Correlation FC

Brentford vs Nottingham Forest, preview

The torrid pace of holiday matches has slowed, with the rhythm of 2-3 games per week transitioning back to a familiar one per week. In fact, it will be 8 days since the Bees played their last game. As Forest is competing in the Europa League, they won't have had as much time to recover.

The match-up

Brentford started the Keith Andrews head coaching era away at Nottingham Forest, coached by Nuno Espirito Santo, back in August. Andrews started his youngest lineup of the season. The Bees lost 3-1.

The Bees have steadily moved up since then, with both Andrews and his squad rapidly gaining in confidence and experience since that day. Forest have had a turbulent season, with Nuno being fired early in the season, and the team has struggled to regain the same level of results that they achieved last season.

Historically, the teams have played each other many times at almost every level of the English football pyramid. Going back to December 2020, the Bees have only lost 2 of their last 9 match-ups.

Recent form

The Bees played well but lost last week at Chelsea. Prior to that, they were on a long unbeaten streak. Forest lost in the Europa League on Thursday. They played well and drew Arsenal in the league last weekend.

Opta Power Rankings (as of 23rd January 2026)

Comparing the teams

Brentford and Nottingham Forest are in very different parts of the league table right now. Let's look at some of the numbers and see where they are similar and where they are different.

Similarities

The two teams are among the least likely in the league to end up with a draw. The Bees only have 3 draws and Forest has 4, the two lowest in the league.

In terms of save percentages, they're neck-and-neck with 66.7% and 66.3%.

The teams have been fouled a nearly identical number of times as well – 231 for Brentford and 235 for Forest (9th and 8th in the league).

Differences

The differences are more apparent when you look at scoring. The Bees have scored 34 goals to Forest's 21. Not only have the Bees scored more goals, they have been more efficient, scoring on 13% of their shots (3rd in the league) compared to 7% for Forest (19th in the league).

The approach the teams take is quite different as well, with Forest leaning heavily on crosses. They're second in the league with 532 crosses (24 per game) compared to Brentford's 383 (17 per game).

Both teams have conceded a lot of penalties this season. But the Bees have saved 3 of the 6 they've faced. Forest keepers have not yet saved a penalty this season.

So what does it all mean?

With the teams rarely drawing and often giving up penalties, we're sure to see some action, and hopefully the Bees will continue to shoot and score well.

But as usual, the past numbers can't tell the story of what will happen next. We'll be there to see it unfold live. If you can't be there, watch it on Sky.

Premier League debuts

Last week, Romelle Donovan made his Premier League debut with a substitute appearance against Chelsea. We thought it would be interesting to look at the 25-26 Bees to see when each player made their Premier League debut.

Brentford player Premier League debut dates and ages (source: Correlation FC)

Going left to right, we have time passing, with Jordan Henderson's 2008 debut with Sunderland being the first item. Donovan's recent debut is on the far right. On the vertical axis, we show the player's age at the time of their debut. We have the older players at the top. Ethan Pinnock's debut at 28 is the oldest while Henderson and Reiss Nelson were the youngest.

The cluster two-thirds of the way to the right, where the dotted vertical line is, indicates the start of the Premier League era for the Bees when several of their current squad made their Premier League debut. Many of that group debuted around the age of 23.

The colour of the dot indicates the result of the player's debut game. 11 wins, 8 draws and 8 losses.

Brentford Premier League player debut ages (source: Correlation FC)

This graph shows the age when players made their debut. There have been a relatively small number of teenage debuts, with most of the group debuting between the ages of 22 and 24 years old. Mathias Jensen and Pinnock were the oldest players to make their debuts, both in August 2021. The average debut age for the current group is 21.7 years.