The Bees open their sixth Premier League season, this time at home, against Tottenham. A busy summer for both teams, the late afternoon game will be filled with optimism for both sides.
Recent history
Tottenham kept the Bees scoreless in both games last year, with former Bees boss, Thomas Frank, at the helm for a rare home win by the Spurs and and an away draw.
The Bees have not beaten Spurs at the Gtech Community Stadium.
This is not the first time the Bees have hosted Spurs to open the season - the two also met to kick off the 2023-24 season, with the match ending as a 2-2 draw.
Brentford's opening day results in the Premier League
| Season | Date | Home/away | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 13 August 2021 | Home | Arsenal | 2-0 win |
| 2022-23 | 7 August 2022 | Away | Leicester City | 2-2 draw |
| 2023-24 | 13 August 2023 | Home | Tottenham | 2-2 draw |
| 2024-25 | 18 August 2024 | Home | Crystal Palace | 2-1 win |
| 2025-26 | 17 August 2025 | Away | Nottingham Forest | 3-1 loss |
Less change for the Bees than last summer
The Bees enter this season with much less significant change and turbulence than last season. While Jordan Henderson has moved on and Frank Onyeka's loan to Coventry has become permanent, there haven't been other significant senior player departures. Meanwhile, Premier League goal scoring experience has been added through the arrivals of Jayden Anthony and Callum Wilson and one of the top midfielders playing in France last season, Mamadou Sangare, has joined as well.
These changes leave the Bees with more depth and experience than previous seasons, a sure sign that the team management is wanting to make a serious push into Europe.
Opening day starting line-ups
While we won't know who makes it into Keith Andrew's starting eleven until tomorrow afternoon, we can take a look back at the last five seasons and see if there are any lessons to be learned.
New players often start
Newly joined players have frequently started the opening game, with 2024-25 being the only Premier League season for the Bees where no new players cracked the starting lineup.
New defenders often get the nod
Every Premier League season that the Bees have started a new player, they have started a newly joined defender (Kristoffer Ajer, Aaron Hickey, Ben Mee, Nathan Collins, Sepp van den Berg). Does that mean this will be a Premier League debut for Jannick Schuster?
Nobody has started all 5 PL openers
No Bees player has been in the starting lineup for all five opening Premier League matches. However, four have made it on four occasion: Vitaly Janelt, Rico Henry, Christian Norgaard, Mathias Jensen and Bryan Mbeumo.
Past opening day line-ups
Let's take a visual look back at the starting line-ups that the Bees have used on each of their first days in their previous Premier League seasons.
Brentford vs Arsenal (2021-22) (source: Correlation FC)
Brentford at Leicester City (2022-23) (source: Correlation FC)
Brentford vs Tottenham (2023-24) (source: Correlation FC)
Brentford vs Crystal Palace (2024-25) (source: Correlation FC)
Brentford at Nottingham Forest (2025-26) (source: Correlation FC)
Who will start in 2026-27? We only have to wait a few more hours to find out.
This story was published on 21 August 2026. It was written by Dennis Flood. The image at the top of this story was generated using AI.
