Correlation FC

Brentford beats Villa on penalties

A much-changed squad held Aston Villa to a 1-1 draw over 90 minutes and then won 4-2 on penalties. Villa are the second Premier League team that the Bees have defeated in the 25-26 Carabao Cup after their earlier victory against Bournemouth. They will learn who their fourth-round opponent is next week.

A game of milestones

Several Bees players achieved milestones during the game.

Debut for Arthur

Young defender Benjamin Arthur made his first appearance for the Bees, starting at left centre back and playing the full 90 minutes. He was solid throughout and seemed like a good fit for the team.

Debut for Nelson

Reiss Nelson, on loan from Arsenal, made his first appearance for the Bees, coming on as a second-half substitute. He also took (and made) a penalty during the shoot-out.

First Brentford goal for Hickey

Aaron Hickey scored his first goal for Brentford, and his first competitive goal since 2022, with a beautiful volley from a Frank Onyeka long throw.

100th appearance for Damsgaard

Mikkel Damsgaard came off the bench to make his 100th appearance for the Bees. He nearly scored during regulation time and then sealed the win for the Bees by making his penalty.

First appearance of the season for Janelt

Vitaly Janelt's recovery from surgery seems to be going well. He made his first appearance of the season, and first since April, wearing the captain's armband in the first half.

First win on penalties for Valdimarsson

Hakon Valdimarsson earned his first win on penalties for the Bees by stopping two of the four shots that he faced.

Trends that continued

Another goal from a long throw

As mentioned above, Hickey's goal came from a long throw, this time by Onyeka. It's Onyeka's first goal involvement from a long throw, adding his name to the team's growing list of long throwers, that includes Michael Kayode, Kevin Schade, Ethan Pinnock and Mathias Jensen.

More fouls

The Bees have out-fouled their opposition in every match this season. They did it again against Villa, edging them 12-10.

What was different

The lineup

Keith Andrews made 10 changes to his starting lineup from the Chelsea game on the weekend. Only Sepp van den Berg started both games. A few players who played on the weekend were given the night off, with Pinnock, Igor Thiago and Jordan Henderson not included in the starting lineup or on the substitutes' bench.

Three captains

Janelt started the game as captain. When he came off at halftime, the armband went to longtime Bee, Rico Henry. Nathan Collins came on as a substitute for Kristoffer Ajer and eventually took the armband from Henry.

Black on red

The Bees wore their red and white home stripes as expected. As it wasn't a Premier League game, the team switched to their custom black letters and number font, which made for a tough read. Hopefully they'll switch to more readable white lettering for their next home cup match.

Offsides

Tough to say whether it was down to Villa's defending or the number of changes to the Bees' lineup, but the Bees were offside on 8 occasions. That's their highest total since their 2-0 defeat at Manchester City in February 2022.

Brentford goal contributions

Brentford penalties