Given Brentford had not produced a player for England’s senior side since 1939, it was no surprise that Thomas Frank sought to squeeze every drop of satisfaction from Ivan Toney’s call-up. “I think this is a much bigger moment for Brentford than people understand, especially if you’ve been here for a long time,” he said. “Just 15 years ago we were bottom of League Two, we played MK Dons at home and lost 3-0 in front of 4,000 fans. Now we get our first England international in 83 years and we are playing our second season in the Premier League.”
It is another milestone and the latest evidence that Brentford’s top-flight adventure is no passing fancy. There were eyes on Frank’s team as the season began: it was reasonable to wonder whether, without the wiles of Christian Eriksen, they would revert to the unit that had begun to struggle badly after such a thrilling start to 2021-22. But they look entirely comfortable in their skins and there will be some symbolism on Sunday in the visit of Arsenal, whose humbling on the opening night of last season lit a fire of possibility in west London.
