A game almost as wild as the wind it was played in ended with Newcastle getting blown away, as Brentford claimed a seventh win in eight unbeaten home games and in the process cast off the hex these opponents had held over them. The last side to win here, by the same score on the final day of last season, and not beaten by the Bees in the league since 1948, this time Newcastle crumbled. It means Brentford have now beaten all 25 teams they have faced in the Premier League at least once.
In the first half Brentford led twice and twice they were pinned back in short order, but Nathan Collins put them back ahead in the 56th minute and this time they held firm. In the end the visitors conceded four and there could have been more: two minutes into stoppage time Dan Burn got back to stop Bryan Mbeumo’s shot going in after Nick Pope had lingered on and lost the ball outside his area, a moment that capped a defensive display of ever increasing raggedness.
“I’m very disappointed with how we defended today,” said Eddie Howe. “In the last two games we’ve scored five goals, and some of our attacking work was really strong, but we’ve conceded seven. Structurally we’ve been fine but there were a lot of individual errors today. There’s a vulnerability about us that we need to fix. We’ve got a lot of work to do in different areas. There’s a very good team in there, but we haven’t shown it consistently enough.”
Newcastle will look back on the moment when, with the score 1-1, Collins failed to deal with a long ball out of their defence and Alexander Isak stole it off him. The Swede ran infield from the right and danced past Mark Flekken but was then so casual with his finish that the Dutchman was able to scramble back, fling out a hand and push the ball away from him. Eighteen minutes had been played, and it was their last significant chance to take the lead.
Precisely 10 minutes later Harvey Barnes, under little pressure, unaccountably passed straight to Yoane Wissa, and this time the mistake was punished. Wissa ran towards the penalty area, and with neither Fabian Schär nor Burn committing to closing him down, curled a shot into the far corner. Fortunately for Barnes, Brentford’s defence was similarly snoozy when Jacob Murphy’s pull-back found him in the 32nd minute, and he had time to control, turn and make rapid amends with a second equaliser.
Brentford had taken the lead for the first time in the eighth minute, after their captain, Christian Nørgaard, back in the side after missing the midweek defeat at Aston Villa, sprayed a fine pass to Mbeumo on the right. His control was sweet, Lewis Hall’s marking half-hearted, and the Cameroonian dribbled all but unmolested into the heart of Newcastle’s area before finding the corner of the net. Three minutes later Isak stooped on the edge of the six-yard box to meet Murphy’s inswinging left-footed cross from the right.
Eleven minutes into the second half the home side retook the lead, Collins’s beautifully calm finish incongruously crowning a classic blustery-day buildup. Before the game Thomas Frank had spoken to his side about the wind: “We talked about it. The defenders, be extra careful, expect the worst. Offensive players, believe that something can drop for you.” This was the moment the worst did happen for the defenders, and the ball did drop for an attacker. Flekken pumped a free-kick forwards from well inside his half, Igor Thiago – starting for the first time after his £30m summer move – distracted the defence but missed his header and the ball bounced through to Collins, whose gentle sidefoot sent it rolling beyond the reach of Pope.
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Howe’s analysis was that this goal was so defensively disastrous his side never recovered, and though they threatened very sporadically – most notably when Sandro Tonali headed over with six minutes left – Brentford always looked the more likely scorers. In the final minute they made the game safe: Mbeumo’s pass found the substitute Kevin Schade, whose first touch took him clear of the defence, and whose second sent the ball past Pope.
