Others may have been fretting but, back in August, Thomas Frank had no fears of second-season syndrome. It was an obvious affliction to predict for a club that punched so spectacularly above its weight on entering the Premier League: history provides several examples of subsequent letdown and the loss of Christian Eriksen, who pulled Brentford upwards last season when their form dropped, did not bode well to those assessing from afar. But Frank watched each of their matches back from start to finish in pre-season and felt convinced they had set themselves a platform for improvement. The feeling in London’s far west was of quiet confidence.
“I was never worried about it,” Frank said on Friday, holding court with familiar garrulousness. “I was hugely respectful of the league and I know that if you’re not on it, or get three key injuries, or are a little bit unlucky, then you can be in big trouble. There’s nothing granted that we can stay here for ever. But how we performed last year was not lucky at all if you look at all the underlying performance indicators. Knowing the squad, knowing we didn’t want to sell anyone and knowing we had added more talent and quality, I was quite sure we could do well again.”
