The Gtech Community Stadium has seen an average of five goals per game this season, on course for the most at a venue in a Premier League campaign. We look at Thomas Frank’s new attack-minded Brentford.
If you could take a friend to a Premier League stadium to show them the most enthralling action, full of goals, drama and excitement, where would you suggest? Anfield? The Emirates? Old Trafford? The Etihad?
Football is a matter of opinions and tastes, but no, you’re wrong. You take them to the Gtech Community Stadium, and you take them now.
Yes, Brentford is the place to be if you want goals, goals and more goals. Thomas Frank’s side have become the great entertainers, particularly on home soil, where it has been party time every time in 2024-25.
We may have seen this coming before the campaign even began. Brentford hosted Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg in a pre-season friendly the week before the start of the new season and drew 4-4. It was indeed a sign of things to come.
A total of 40 goals have been scored in the eight games played at the Gtech in the Premier League in 2024-25, an average of 5.0 per game. That’s on course to comfortably beat the highest average of goals per game seen at a Premier League ground across a whole season, a record that currently belongs at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea’s home games in their title-winning 2009-10 campaign under Carlo Ancelotti saw 82 goals scored at an average of 4.3 per game, slightly ahead of White Hart Lane in the 2007-08 season, which saw 80 goals scored in 19 games, an average of 4.2 per game.
Stadiums with most goals PL history
And England’s capital is being treated to goals by the gallon again over in west London.
Brentford have scored in every home game but also haven’t kept any clean sheets, not even in their two EFL Cup games against lower-league sides Leyton Orient and Sheffield Wednesday.
Of course, it’s not always a good thing to see lots of goals. For example, Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane saw 4.0 goals per game last season, the vast majority of which went in against the Blades as they finished bottom of the Premier League.
However, the fact Brentford have the best home record in the Premier League having won all but one of the games in front of their fans this season (D1) suggests this open approach is benefitting them more than hindering.
Brentford’s eight home games have been made up of wins over Crystal Palace (2-1), Southampton (3-1), Wolves (5-3), Ipswich Town (4-3), Bournemouth (3-2), Leicester City (4-1) and Newcastle (4-2), as well as a 1-1 draw with West Ham.
It doesn’t appear to be a coincidence, either. When asked by Gary Lineker on Match of the Day on Saturday if he intended to play more attacking football this season, Frank replied: “Yes. We wanted to add some extra layers this season. We already started last season actually; we started well [in] the first 11/12 games and then all the injuries hit us hard. We reset again and wanted to add layers and try to be even more controlled offensively, but to make more breakthroughs and crosses and to play forward.”
They started last season in exactly the fashion Frank intended, scoring 19 goals in their first 11 league games, winning 16 points. But their season turned when those injuries came, as they managed just 22 goals in their next 20 games, losing 13 times and gaining just 13 points.
Having gone back to adding those attacking “layers” this season, Brentford have scored 31 goals in 15 games, with only Chelsea (35) scoring more in the Premier League. A whopping 26 of those goals have come in eight home games, though, at least six more than any other team. We’re in early December, and they are already just three goals off their total in their 19 home games last season (29). It’s also twice as many home goals as teams such as Aston Villa, Manchester United and Liverpool (13 each), though having played one more home game than Arne Slot’s league leaders.
Most home goals team 2024-25 Premier League
The relative difference in strength of opposition must be considered, though. Bournemouth are the only team Brentford have faced at home who are currently in the top half of the table.
Frank suggested his team would look to attempt more crosses, and they are doing just that – at home anyway. At the Gtech, Brentford have averaged 21.1 crosses per game (including corners) this season, and 15.6 open-play crosses, up from 19.5 and 14.9 in 2023-24.
Their new attacking approach includes fast starts, and Brentford broke a Premier League record when they scored in the opening minute of three consecutive games earlier this season, almost doing so in a fourth straight game, only for Nathan Collins to take until the second minute to open the scoring against Ipswich in October.
They’re carving out good chances, too. Looking at home games only, Brentford have the joint-highest xG per shot (0.16) along with Southampton, but have attempted almost twice as many shots (112) as Saints (58). It should be noted that Russell Martin’s strugglers have played one home game fewer, though.
Brentford home xG for 2024-25
Brentford’s average of 3.25 goals per game at home is comfortably ahead of their next highest as a Premier League club (1.84 goals per home game in 2022-23), but as alluded to already, it’s not necessarily due to increasing the volume of shots.
While their average of 14.0 shots per home game is the most they’ve had as a Premier League side, it’s only 0.3 more than they averaged in home games last season. Their xG per home game has gone up from 1.67 in 2023-24 to 2.27 this season, though, which shows that the quality of each chance has increased, but it also points to how impressive their finishing has been. Brentford have overperformed their xG by almost a full goal each home game on average.
Including home and away games, the chart below shows how Brentford are both creating high-quality chances (excluding penalties) and finishing them well too. They are outperforming every other team for both non-penalty xG per shot and their shot conversion rate, too.
Non-penalty xG per shot and NP conversion Premier League
Despite being unable to keep a clean sheet at home and the fact only three teams have conceded more goals at home than Brentford (16), they’re not necessarily giving up high-quality chances at the other end because of their new attacking approach. Ten Premier League teams have conceded a higher xG per shot in home games this season than their 0.10. Their 1.40 xG against per home game is down from last season’s 1.58.
Brentford home xG against 2024-25
Another notable achievement is how Brentford have managed to become a significantly better attacking unit despite selling their star striker this past summer. Ivan Toney was largely outstanding in his time at the club, scoring 36 goals in 83 Premier League games, but Frank had already needed to work out how his team could thrive without the England international last season when a lengthy suspension meant Toney was unable to play until late January 2024.
It seemed Brentford had already moved on from relying on their former main man. In the 22 Premier League games in which Toney didn’t start in 2023-24, they had a win percentage of 31.8% and averaged 1.6 goals per game. In the 16 games Toney did start, their win percentage reduced to 18.8% and they scored 1.3 goals per game.
A big reason for that evolution has been the partnership of Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa, with both netting again in Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Newcastle. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, both Mbeumo and Wissa have scored in 15 different Premier League games for Brentford, the most of any duo for a side in the competition.
Eight of Mbeumo’s nine league goals this season have come at home, while the Cameroon international has already equalled his joint-best tally for a Premier League campaign. Mbeumo has also overperformed his xG by more than any other player in the division, with his nine goals coming from just 4.26 xG (+4.74).
Wissa, meanwhile, has scored in each of his last seven home league games for Brentford (nine goals), while his 19 goals is the joint most in the top flight at the Gtech Community Stadium, level with Toney.
Mbeumo and Wissa have each scored eight goals in home league games this season, more than anyone else in the Premier League.
Most home goals 2024-25 Premier League
We can’t talk about Brentford’s excellent home form without acknowledging their polar opposite away form, though. The Bees have the best home record in the Premier League, but they have the second-worst away record, with only Southampton’s inferior goal difference preventing it from being the worst.
Brentford have drawn one and lost six of their seven league trips this season, scoring just five goals and conceding 14. They and Southampton are the only two teams yet to win on the road, but it should be mentioned that those away games have come against Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham, Manchester United, Fulham, Everton and Aston Villa.
As we revealed in the latest edition of our weekly football newsletter, Stat, Viz, Quiz, Brentford have averaged 2.75 points per game at home, and just 0.14 points per game away. That difference of 2.61 points per game is comfortably the greatest in Premier League history. Across an entire Premier League season, Fulham have the biggest points-per-game difference between home and away results from the 2005-06 campaign. They averaged 2.16 points at Craven Cottage, compared to just 0.37 on the road (1.79 difference).
When Lineker asked Frank why Brentford have been so much better at home than away, the Dane replied honestly and with a smirk: “I’ve got no clue!”
Those results may turn around once the fixture list becomes kinder. In the coming weeks they travel to Southampton, Palace, West Ham and Leicester.
On the other hand, the same could be true of Brentford’s home form as their next four games at the Gtech see them host four of the current top five in the Premier League.
What’s likely to be here to stay is the goals, though. Of the 27 league games at Brentford’s home since the start of last season, only five didn’t see both teams score.
It may be party time at the Gtech, but Brentford are showing themselves to be a serious football team on home soil. The rate of goals may slow down eventually, but if you’re after entertainment in the Premier League, Brentford is the place to be.
Opta Stats Hub Premier League
Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You can also follow our social accounts over onX, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.