Brentford Gain Revenge On Hammers
During the first-half of the season, Brentford couldn’t buy a win for love nor money. However, since the start of 2025, they are unbeaten on the road. Their latest success was a hard-fought 1-0 victory at West Ham United on Saturday afternoon.
Graham Potter made three changes to the team that lost at Chelsea twelve days earlier, as Edson Álvarez and Lucas Paquetá had both recovered from their respective injuries, while Konstantinos Mavropanos was restored to the defence.
Andrew Irving and Aaron Cresswell dropped to the bench, where youngsters Luis Guilherme and Oliver Scarles were also options, as was January recruit Evan Ferguson. James Ward-Prowse was also involved in the matchday squad after both West Ham and Nottingham Forest agreed to bring an early end to his season-long loan, while Vladimír Coufal was left out completely. Captain Jarrod Bowen retained his place from the defeat in West London and was able to start his 200th Premier League game for the club.
Despite being hurt during the warm-up, goalkeeper Alphonse Areola was deemed fit enough to play.
Before the game got underway, a minutes applause took place to pay tribute to Ronnie Boyce, who passed away on Thursday at the age of eighty two.
The action got underway and it wasn’t the start that either Boyce, or indeed anyone involved with the club would have wanted, as Areola had to pick the ball out of his net inside four minutes. A great team move involving Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo set up Kevin Schade and despite the French stopper denying him twice with great saves, he managed to squeeze it over the line. There was even a lengthy VAR check for offside but the goal stood.
Just like the Hammers, the Bees had lost their previous encounter but they were applying pressure in an effort to find a second goal. They would have found it, had Max Kilman not blocked Wissa’s effort.
The home side could not find a way through so consequently, chance after chance went the way of the visitors but neither Mikkel Damsgaard or Mbeumo were able to capitalise.
Wissa thought he had put his side further ahead with twenty four minutes gone but VAR disallowed the goal.
For whatever reason, the home side found it difficult to cope with the way that their opponents were playing and so it was easy for the West London side to dominate. Schade then set up Wissa, who evaded the attentions of Mavropanos but the effort went wide. Soon after, the German was involved again and in all honesty, he should have helped himself to a second but his shot hit the post having been in a good position.
When Thomas Frank’s men did find a way past Areola, the video technology came to the home side’s rescue for a second time, as an offside was spotted.
West Ham may have been fortunate only to be a goal behind but the crowd had seen much improved performances in recent games and were at a loss to work out what was going wrong here when referee Darren England blew the whistle for half-time.
Whether or not the Head-Coach had expressed some harsh words to his team during the break, or he had just decided to make multiple changes was unclear but he did use three of his five substitutions that were available to him. Tomáš Souček, Carlos Soler and Emerson Palmieri all made way for Ward-Prowse, Scarles and Ferguson. Souček had been booked and he appeared to have picked up a knock too!!!
The problem appeared to be solved, as the hosts were the better of the two sides in the opening stages of the second-half and they really should have equalised when Ferguson pulled the ball back for Mohammed Kudus. The Ghanaian only had visiting goalkeeper Mark Flekken to beat but instead, he rushed his shot and sent it flying over the bar.
The direction of the game had certainly changed in favour of the Irons and it was Brentford’s turn to be on the back-foot. Both Paquetá and Ferguson tried their luck but the resilience of the Bees wasn’t broken, even though a number of corners were awarded the way of the hosts but unfortunately, Flekken’s clean sheet remained intact.
Scarles might have scored his first senior goal, as he went close with a powerful shot but a vital interception from Sepp van den Berg meant that the opportunity ended up wide of the target.
Kudus tried his best to make up for his earlier attempt but again, it just wasn’t happening for him, as the chance went narrowly wide.
The determination of the sides to find more goals couldn’t be underestimated, as the pressure was unrelenting and it certainly proved to be more of a spectacle in the second period. Paquetá saw his effort go wide, while Areola was alert to the danger and denied Mbeumo.
Ferguson was then able to run into the box and try and score a debut goal for his new club but once again, Flekken was in the way.
With two minutes of normal time left to play, Potter introduced his final change, as Guilherme took the place of Mavropanos.
Keane Lewis-Potter sent an inviting attempt into the box but it was no trouble for Areola who gratefully held onto the ball. West Ham’s last opportunity saw Scarles go close, but ultimately, not close enough.
Even with five minutes of stoppage time having been signalled, the East Londoners were unable to replicate the result that they managed at The Gtech Community Stadium back in September.
Having faced Chelsea the last time that they were on their travels, the Hammers have another tough London derby awaiting them on Saturday afternoon with a trip to The Emirates Stadium. They will be hoping for a repeat of last season’s result there but will they get it?