Ivan Toney scored a brace to help Brentford produce one of the comfortable football scores of the weekend in the Premier League. The home team took the lead with a lovely flick from Toney, who was taking part in his 100th match for Brentford, before increasing their advantage with a brilliant penalty (64) after the striker was tripped inside the area by Joel Veltman. Due to an out of character sloppy performance last weekend, David Raya was held accountable for the first two goals in Newcastle’s 5-1 thumping. The goalkeeper bravely held off Brighton to record his third clean sheet of the year, helping Brentford move up to ninth in the standings. Thomas Frank had trusted Raya to recover from his setback.
The visitors haven’t won since Graham Potter was replaced as manager by Roberto De Zerbi in September, and following a second straight loss, concerns about the destabilizing consequences of the change in management will linger. The visitors missed the opportunity to climb fourth and remained in seventh. Bryan Mbeumo’s controlled volley against the crossbar added to the seven times he struck the post last season for Brentford, who are now unbeaten in their previous 10 league games played on a Friday. Vitaly Janelt’s cross only glanced out as far as Mbeumo.
His manager rushed in to defend him, but there was no justification given the petulant challenge on Toney that compounded the issues for his squad. Toney fell to the ground as Veltman nibbled at his legs from behind as Pinnock flicked on Mathias Jensen’s throw-in. Toney made it 20 penalties converted from 20 attempts in all competitions since coming from Peterborough, despite Sanchez bobbing on his line. He must be in a very strong position to make Gareth Southgate’s 26-man England selection given his astounding record.
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