Brentford are a side who have impressed for years off the pitch for how they run their club. The club have made enormous strides in recent seasons for their “MoneyBall” approach – and the fact Brentford’s Chairman also owns the Danish Club FC Midtylland gives the Championship side an extra layer of scouting capabilities into Europe’s top leagues that many of their Rivals cannot enjoy.
Thomas Frank’s team are one of the leading Championship teams renowned for their quick transitions and attacking style. We can expect these Bees to be in hostile mood when the Foxes venture down to the hive this Saturday. Fortress Griffin Park sees Brentford enjoying the divisions best defensive record and a Home record that reads: P13 W8 D3 L2.
When we add in that the home side are also on top of the form table (last 8 games) the reality starts to get even grimmer for Brendan Rodgers’ men.
The Bees frontline of Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins have scored 34 goals between them and that statistic sounds even more crazier when we take the fact that this counts for 77% of Brentford’s 44 total goals. Not too shabby.
They are in the leading pack to chase promotion but a chance to go into the Fifth Round of the FA Cup represents such a financial boost they would be ill-advised to play a weakened team. They have the firepower to make this a sticky Saturday start for the Prem boys.
I previewed Leicester’s Super Sunday game last weekend and pointed to the fact that Burnley had only won one match against top six teams out of the previous 16. Granted, had a second-half Vardy penalty been slotted home today’s preview might be taking a slightly different twist. The Clarets did enough to come away with the win but that’s football sometimes.
One isolated defeat doesn’t make Leicester a bad team but that’s two bad results in recent games with the performance against Southampton at home a real concerning one for a side who had been aspiring to stay in touch with the Premier League Champions in waiting. We have to think that most Premier league sides at full strength should have enough to dispatch a Championship team but at the prices I will be siding with Brentford to make the start to the Saturday’s FA Cup card a corker.
A few bets I like include Brentford +1 (currently 5/6) which means that, should Griffin Park prove a sticky test for yet another away team, we get paid out.
At a bigger price should Brentford win, a Leicester goal seems likely so a price of 6/1 for Brentford Win & BTTS looks very appealing.
For a goalscorer the aforementioned Ollie Watkins has 18 goals in the Championship this season and as the central striker of the trio the price of 6/1 for first goalscorer looks tempting.
Best Bets Summary
Odds correct at time of posting, subject to change.
Saturday 12:45 – Brentford 11/4, Draw 11/4, Leicester 8/11