indeed, it could – and perhaps should – have been more comfortable were it not for a debatable disallowed goal.
Villa’s problems are evident. Unai Emery has admitted there is “still work to do” in the transfer window and this defeat will only have strengthened his desperation to bolster his attacking ranks.
How he will have wished he had any of Jacob Ramsey, Leon Bailey, Marcus Rashford or Marco Asensio to bring on. All four have departed since the end of last season, and no amount of huff or puff came vaguely close to blowing Brentford’s defence down.
