Bees and Sunderland draw 1-1

After a difficult first half, the Bees put in a strong second-half performance. They went ahead 1-0 on a beautiful volley by Vitaly Janelt but gave up a late penalty to finish with a draw.

What was different

Collins out, Schuster in

Nathan Collins left the game early in the first half with a calf injury. Modern Bees legend, Ethan Pinnock, left the team in the transfer window and Sepp van den Berg is still out with injury. So, that left Jannik Schuster. Schuster made his Premier League debut and impressed with a solid performance, betraying his age and complete lack of Premier League experience. While we hope that Collins is back from injury soon, we were relieved and impressed to see Schuster's strong performance.

VAR intervened

In the first two games of the season, VAR hadn't needed to get involved in Brentford games. Different this time around as VAR took goals away from both teams. Justice? Perhaps. Feels good? Definitely not.

Foul imbalance

Fees at the Gtech felt hard done by with calls seemingly always going Sunderland's way. Was it just a feeling, or was it real? The Bees were whistled for 19 fouls, compared to 10 for the Black Cats, a difference of 10.

Team foul discrepancies in the 2026-27 Premier League season (source: Sofascore)

Match Date	Home Team	Away Team	Home Fouls	Away Fouls	Difference	Final Score	Referee
2026-08-31	Aston Villa	Arsenal	17	6	0-1	11	Gillett
2026-08-22	Everton	Crystal Palace	5	15	2-0	10	Tierney
2026-09-05	Brentford	Sunderland	19	9	1-1	10	Bramall
2026-09-05	Manchester City	Coventry City	7	17	1-0	10	Tierney
2026-09-05	Nottingham Forest	Tottenham Hotspur	22	13	0-0	9	Pawson

We can see that the difference of 10 was the second highest in the league this season. No team with a foul difference of 10 or more has won yet this season.

What was familiar

Janelt carded

Three games, three yellow cards. Janelt is tops in the league in that category, not likely one that he wants to be on top of. Only two more cards in the next 16 games and he'll need to serve a one-game ban.

What's next?

Diouf to start?

New signing, Malick Diouf, has not yet had his first minutes for the Bees. While Keane Lewis-Potter continues to have a strong season, he was at fault for the foul called against Wilson Isidor that led to the game-tying penalty. There's a good chance that if Diouf had been at left-back that the play would have worked out differently.

If Diouf comes in for KLP, Keith Andrews will have another selection headache. How can he keep him engaged and getting minutes? Who will come out? Time will tell.

Player flow

Each season, we look at the flow of players into and out of the team. After the summer 2026 transfer window, the Bees say goodbye to Frank Onyeka and Pinnock, both on their way to Coventry City, while Jordan Henderson left on a free transfer to Chelsea.

Player transition at Brentford from 2021-22 to 2026-27 (source: Correlation FC)

Incoming players include Diouf, Schuster, Jaidon Anthony, Callum Wilson and Mamadou Sangaré.

Elsewhere in the league

Draws, draws, draws

Brentford and Sunderland weren't the only team to finish with a draw. Across Match Day 3, 6 of the 10 matches ended up with a draw. This is the second highest total in the last 10 years in the Premier League.

Brentford goal contributions

Goal	Goal scorer	First assist	Second assist	Goal scenario	Time of goal
1	Janelt	Damsgaard	Yarmoliuk	Open play	57'

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