Correlation FC

Forest beat the Bees 3-1

The Bees were overwhelmed by a cohesive Nottingham Forest team in the first half, falling behind 3-0. They were much better in the second half, but were only able to pull back a single goal, Igor Thiago's first in the Premier League. Final score 3-1 Forest.

Let's revisit our pre-game predictions.

Prediction #1

Brentford will win the game.

Very much a no.

Prediction #2

There will be no more than 2 goals scored.

Wrong. There were 4.

Prediction #3

The Bees will use the same starting lineup that they used in their final pre-season friendly against Gladbach.

Wrong. Good and perhaps not surprising that Caoimhin Kelleher was playing. It would have been difficult to predict that Mikkel Damsgaard was going to miss the game due to becoming a father and that Antoni Milambo would start in his place. (Kudos to the Bees by the way for giving Damsgaard time to be with his family - a lot of teams seem to forget that footballers are humans.)

Prediction #4

Brentford's first goal of the 2025-26 season will be scored with a left foot.

Wrong. Right foot.

Prediction #5

Brentford will wear their new brown away kit.

Wrong. Colour us surprised. The Bees wore their shiny new blue kit instead.

Prediction #6

Jordan Henderson will come off the bench as a substitute.

Finally, we got a prediction right. Henderson came off the bench in the 69th minute.

Trends that continued

Bees not great in blue

During the 2023-24 Premier League season, the Bees only won 1 out of 7 games while wearing their blue away kit for that season. They've lost their first attempt in blue in 2025-26. Surely better times are ahead for the Bees in blue.

Scored (indirectly) from a set piece

The Bees have been consistently good at set pieces for several years. While their goal against Forest came from a penalty, it followed a sequence of a long throw and then two corners. Sepp van den Berg and Kevin Schade both pick up Correlation FC goal contributions for their involvement in the play before the handball that led to Thiago's successful penalty attempt.

What was different

Thiago scores

Thiago scored his first Premier League goal, hopefully the first of many for the Bees.

Milambo gets his first Premier League start

Milambo made his league debut for the Bees, starting the game and playing the first 45 minutes.

Damsgaard baby

Damsgaard missed his first league game for the Bees since March 2024, but for the best of reasons, as his wife gave birth to their first child. Congratulations.

Henderson PL debut (again)

17 years after making his first Premier League debut with Sunderland, Henderson made his Brentford league debut by coming off the bench in the 69th minute. Assuming he's fit, it won't be a surprise to see him starting for the Bees soon.

Bees conceded 3 and lost

In 2024-25, the Bees conceded 3 goals on 7 occasions, but managed to win 4 of those games. It's never ideal to give up 3, but hopefully we'll see some more high-scoring wins this season.

Bees conceded from a corner

The first goal of the game (and season) was scored by Forest from a penalty. Last season, the Bees only conceded a pair of goals from corners across the full slate of 38 games.

KLP on the right side

Keane Lewis-Potter didn't miss a game last season, but didn't play a minute on the right side. However, he played much of the second half on the right wing after Kevin Schade came on.

Other data stories

Hickey makes a quick impact

Aaron Hickey made his first league appearance in 659 days (thanks for counting BBC) after his long recovery from injury. He quickly made an impact on the game. Less than 60 seconds after coming onto the pitch, he drew a foul by driving to the net. Less than 60 seconds later, he fouled Callum Hudson-Odoi and received a yellow card. 60 seconds later, he drew another foul. He's clearly not backing down from the physical side of the game post-injury, which is great to see.

Brentford goal contributions