Thomas Frank is positive Brentford will improve their away form, with the Bees travelling to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea in their next fixture away from home.
Brentford lost 3-1 at Aston Villa on Wednesday night to suffer a sixth defeat out of seven matches on the road in the Premier League this season. While Brentford boast the best home form in the division ahead of Saturday’s visit of Newcastle, Frank’s men have only picked up one point away in the top flight this term, which was a goalless draw at Everton last month.
“Looking back at the (Villa) game on the way home on the bus and also this morning, I am more positive. I think we played 20 good, solid away minutes, the first 20 minutes and were definitely more than in the game. Then we lose the game in 14 minutes,” Frank told a press conference.
“For me I just look at the game, analyse it, analyse the performance, look into what was good, what was bad. When I look into the seven away games we’ve played this season, there has been one very bad. That was Fulham (2-1 defeat).
“When I look at this, it’s not as bad. It’s 14 brilliant minutes from Villa and they were good against us. We’re playing a Champions League team. We are not a Champions League team. You could see the difference in spells yesterday.
“We have big expectation to ourselves and big belief. That’s why it hurts when we lose a game because we knew and we thought we could do something. Unfortunately we couldn’t.
“We showed many times we can play against any team in this division and go toe-to-toe, but we need to hit our highest level and we didn’t do that. I don’t see too big a difference and I am pretty sure over the course of the season it will even out more.”
After Brentford's next Premier League match against Newcastle on Saturday, Frank's men make the trip to Chelsea to face Enzo Maresca's side on Sunday, December 15. Brentford were without seven players at Villa, but captain Christian Norgaard and defender Kristoffer Ajer (foot) could be available for the Newcastle clash.
Norgaard missed the midweek fixture with a minor issue before he returned to training on Thursday and was joined by Ajer, who has not played since a 2-1 loss at Manchester United on October 19. Frank added: “I’m still very hopeful that Norgaard will be available. He trained today on the pitch, so that’s positive.
“Kristoffer Ajer (trained) as well, so those are the two likely.” The Bees are still without Rico Henry (knee), Aaron Hickey (hamstring), Josh Dasilva (knee), Mathias Jensen (hamstring) and Gustavo Nunes (back).
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