Correlation FC

Bees held scoreless in 2-0 loss to Brighton

A disappointing first half performance left the Bees two goals behind at the break. They played better and created plenty of opportunities in the second half, but couldn't capitalise. Brighton won the game 2-0.

Fullback injuries

The Bees have been pretty fortunate this season, with far fewer injuries than recent seasons (don't tell that to Fabio Carvalho or Antoni Milambo). However, Michael Kayode missed his first league game of the season due to injury, and his replacement, Aaron Hickey, was forced out just before halftime after suffering what appeared to be both a knee injury and a head injury. Brighton scored their second goal within a minute of the restart, with Hickey's replacement, Nathan Collins, misplaying the ball which unfortunately led directly to the goal.

Old starters

Keith Andrews named his oldest starting eleven of the season against Brighton, with an average age of 27 years and 63 days. That's nearly three years older than his opening day lineup average of 24 years and 98 days.

Brentford's lineup ages for the 2025-26 season (source: Correlation FC)

Early in the season, Andrews was frequently starting a young XI, with older players on the bench. As the season has progressed, that has flipped and his older players are now starting, with younger players taking positions on the bench.

Brentford's starting XI age and trend for the 2025-26 season (source: Correlation FC)

In terms of personnel, we've seen more starts from players like Mathias Jensen, Vitaly Janelt and Kristoffer Ajer.

Brentford's bench age and trend for the 2025-26 season (source: Correlation FC)

After peaking between Premier League match weeks 7-12, the average age of players named to the bench has steadily decreased. The four lowest averages of the season have come in cup matches, with a sub-23 average for the match against Sheffield Wednesday. Teenagers Kaye Furo, Luka Bentt and Romelle Donovan are pulling that average down, though it feels like it won't be long until Donovan gets his first Premier League start.

Brentford's starting XI age compared with distance coverage for the 2025-26 season (source: Correlation FC)

As we've already said, Andrews started his oldest lineup of the season against Brighton. Does age make a difference to distance covered? Do younger lineups do more running?

We've assessed this by taking the total distance covered by each starter, and then dividing that by the number of minutes each starter plays. That gives us a total distance per minute, in metres.

There doesn't appear to be a strong correlation between the average age of the starters and the average distance covered. That seems to be more closely related to the opponent and the nature of the game, then the age of the athletes. Sometimes you don't know what's there (or what's not there) until you've looked.