🔗 Share this article

More than halfway through the season, The Bees find themselves in dreamland.

Following victories in their last five outings, and a Samba striker scoring the goals, suddenly supporters find themselves drifting off with thoughts of trips to European capitals next season.

A emphatic 3-0 win over Sunderland moved Keith Andrews' side into the fifth spot in the top flight – a position that was good enough to secure European football last season.

Solely leaders the Gunners have gathered more points over the past half-dozen matches.

There's a long way to go yet but the West London outfit are squarely in the fight for European football.

No one was forecasting this last summer.

Thomas Frank had departed for Spurs after seven years in charge, a period in which he had not only got the club to the Premier League but also established them in the top flight.

Club captain their Danish midfielder left for Arsenal and goal-scoring duo Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa – who scored a total of 39 goals in the previous campaign – were also sold, joining Manchester United and Newcastle respectively.

Set-piece coach Keith Andrews was promoted to replace the Dane, while there was no striker among the summer signings.

A season of struggle, possibly even relegation, was widely predicted. But here we are in January with the club in the top five.

So, what is behind their success?

The Brazilian's Record-breaking Campaign

Brentford's decision not to bring in another striker was partly down to circumstance, with one forward's move not going through until deadline day.

But they also knew they had a £30 million striker already ready and waiting.

Igor Thiago joined from Belgium in July 2024 for a then club record fee, but was hindered by fitness issues in his debut campaign, going goalless in his initial outings.

Thiago has gone about compensating for lost time this season, though, with his double against Sunderland taking him to sixteen league goals – the highest tally by a player from Brazil in a single Premier League campaign.

Considering the countrymen who have come before him, that is a remarkable feat, especially with seventeen matches left to play.

"He's been a revelation," former Liverpool midfielder an analyst said. "He is a physical specimen, fast, strong, but more skilled than people think. Excellent with his feet, either foot, he can score off both. You can see he's full of confidence. These numbers are incredible. He must be so proud. That's a huge compliment to him."

That only Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe have scored more in any of the continent's major leagues to this point highlights the standard he is operating at.

And it is not just the volume but the timing of the goals that have been so important for his team.

His opener against the Black Cats was his 7th first goal of a game of the season. Given how often we are told the importance of the first goal in a game, having someone you can depend on to take that early opportunity cannot be overstated.

Prior to the game against Sunderland, no player to have attempted at least thirty efforts this season has a better shot accuracy rate than the striker's 59.1 percent.

He finds the target. Do that consistently and the goals will – and have – come.

Given the struggles he had in his youth, where he labored in construction to support his family following the passing of his father, perhaps it should be no surprise that pressure on the pitch is something he handles with ease.

"Our scouts deserve a lot of praise for the type of players they bring in and personalities," Andrews said. "This is really impressive. He is a really unique person who has fitted into life very well. He has had to earn this path. He has earned his journey and toiled. He has got real determination about his personality. He is improving his skill set constantly and we are discovering more and more about him. He is a pretty complete centre-forward."

The Manager Proving Doubters Wrong

Igor Thiago is the man of the moment but Brentford are not and have never been a single-player team.

While they had key individuals – a host of talent – under Frank, they were always seen as a team stronger than the individual components.

The fear was that once the manager left, that may not be the case, and that the sum of their parts alone might not be enough to avoid relegation.

Consequently, appointing their set-piece coach, with a blank managerial CV, and just a year at the club was seen by those external observers as a huge risk.

A maiden role is a challenge for anyone, let alone when it comes in the world's toughest league and having made the leap from set-piece coach to the top job.

But given that Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna was the only other option that the hierarchy looked at, they were clearly convinced they had the right man.

To date, as often seems to be the case with the key decision makers at Brentford, it looks as if they were correct.

The new boss won just one of his first five league games in charge but big home victories against United, the Reds and Newcastle have followed.

Wins that, following their excellent recent run, could prove all the more important in the pursuit for European qualification.

"We are in good form and playing really well. We are playing with courage and conviction in everything we do with and without the ball," he added. "We're happy with how we are going but we want to keep striving."

In a league where the European spots and the lower mid-table are currently separated by just a handful of points, they have no other option, because things could rapidly look very otherwise.

But, for now, The Bees are defying the odds. And the longer that continues, the closer to fruition those dreams of Europe will become.