Correlation FC

Bees beat Sunderland 3-0

Brentford put in another strong home performance, dominating throughout the 90 minutes. Igor Thiago scored another pair of goals, Caoimhin Kelleher stopped another penalty and picked up another clean sheet, and Yehor Yarmoliuk scored his first goal for the Bees.

What was new?

Yarmo scores!!!

Brentford supporters were thrilled to see Yarmoliuk score his first goal for the Bees. The 21-year-old has already made an impressive 90 appearances for the Bees, including 79 in the Premier League, but he had never found the net.

Against Sunderland, shortly after a heated argument with Black Cats captain Granit Xhaka, Yarmoliuk knocked in a loose ball from a Mathias Jensen corner. Yarmoliuk had a huge smile, and it was clear that his teammates all understood the personal significance of the moment as well as they celebrated with him. A great reward for Brentford's relentless young Ukrainian midfielder.

Woodwork x4

The Bees managed to hit the woodwork four times against Sunderland. Keane Lewis-Potter did it from a beautiful first-half free kick, while Kevin Schade, Mikkel Damsgaard and Reiss Nelson all managed to do it in the second half. In the previous 20 games, the Bees had only hit the woodwork a combined four times. Let's hope that this isn't an emerging trend.

What was familiar

Kelleher perfect in net

Brentford's summer signing had another great performance for the Bees. As usual, his shot-stopping and distribution were solid, but the highlight was his third penalty save of the season.

Like his stop earlier in the season against Manchester United, this save seemed to bring the Bees to life. Instead of being tied 1-1, the Bees stayed ahead and then added to their lead just five minutes later.

Kelleher has kept clean sheets in three of his last five games.

Second-half goals

Last season, the Bees were known for their early goals. This season, their approach has changed somewhat, as they are scoring more late goals. So far this season, they've scored 13 first-half goals and an impressive 22 second-half goals. Overall, they have a goal differential of +7.

Vitaly comes from Germany ...

Midfielder Vitaly Janelt continues to impress. He picked up another assist, this time with a through-ball to Thiago to set up the first goal. Beyond his assist, he led the Bees in touches, completed passes, crosses, loss ball recoveries, tackles and interceptions.

Other data stories

Thiago's versatility

Much has been written about Thiago's goal scoring. He now holds the record for the most ever goals by a Brazilian in the Premier League. He's fourth in scoring in major European leagues. And so on.

We wanted to look beyond some of the main stories to explore, in numbers, just how versatile Thiago has been.

Brentford goal contributions

Schade and Thiago have both picked up seven goal contributions in the past four games as Brentford seems to be scoring at will (barring the Spurs draw). Here are the contributors for the Sunderland match.