Whatever you do this weekend, don’t miss the start of Brentford’s match against Wolves in the Premier League – especially the first minute. Thomas Frank’s side have made Premier League history with their fast starts, scoring inside the opening minute in three successive games, against Manchester City, Tottenham and West Ham.
Brentford’s recent spree of early goals is a Premier League record – it may even be a world record – but can it continue? On Saturday, Brentford take on Wolves and if the hosts win the coin toss and receive the opening kick-off, Gary O’Neil’s side will prepare for it as if they’re defending a corner a goal up in the 95th minute.
West Ham had been warned, though, and it didn’t help the Hammers. Yoanne Wissa scored against Manchester City after 22 seconds on 15 September, then Bryan Mbeumo scored after 23 seconds against Tottenham a week later on. Remarkably, Mbeumo scored again against West Ham after just 38 seconds.
Admittedly, Brentford have not won any of those games. Both Manchester City and Tottenham came from behind to win, while West Ham claimed a point. But it remains a staggering piece of Premier League history. So how do Brentford keep scoring goals so early? And what can Wolves do to stop it?
Kick-offs are a new set-piece in the Premier League
Set-pieces are important – you only have to look at Arsenal and the emphasis Mikel Arteta and set-piece coach Nicolas Jover place on them – so why not plan a kick-off routine as if it were a free-kick or corner?
This, of course, is what Bournemouth did to brilliant effect against Fulham in the Championship three years ago, when Dominic Solanke finished off a sensational team move straight from kick-off at Craven Cottage.
The set-piece, which was built around a series of four passes and a diagonal run behind the defensive line, looked like something straight out of a NFL coaches play-book. It went viral, too, and was later copied by PSG and Real Madrid.
You may also remember an extraordinarily week of record goals in international football earlier this year, where Germany’s Florian Wirtz scored against France after just eight seconds and Christoph Baumgartner scored for Austria after six seconds in what was the fastest international goal ever.
Both goals came straight from kick-off, with the routines designed to get Wirtz and Baumgartner into space and running and the opposition’s defence in the very first action of the match.
Brentford take a different but effective approach
Thomas Frank’s side may have been setting records, but their routine from kick-off is not as intricate as the set-piece play designed by Scott Parker and his Bournemouth coaching staff.
Instead, Brentford take a fairly simple approach: they line several players up at halfway, send a long pass forward into the opposition half, and try to get as many bodies around the ball as possible to win the knockdown high up the pitch.
From there, Brentford hope to catch the opposition defence cold by flinging a cross into the box and make the first contact. It’s not rocket science, but it has worked three times in a row.
Against Manchester City and Tottenham, Brentford played kick-off back to goalkeeper Marc Flekken before sending a long pass forward to the right wing and in the direction of Kristoffer Ajer, the 6’4” centre-back who was deployed at wing-back.
The key, though, is not Ajer winning the header but Brentford winning the second ball. Here, Mikkel Damsgaard has been key in the counter-press. Against Tottenham, Brentford squeezed Dejan Kuluseveksi and regained possession before attacking the box.
It was scrappier against City, but the end result was the same. Brentford worked the ball wide, crossed early, and had strikers on hand in Wissa and Mbeumo to clinically finish the chances that dropped to them in the box.
The variation against West Ham
After lining players up on the right side of the centre-circle against Manchester City and Tottenham, Brentford deployed a more even split against West Ham. Frank’s side also passed back to Nathan Collins, rather than the goalkeeper.
Collins then passed left to Ethan Pinnock, before the ball went forward. Even though Ajer was playing at left-back, Brentford still targeted the right wing and Pinnock aimed his long pass towards Kevin Schade.
Although the opening goal came after the initial phases of play, West Ham appeared to be more unprepared than Manchester City and Tottenham and could not defend the series of crosses that were thrown into the box by Brentford.
The hosts were intense and relentless, recycling possession and staying on the front foot, and Mbeumo produced another excellent first-time finish to become the first Premier League player to score consecutive goals in the first minute since Sergio Aguero in 2019.
“We have to be embarrassed,” admitted West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek. “We saw how they scored those two goals [against Tottenham and Manchester City] and they did it against us. We all prepared very well for it and we still conceded.”
Can Wolves stop Brentford’s run?
Gary O’Neil and his players have been studying Brentford’s last three games and insist they have prepared.
“Incredible, they are big on set plays,” he said. “They use kick off as a start of that. The lads have seen all three [against Manchester City, Tottenham and West Ham], we know we need to be ready. The three goals in consecutive weeks heightens that awareness.”
But there has also been a huge stroke of luck on Brentford’s side, and the fine margins involved have all gone their way. Brentford have also taken seven more kick-offs in the past three Premier League games, after conceding, but they have not scored from any of those restarts.
Brentford, too, have won the pre-match coin toss three times in a row, although Thomas Frank claimed, with tongue in cheek, that winning the coin toss is “not a coincidence”. But if Brentford could scored in the opening minute for the fourth game in a row, perhaps we should believe him.
