Ivan Toney continued his superb goal-scoring form to help Brentford produce one of the most comfortable football results of the weekend in the Premier League. The weather reflected the gloomy mood on another disastrous night for Ruben Selles’ side, who only managed one poor shot on goal and looked like a team plagued by relegation fears. Brentford won their third away game of the Premier League season, scoring one in each half, with Toney opening the scoring in the 32nd minute and Wissa securing the win with a breakaway goal in second-half stoppage time. Thomas Frank’s club has the fourth-most points in the division (22) and has lost less games than any other team since the World Cup resumption.
Southampton’s home record remains the poorest in the league, despite a much-improved performance that included a season-high 563 passes and a dominant 67 percent possession share, as they lost yet another chance to escape the relegation zone. Brentford, who suffered their first Premier League defeat in 12 games at Everton on Saturday, go above Fulham into eighth place in the rankings, one point ahead of Brighton and Liverpool.
Brentford is on the rise. Southampton is watching them from behind. That much was obvious. Talisman Toney scored again in the 32nd minute to strengthen the Bees’ faint European aspirations. Christian Norgaard made a darting run to the front post to divert Bryan Mbeumo’s pass into the path of Toney, who used muscle and pure desire to beat Kyle Walker-Peters to the ball in the corner routine, one of a number of set-piece variations Brentford tried.
The forward continues to delight manager Frank, who stated ahead of the game that Toney may partner Harry Kane for England. Furthermore, only Kane (37), Mohamed Salah (34), and Son Heung-Min (29) have scored more Premier League goals since the start of last season than the in-form Brentford forward. Waker-Peters raced into the box before cutting the ball back to Che Adams, but Aaron Hickey was well-positioned to clear the chance. Tempers flared late on, owing to the home side’s desperation, but Brentford sealed the draw with a magnificent second when Wissa sprung the offside trap.
“I had the bounce-back attitude. I think we started the game quite well and did so under heavy pressure. We produced opportunities at set-pieces, which were quite dangerous. The second half became rough. Maybe you play seven or eight perfect games in a season, but there are 20 where you can improve,” Brentford boss Thomas Frank. “There are some places where you really need to dig in, and we accomplished that pretty effectively today. Ivan scored and assisted. There was plenty of room to run. We’re delighted with the away win and clean sheet. We appeared to be sturdy. I’m overjoyed that we’re back on track.”
“It’s frustrating because the game was really detailed. We let up a goal on a set play. We had complete control of the game and were dominant in possession with high pressure. Yet, in other cases, we must demand more. To score goals, we need to start working harder on our values. We lacked the quality in the final third to make a difference. Finally, we’re chasing, and we give up the second one,” Southampton boss Ruben Selles said. “We shifted our game position [in the second half], but we lost momentum. We weren’t very clear about our beliefs, so we need to assess them before moving on to the next one. We knew it would be difficult from the minute we assembled the team. We must stick to the plan. Since there are games every three days, you must learn through the games, and today we learned the most difficult way conceivable.”
Brentford has scored the most goals from set pieces in the Premier League this season, with 18. Four of their previous seven competition goals have come from set pieces (2x corners, 1x free-kick, 1x penalty). Brentford’s Ivan Toney has now scored against 17 of the Premier League’s 21 teams, including his first against Southampton tonight. In Southampton’s five Premier League games under Ruben Selles, only five goals have been scored (two for, three against), with the Saints surrendering more tonight (two) than in their first four (one).
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