Brentford face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon (3pm kick-off GMT).
The Bees booked their place in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals with a 5-0 midweek victory at Grimsby Town, while this weekend's hosts also progressed to the final eight of the competition with a 3-0 win against Liverpool at Anfield.
Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the fixture.
Pre-match analysis
Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: Brentford and Palace 'cut from the same cloth'
Just 14 miles separate Selhurst Park and Gtech Community Stadium, and Brentford visit Crystal Palace this Saturday with the two sides shoulder-to-shoulder in the Premier League.
The Eagles sit 10th with 13 points, one place above the Bees on goal difference, and Oliver Glasner has moulded Palace into one of the most direct and effective sides in the Premier League.
One of five clubs still unbeaten at home this season, Palace top Opta's 'direct speed' charts - which measure how quickly teams move the ball forward. Their ability to transition fast and hurt opponents has become a hallmark of their development under Austrian mastermind Glasner.
The Eagles' momentous FA Cup final win over Manchester City in May was, in many ways, 'textbook Palace'. Set up in a mid-block, the south Londoners snapped into challenges in midfield and picked their moments to spring forward.
Palace's Wembley winner saw them traverse the length of the pitch in just five passes - rampaging full-back Daniel Muñoz’s cross buried by Eberechi Eze to clinch the first major trophy in the club’s history.
Eze flew the Eagles' nest in the summer - but Palace’s system remains the same, and it will be interesting to see how Brentford head coach Keith Andrews sets up tactically in SE25.
Buoyed by impressive victories over West Ham, Liverpool and Grimsby since the international break, the Bees are in fantastic form and they share clear personality traits with Palace.
Ranked 19th in the Premier League for average possession (40%), no team has played a higher percentage of their passes forward than Brentford (38%) - and Palace (35.9%) are cut from the same cloth.
Possession for possession's sake is not in either Brentford or Palace's DNA, and the numbers back it up. Brentford (52) have strung together the fewest passing sequences of 10+ passes in the Premier League in 2025/26, while Crystal Palace (62) rank 18th.
Instead, both sides focus on targeting areas where they can hurt opponents and, notably, only Brentford (0.17) have a higher xG-per-shot value than Palace (0.16) this term.
Last season, Saturday’s teams ranked among the Premier League’s top five for goals from corners, free-kicks, and throw-ins - and, on the evidence so far this season, neither side has lost their set-piece smarts.
"To press or not to press?" - that may be the fundamental question for Brentford this weekend.
Palace are compact and competitive in the middle third of the pitch. Tyrick Mitchell, Daichi Kamada and Muñoz all rank among the Premier League’s top 10 for tackles won per 90 minutes, but the Eagles’ pressing data indicates they are unlikely to engage their opponents high up the pitch.
The Bees, in contrast, rank seventh in the Premier League for high turnovers - with no player in the division winning more tackles in the attacking third than Kevin Schade (7) this term.
Should Brentford - who have already scored four goals via counter attacks this term - invite Palace onto them? Should the Bees temper their urge to press high themselves? These are, quite literally, pressing questions.
Scout report
Dan Long, Sky Sports: Can Palace balance European and domestic football?
Crystal Palace are currently enjoying one of the best, most fruitful periods in their entire 120-year history.
Look back at 2023/24. As well as setting a new record Premier League points total (49), they matched their highest finish (10th) and scored more goals than ever before (57).
That was the first season in 10 without talisman Wilfried Zaha - but also the one where Jean-Philippe Mateta finally showed his talents. The French striker scored 19 goals in all competitions, which was the most of any Palace player since Glenn Murray netted 31 in 2012/13.
The 2024/25 campaign was the first in four without Michael Olise, who had scored or assisted 41 goals in 90 appearances since a move from Reading in the summer of 2021. Some might have had fears that would have a knock-on effect, but Palace blew them out of the water.
And that was despite Oliver Glasner’s side flirting with the relegation zone a little too intensely before Christmas. In fact, it took until 15 January for them to reach the five-win mark.
An upturn in fortunes followed, and coincided with the FA Cup run of dreams. The Eagles - who were runners-up in 2015/16, quarter-finalists in 2018/19 and semi-finalists in 2021/22 - beat Stockport, Doncaster, Millwall, Fulham and Aston Villa on the way to the final, where Eberechi Eze’s 16th-minute strike secured a 1-0 win over Manchester City and the club’s first major piece of silverware.
They finished 12th in the league - the lowest in three seasons - but still managed to set a new points total along the way of 53.
Eze was sold to Arsenal in the summer and, you’ve guessed it - as had been the case with the Zaha and Olise exits - Palace have not struggled.
They lifted the Community Shield on 10 August after a penalty shoot-out win over Liverpool, reached the Conference League league phase after beating Fredrikstad in the play-off round, and have already been as high as third in the Premier League after going six unbeaten at the start of the campaign.
Glasner’s side are three without a win in the league since then, but only a 93rd-minute goal from Jack Grealish saw them lose 2-1 at Everton. They then came from 2-0 and 3-2 down to hold Bournemouth to a thrilling 3-3 draw, before Eze’s strike against his former club secured a 1-0 win for Arsenal at the Emirates last time out.
As with any side new to Europe, the question is whether Palace will be able to balance challenging on one extra front without sacrificing their domestic form, or if the extra workload brought by at least six more games will push the squad’s depth and resilience to its limit.
The compelling story of their recent success suggests it is more likely to be the former.
In the Dugout
Oliver Glasner
Barring a short loan spell at LASK in the 2003/04 season, Oliver Glasner spent his entire 19-year playing career at SV Ried in his native Austria, from 1992 to 2011, where he holds the record for the most appearances made for the club, with 572 in all competitions.
During his time at SV Ried, he won the Austria Cup in 1998 and 2011, as well as helping the club achieve promotion to the Austrian Bundesliga in 1994/95 and a decade later in 2004/05.
In August 2011, he suffered a brain haemorrhage and, after an operation, was advised to end his playing career at the age of 36. After his enforced retirement, Glasner spent two years as assistant to Roger Schmidt at Red Bull Salzburg.
When Schmidt later left for Bayer Leverkusen, Glasner made his return to SV Ried. During his one and only season in charge, the club secured a fourth-straight sixth-place finish. Next was a return to LASK. Glasner spent four seasons at Raiffeisen Arena and enjoyed plenty of success.
The club finished second in the second tier in his first season and were promoted as champions in 2016/17. Back in the top flight, they then finished fourth, before finishing second in 2018/19 - their highest finish since winning the Staatsliga in 1965.
Glasner then moved across the border to Wolfsburg in July 2019 and, two years later, joined Eintracht Frankfurt. He could not guide the German club to any higher than seventh in his two seasons in charge, though he did mastermind the Europa League triumph in 2021/22, where Frankfurt beat Barcelona, West Ham and Rangers on their way to glory.
He departed Frankfurt in the summer of 2023 and joined Crystal Palace as Roy Hodgson's successor in February 2024, signing a contract until the summer of 2025/26, which is still yet to be extended.
The Gameplan
With Sam Tabuteau, The Standard
Sam Tabuteau, football reporter for The Standard, discusses how Crystal Palace are likely to be set up this weekend.
"It is a 3-4-2-1, with two central no.10s behind Jean-Philippe Mateta," said Tabuteau.
"That combination of who plays behind him is important and there has been a little bit of adjustment after Eberechi Eze left for Arsenal a few months back.
"They are still trying to find a balance to settle on, but that is their tried and tested formation and they are not going to stray away from it.
"They know exactly what they are doing, as it has been drilled into them by Oliver Glasner."
Last Premier League starting XI v Arsenal (3-4-2-1): Henderson; Richards, Lacroix, Guéhi; Muñoz, Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell; Sarr, Pino; Mateta
Read our full interview with Sam Tabuteau here
Match Officials
Bankes in charge of second Bees game this term
Referee: Peter Bankes
Assistants: Edward Smart and Blake Antrobus
Fourth official: Lewis Smith
VAR: Tony Harrington
Peter Bankes has been the man in the middle for seven Premier League games so far this term, with his first being Brentford's opening-day fixture at Nottingham Forest.
The Merseyside-born official dished out three yellow cards that day and also awarded the Bees a penalty, which was duly converted by Igor Thiago.
Most recently, he has taken charge of Newcastle's last two Premier League home matches.
Last meeting
Crystal Palace 1 Brentford 2, (Premier League, 26 January 2025)
Second-half goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Kevin Schade secured three points for Brentford against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
After Nathan Collins had been fouled in the box, Mbeumo's first penalty came back off the inside of the post, only for VAR to intervene and order a retake due to encroachment.
The Cameroonian was successive from 12 yards second time around, before Schade bravely met and directed a Mikkel Damsgaard cross into the back of the net despite a nasty head collision with Chris Richards.
Romain Esse pulled one back for Palace with five minutes remaining but the Bees held out to pick up a victory in the torrential rain in south London.