Kevin de Bruyne's return from injury for Manchester City hogged FA Cup third-round headlines over the weekend - but Brentford fans were delighted to welcome back a silky attacking midfielder of their own.

Josh Dasilva started the Bees' cup clash against Wolves last Friday and the 25-year-old's 63 minutes on the pitch were heralded by Thomas Frank afterwards as the "big positive" to take from the 1-1 draw.

Playing against ten men after João Gomes' early sending off for the visitors, Brentford took the lead just before the break thanks to Neal Maupay’s goal, but were pegged back in the second half when Wolves loanee Tommy Doyle arrowed home a fantastic long-range strike.

Frank felt his side lacked quality on the day, but was pleased with Dasilva's contribution in the former Arsenal academy graduate's first game back since the Bees beat Fulham 3-0 in August.

In his hour on the pitch, Dasilva was involved in many of the hosts' brighter moments and his match stats highlighted a number of positives for player and manager to take from the game.

The only player from either side to supply an accurate through ball, Dasilva completed 29 of his 33 (88 per cent) passes and played two key passes during the course of the cup tie, also topping the charts for successful dribbles (three) among Brentford players.

Dasilva fired in two shots (one on target) and did not concede possession before being replaced by Michael Olakigbe - his only sign of ring-rustiness being the three occasions when he was deemed guilty of "poor control" by Playmaker's stat minions.

One of the most creative players in the Bees' squad, Dasilva has been plagued by injuries over the past three seasons, but his post-match interview focused on his desire to play "a big part" for his side and take his game "to the next level".

Although he was limited to 14 starts, the versatile midfielder notched four Premier League goals and supplied two assists in 2022/23. He remained one of Brentford's best performers when it came to ball retention (83 per cent pass completion) and creativity in one-v-ones (0.9 successful dribbles per game).

With Brentford rocked by several injuries to other key players, Dasilva's return will also inject valuable experience. In fact, he is one of only five players - along with Bryan Mbeumo, Mathias Jensen, Rico Henry and Ethan Pinnock - currently on the books (excluding loaned players) to have clocked up more than 150 games for the Bees.

With 22 goals (nine of them from outside the box!) and 11 assists in 154 games for Brentford across all competitions, his quality is undoubted - it is now just a matter of Dasilva building momentum in a team looking to build some of their own.