Match Preview: Brentford v Aston Villa

Brentford FC

·5 Maret 2025

Match Preview: Brentford v Aston Villa

Brentford will be looking to continue their good run of form in the Premier League on Saturday evening (5.30pm kick-off GMT), when Aston Villa visit Gtech Community Stadium live on Sky Sports.

Thomas Frank's side have lost just one of their last five matches, with their most recent points coming courtesy of a 1-1 draw with Everton last Wednesday. As for Aston Villa, their trip to west London falls between their two Champions League Round of 16 games against Club Brugge.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know before the Bees' latest test.

Pre-Match Analysis

Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: Villa come alive when the ball goes dead

Brentford are currently on the joint-longest winning run in the Premier League on their travels, but the Bees’ focus will snap back to their home form at Gtech Community Stadium against Aston Villa this Saturday.

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The most prolific side in the top flight on home soil this term with 30 goals, the Bees had to settle for a 1-1 draw against in-form Everton on their own patch last weekend and Thomas Frank's side will aim to bag three points against the Villans prior to back-to-back away trips to Bournemouth and Newcastle.

Frank's team talk is perhaps halfway written given the last raucous encounter between the two teams at the Gtech back in December 2023. An injury-ravaged Brentford looked on course for a valuable victory thanks to Keane Lewis-Potter's first Premier League goal, but the hosts were derailed by Ben Mee's contentious 71st-minute red card.

Alex Moreno’s equaliser and a late match-winner from Ollie Watkins turned the game on its head, and the lingering memory of a full-blown melee in Mark Flekken's goal after the former Brentford forward's 85th-minute decider could feature in Frank's pre-match rallying call.

Aside from heaping cognitive dissonance upon Brentford fans who cheered every one of Watkins’ 49 goals in 143 games for the Bees between 2017 and 2020, Villa's match winner that day serves as a clear warning regarding one of their key strengths: set-pieces.

Watkins’ winner was a close-range header from a corner-kick routine involving a classy flick from Boubacar Kamara and if you fast forward to this season, Unai Emery's side top the Premier League charts for goals (13) from free-kicks, corners and throw-ins.

Both Lucas Digne and Youri Tielemans rank in the Premier League's top 10 for assists from crosses this season, with four apiece, and Brentford will need to utilise their own street smarts to counter the Midlanders' considerable threat when the ball goes dead.

Another potential danger for the Bees stems from Villa's ability to cause problems with the ball at their feet.

Only Man City (260) and Brighton (257) have completed more successful dribbles than Villa (256) this season in the top flight, and Emery's side have drawn more fouls (371) than any team - John McGinn (54) and Tielemans (46) in the top 10 in the division for fouls suffered.

Morgan Rogers' rapid evolution into one of English football's most exciting wingers has been a highlight of the current campaign, and the former Man City academy graduate (52) is one of only five Premier League players to complete 50+ successful dribbles this season.

Add into the mix new loan signing Marcus Rashford's four successful take-ons per 90 in 2024/25 and Villa will be a handful in 1v1s.

There are statistical chinks in Villa's armour for Brentford to exploit, though.

No team has conceded more Premier League goals to fast breaks than Villa's seven so far this season and Brentford's quicksilver frontline of Mbeumo-Wissa-Schade, along with creator-in-chief Mikkel Damsgaard, could get joy if they spring forward at the right times.

Furthermore, this season only three teams (Leicester, Wolves and Southampton) have shipped more away goals than Villa (27) in the Premier League and this will be music to the ears of a Brentford side with a league-leading goal tally at home.

With top talent on the pitch, astute tacticians in either dugout and a Brentford side looking to reassert themselves at home, everything points to an intriguing encounter.

Scout Report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Villa's fight to secure European football

Aston Villa were on a run of one win in eight Premier League games when Brentford visited Villa Park in December. The attempt to follow last term’s fourth-place finish had started so well – then dropped off considerably.

“Our challenge is to fight on Wednesday with Brentford and see how our level is,” Unai Emery told Sky Sports after a 3-0 defeat to Chelsea three days earlier. “There are still matches to play and we are going to recover our confidence, trying to build the team. We have to try to be better than we are now.”

His call was answered as three goals in 13 first-half minutes set his side on their way to a 3-1 win over the Bees. But it did not spark a dramatic return to form and they took seven points from the next 15 on offer, having scraped past lowly Southampton and lost to clubs with similar ambitions in Nottingham Forest and Newcastle.

There was certainly more transfer talk and rumours for fans to get their teeth stuck into during this year's January transfer window compared to 12 months earlier - and not many clubs were as active as Villa were – and perhaps needed to be.

In addition to the 12 players that departed on loan for the remainder of the season, three were sold: Jaden Philogene to Ipswich, Diego Carlos to Fenerbahçe and Jhon Durán to Al-Nassr.

When factoring in the signings of Donyell Malen and Andre Garcia from Borussia Dortmund and Levante respectively, Villa ended the window having spent less than they brought in.

The loan signings they managed to complete were impressive, too. They strengthened the backline with Chelsea centre-back Axel Disasi and managed to bring three-time Champions League winner Marco Asensio in from Paris Saint-Germain. However, one story dominated the headlines: Marcus Rashford's future. For the time being, that is at Villa Park.

The forward's apparent differences with Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim led to him missing eight Premier League games between 15 December and 26 January and, on 2 February he left on loan for the rest of the season.

He has already played four league games and provided both assists for the aforementioned Asensio in the 2-1 win over Chelsea on 22 February.

What might become integral to any permanent move, though, is whether Villa manage to secure European football for next season in what remains of this.

Along with champions-elect Liverpool, Unai Emery's side have played 28 league games, which is one more than each of the remaining 18 teams.

A six-point gap to third-placed Nottingham Forest might not seem like much right now, but it could soon look a little more challenging, particularly when you factor in they have won just once in the last seven league games.

There are other avenues through which they could qualify - namely the FA Cup and the Champions League - but that would require a first major trophy since their Coca-Cola Cup win in 1995/96.

Emery has already conceded his side are "not a contender" to win the FA Cup, which probably tells you all you need to know about what he thinks of their Champions League hopes.

Therefore, finishing as high in the table as possible is imperative, even though the amount of European places is yet to be decided, and as many as seven English clubs could play in the Champions League next term.

But with Brighton, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Newcastle, Man City, Fulham, Bournemouth, Tottenham and Manchester United to play after the trip to west London, the end of the season is not going to be plain sailing.

In the Dugout

Unai Emery

Having taken charge of more than 1,000 matches across the last 21 years, Unai Emery is one of the most experienced managers currently working in the Premier League.

After a career as a midfielder, mostly playing in the second tier of Spanish football, the Spaniard had a pretty quick transition into management, having suffered a serious knee injury in his early 30s.

He helped now-defunct Lorca Deportiva earn promotion in 2004/05 and got Almería into La Liga for the first time in 2006/07, before an incredible eighth-place finish the following campaign.

In 2008, his exploits saw him move on to Valencia, whom he guided to three straight third-placed finishes from 2010 to 2012, before a forgettable six-month spell in Russia with Spartak Moscow. He returned to Spain in January 2013 and guided Sevilla to three successive Europa League titles.

Two years and seven trophies with Paris Saint-Germain followed, with Emery then trusted by the Arsenal board to become the successor to Arsène Wenger, which was, to an extent, a poisoned chalice.

The Europa League king guided the Gunners to the final in 2019, where they were beaten by Chelsea in Baku, Azerbaijan, but he was unable to help them finish higher than fifth for the first time in four seasons.

He was sacked after 18 months in November 2019 and appointed by Villarreal in July 2020, with - you’ve guessed it - a fourth Europa League triumph following 10 months later, by way of a penalty shoot-out win over Manchester United in Gdańsk, Poland.

The 53-year-old turned down an approach by Newcastle United in November 2021, but came back to England to replace Steven Gerrard at Villa Park in October 2022. He signed a new contract until the summer of 2027 last April, then another extension until the summer of 2029 the following month.

The Gameplan

With Sky Sports' Patrick Rowe

Sky Sports' Patrick Rowe explains how Unai Emery is likely to set up his side to take on Brentford on Saturday evening.

"It has changed slightly to accommodate for Asensio playing through the middle," said Rowe.

"There will still be someone playing off Ollie Watkins up front and someone playing wide out on the left, but Asensio will always be given freedom if he starts.

"The width comes from Rashford or Jacob Ramsey down the left.

"Keep an eye out for Andrés García at right-back, too. He has quickly become a fan favourite and loves running down that right wing. He can cross it, too."

Last starting XI v Club Brugge in Champions League (4-2-3-1): Martínez; Disasi, Konsa, Mings, Digne; McGinn, Tielemans; Bailey, Rogers, Rashford; Watkins

Read our full interview with Patrick Rowe here

Match Officials

Jarred Gillett, the best a man can get

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistants: Darren Cann and Mark Scholes

Fourth official: Andy Madley

VAR: Peter Bankes

Born on the Gold Coast, Australia, highly rated A-League referee Jarred Gillett emigrated to England in 2019 to study at Liverpool John Moore’s University, specialising in research on children with Cerebral Palsy.

He went on to make his EFL officiating debut in April of that same year.

Gillett made history in September 2021 when he became the first overseas official to referee a Premier League match when he took charge of Watford v Newcastle United.

His last Brentford assignment was the Bees’ 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in February.

Gillett has refereed 15 games this season, showing 61 yellow cards and one red.