Brentford's defensive record has been assessed by the Premier League's team of writers. The Bees have kept clean sheets in three of their five Premier League games so far. Only two teams - Aston Villa and Brighton and Hove Albion - have scored against Brentford this season and Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea have a better defensive record so far this term.
Brentford's latest clean sheet came in a 2-0 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers yesterday. The Bees prevented Wolves having a shot on target, albeit the home side did hit the crossbar, and took their first away win of the campaign. That clean sheet came just after Adrian Clarke had written about Brentford's defence on the Premier League website.
"Premier League newcomers Brentford should be proud of their stellar work off the ball so far this season," he wrote."Playing in a 3-5-2 shape with a three-man back line including Ethan Pinnock and Pontus Jansson, Thomas Frank's side have been tremendously competitive, industrious and well-organised. From back to front the Bees work hard to pressurise opposition players and this has helped to protect goalkeeper David Raya, who has also made a strong start as the last line of defence.
The piece was written before the win at Wolves and Clarke identified that The Bees had only faced 18 shots in their three previous games - draws at Villa and Crystal Palace and a defeat to Brighton that was described as "unfortunate". It was also pointed out that only Manchester City had a better Expected Goals Against (xGA) ranking after the opening four rounds of matches. The full piece can be read here.