How right Thomas Frank was. He warned his Brentford players their trip to Old Trafford was a totally different match to their 4-0 rout of Manchester United back in August — and in so many ways it was.
The Bees produced a rampant display on that sunlit afternoon against a side much younger in their evolution under Erik ten Hag than they now are. By 35 minutes, Frank’s side were four goals up.
Here, Brentford’s counterattacking was so much less effective that the two performances are almost completely incomparable. It said a lot that the closest they came to scoring was when David de Gea booted a clearance against Ivan Toney and it clattered against the advertising hoarding behind the goal.
Defeat leaves the Bees ninth and hoping the form of teams such as Brighton and Aston Villa slows towards the season’s end as they pursue a European place for next season. United, meanwhile, leapfrogged Spurs into fourth. It might have been third, had Newcastle not cantered past a West Ham side looking and feeling very fragile indeed.
What a relegation battle it is this season, with eight teams implicated. Brentford should be immensely proud that they are not one of the eight. They have only grown in stature and strength since promotion from the Championship in May 2021.
That said, here they were as flat and offensively limited as they have been all season. They are a counterattacking side but suffered from the phenomenon, the eternal problem, of being too transitional for their own good. Tottenham know it well.
With Bryan Mbeumo and Ivan Toney up front, two of their best players spent most of this rain-rattled evening totally alienated from their teammates.
The ball would be half-cleared by a defender, or pumped up-field by a midfielder, and into the Stretford End it would go — Mbeumo and Toney left shrugging their shoulders and begging for better service. For Brentford, it never came.
For United, the service that decided the match came from Antony — excellent on the night. His clipped ball found Marcel Sabitzer, who nodded across goal to Marcus Rashford. The England forward has more Premier League goals since the World Cup than any other player, and duly caressed a smart volley past David Raya.
With 27 minutes on the clock, that left ample time for Brentford to click into higher gears and find that golden moment. It fell to substitute Kevin Schade as he ran one-on-one against David de Gea in the second half.
Schade took that extra self-defeating touch, De Gea smothered, and it became clear, as if it were not already, that the evening was just not going to be Brentford’s.
How far they have come over the past two seasons. But how far off United they were here.
