Another weekend done. Brentford turned it on again to sweep past Southampton. A 3-0 win every bit as complete as the scoreline suggests. The team now on 43 points and still dreaming of the top ten in the Premier League. Elsewhere, Everton racked up another win on the road whilst Leeds United went down at Arsenal and had captain Luke Ayling sent off for a crazy challenge. Not the first moment of madness experienced in a game that saw a comical goal being gifted to the hosts. All of which means the Elland Road outfit drop into the relegation zone as we head into the final fortnight of the season. Mind the gap indeed…..
With Brentford travelling to Everton next before hosting Leeds United, we’ve naturally got a lot of interest in both clubs and their current form. In what they have to play for. An awful lot, it seems. Midweek – and the respective games with Watford and Chelsea – is going to be huge. Still, there’s nothing we can do on that front beyond sit back and watch the action unfold. There’s no real influence can be bought to bear so we’ll leave both clubs to stew in their respective juices and see who can fight their way out.
For Brentford, the focus is now on our player of the year award. The vote was opened to supporters this weekend with the choice being one of the toughest in years. Looking across social media I’ve seen a whole gamut of names chucked in to the mix. Genuinely, any of these would be a worthy winner. But who to pick?
Ivan Toney has the goals. He’s the current leader of our weekly ‘game by game’ top five performers’ chart. The gap at the top is definitely getting narrower and this one is going to go to the wire. Yet, as it stands, he is in pole position. He’s eighth in the Premier League goal scorers chart for the season and, with Harry Kane the only English player above him, could selection for the national team be next on the agenda? If nothing else, given the Three Lions’ uneasy relationship with spot kicks, he could be the perfect weapon up Gareth Southgate’s sleeve when the World Cup squad is named.

Then there’s Rico Henry. If we’re looking at Ivan for England then surely Rico has an equally bold claim? My word, he has been incredible this season. Just incredible. The pace. The tackling. The skill with the ball at his feet. The acceleration up the left flank and delivery in to the box. He’s the proverbial ‘first name on the team sheet’. Thankfully, a contract extension has been signed that sees him remain a Bee until 2026.

What about Bryan Mbeumo? Talk about back to his best. Inspirational captain Pontus Jansson with his heart on his sleeve and always leading by example? The revelatory Kris Ajer? The almost ’taken for granted’ authority of Ethan Pinnock? Mrs Bruzon, who knows a heck of a lot more than yours truly, has cast her vote for one of those.
Vitaly Janelt has been magnificent. That he only cost £0.5million almost laughable in retrospect.

The choice of those looking in would likely sway towards Christian Eriksen. Understandably. The romance of his story aside, he has been game changing since returning to full fitness. Few could dispute what a massive influence he has been on the team since he made his way in to the starting XI. That Chelsea game being the one that grabbed all the headlines but he has been that good every time he has played.
The aforementioned ‘top five’ is only missing his presence due to the way it is calculated on game by game scores. As such he misses out on that and, for the same reason, I can’t cast my vote in that direction. This season. For a player of the year award, 9 appearances (fantastic though the y have been) leaves him just that bit short.

For me, Clive, it comes down to two players. First up, Christian Norgaard. Brentford’s Mr consistent. The under the radar player who may not always grab the headlines but who is the beating heart of this team. Who keeps it tight at the back siting just in front of whatever formation Thomas elects to start with. Who drives us forward. Who sprays it about with aplomb. Who even weighs in with the odd goal.
That moment of celebration against Arsenal when Brentford topped the Premier League table back in August, secured by his doubling of our lead. The weekly player review has seen him in the top five more than any other player – 18 times out of 36 games played to date. He has been incredible. He deserves to win.

Then there’s David Raya. For all that people point to Ivan’s goals. To Eriksens’s influence. To Rico’s pace. To Norgaard’s consistency. They’re all correct but none of it would count for anything were it not for the last line of defence. For me, the biggest moment of the season was the injury suffered late on against Leicester City. Up until then, Brentford had been flying. Raya on fire. Then he was gone. Then we had a different Brentford. One which got humped at Burnley. Handed Norwich City their first win of the season. That couldn’t rejig or get used to life without our number one. Two different options were tried and, but for Covid it would have been three (Matthew Cox, your time will come). None of them worked. Like an overbalanced Jenga tower, Brentford were wobbling.
Then David returned and everything was good with the world once more. He inspires confidence. Positivity. Builds attacks. His distribution world class. His form has seen him rewarded a call up for Spain. If Christian deserves to win then I would say exactly the same about David.

Whilst Brentford have defied all the critics with our achievements this year, the vote comes down to a straight fight between Norgaard and Raya. The trophy can’t be cut in two. It needs to come down to the vote. You can get your chance here.
In the mean time, if it helps (or hinders) here’s the Southampton ‘starman debrief and current look at our own top five.
Good luck……..
Nick Bruzon
Palace and Arsenal write a chapter for our next season as Bees beat QPR. Again.
11 AprWith Brentford safe in the Championship for another season and the playoffs a leap too far, thoughts turn to who we’ll be facing in 2017/18. Last night’s Crystal Palace – Arsenal game has given more than a few clues as to how that’s going to pan out. Elsewhere, there was sad news for QPR who have had to make a somewhat embarrassing retraction (stop sniggering) whilst local news site Get West London appear to have finally jumped the shark.
First up Crystal Palace. For a time it looked as they were being slowly sucked towards the Premier League relegation battle. A 0-4 thumping by Sunderland, swiftly followed by a reverse at the hands of Stoke City, had eyes lighting up in West London as the Eagles slid down, down (deeper and down). Could we have another local fixture, with the Bees going to the Palace next season? Would there be a kit obsessive programme feature including that most iconic of shirts, the red and blue sash sported by Brentford legend Neil Smillie?
Then Big Sam and his troops got their act together, won four in a row and despite hitting a bump at Southampton, had the pleasure of playing Arsenal last night. And what a pleasure it was for the neutral. A 3-0 win for Palace makes their own safety a lot more likely and, with it, a straight shoot out between Hull City and Swansea City for the privilege of joining all but mathematically doomed Middlesbrough and Sunderland at Griffin Park next season.
It’s a shame from one respect. I was quite looking forward to the prospect of a hop across London to Selhurst Park next season. It would have been a new ground to see Brentford play at but instead we can do nothing but offer Palace congratulations on a job well done in recent weeks.
The other factor is the listening to those self-entitled numpties at Arsenal TV and Piers Morgan, somehow thinking that because they had that run back in 2003/04 when they were dubbed the undateables or whatever it was, they are entitled to be any good over a decade later. Yawn. Seriously yawn.
Anyone thinking Brentford fans moan or give our managers stick needs to look to North London. There, they take expectation to a new level with ‘Wenger’ receiving 128K worth of tweets on the UK trend list as at the time of writing (6.30am).
The biggest irony being the silence in the Emirates when they are playing. If they made half as much noise mid-game as they do once the team has lost then perhaps Arsenal might be an intimidating place to come rather than the glorified library it is so derided as being. For the neutral, it remains wonderful, if slightly nauseous, unintentional comedy. No supporters in the land are as full of their club’s own self-importance relative to its actual ability (I know , I know – they won the FA Cup). Long may it continue.
Twitter: Come for Monkman; stay for Wenger
On the subject of unintentional comedy, we only need to look a few miles up the road to West London rivals QPR. Already 6 points behind the Bees in the League table, now they’ve lost out to us in the player of the year awards stakes.
Whilst Brentford’s own event all but sold out within days, the not so super hoops have been forced into an awkward climbdown within a week of tickets being made available for their £119 a head do. In a brief article on the clubwebsite entitled ‘POTY EVENT CANCELLED the club has been forced to admit that, “a lack of sales has resulted in the event being cancelled”.
Here’s to Saturday week when we can really hope to compound a miserable season for our near neighbours. Fifty years on; never forget.
And finally, Get West London. Whilst it would often be easier just to follow the player feed on Twitter than read their stories, yesterday saw things reach a new low. The aforementioned journalistic jumping of the shark, if you will.
Brentford fan wears Bees shirt with BREXIT 16 on the back .
Thus proclaimed the headline on one of yesterday’s post Cardiff pieces. It went on to add – The shirt about the decision to leave the European Union sparked debate on social networking site Twitter.
Sorry, this is news how? This is a story because? Stop the press – Football fan has political opinion. This is Donald Trump levels of news. Or lack of. It was something that ‘sparked debate’, apparently. Or, in actual fact, led to a few references to it on Twitter.
What next. Man wears jaunty Castle Badge jumper to winter game? Transfer exclusive: Jugde to sign for Brentford?
Coming next, on Get West London
Now I’m the first to admit writing drivel from time to time. Then again, I’m neither a journalist nor paid for the privilege. Just a self-confessed numpty on the terrace with an occasional blog column.
Come on Get West London, you can do better than this. Supporters deserve better than this. With five games and two local derbies to come, things aren’t at Arsenal levels of quiet. Just yet.
We’ve got all this to come still
Nick Bruzon
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