Brentford welcomes Sunderland to the Gtech, hoping to continue their undefeated start to the season.
The Bees haven't lost at home since February 2026.
Recent history
The two teams don't have a lot of recent history. Both won their home fixtures last year. Prior to that, they only had a pair of meetings in this century.
Jensen out
Mathias Jensen was a surprise absentee from last week's game away at Leeds, having picked up an injury in training. While he didn't play every game last season, he was in the matchday squad every time. Prior to the Leeds game, he hadn't missed a league game since April 2025.
Scoring differences
With only two games played so far this season, it's too early to read much into anything, but ... that's kind of our thing here. The Bees have scored four times overall, three times in the first half.
Looking back to last season, the Bees regularly scored both early in games and late. The team scored 12 goals in the 76-90 minute phase and another 7 in second half stoppage time. It's never wise to leave a Bees game early. Sunderland, on the other hand, was frequently a slow starting team with only 2 goals scored in the first 15 minutes of the game. No team scored fewer than their 13 first half goals. Their second half performances were much stronger, with the team scoring 29 times in the second half. Worth noting that in 118 minutes of first half stoppage time, Sunderland neither scored nor conceded. Meanwhile, Bees games featured 6 goals in 121 minutes of first half stoppage time.
Will it carry over this season? Time will tell - but don't be surprised if the Bees go ahead early and Sunderland fights back in the second half. Better stay in your seat until the half-time whistle blows though.
Brentford and Sunderland goal comparison from 2025-26 (source: Correlation FC)
A word about Josh
Fan favourite, Josh Dasilva, suffered another setback while playing with the B Team earlier this week. He seemed to be struggling early in the game and then injured his hamstring while sprinting for a through-ball. Apparently, he'll only be out a few weeks (rather than months or years), but it's surely a disappointing situation for him. Here's to hoping that he's quickly back to full health and is able to offer competition on the right side for the Bees soon.
This story was published on 04 September 2026. This story and the image at the top of the article were both created with care, by humans, not AI.
