Brentford team news: Mitoma can start against Bees

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All the team news ahead of Wednesday evening's game.

Charlie Hanson

2023-12-05T13:45:00Z

Kaoru Mitoma came off the bench against Chelsea on Sunday, having missed the previous Premier League game against Nottingham Forest.

Albion will look to secure a win over Brentford at the Amex on Wednesday that could see them move up to seventh in the Premier League, kick-off is 7.30pm.

With Roberto De Zerbi’s team kicking off 45 minutes before Manchester United face Chelsea, three points would see them leapfrog Eric ten Hag’s men who are two points above us.

How to follow the game

Wednesday evening's game is live on Amazon Prime.

You can also follow the live updates on our match centre and social media channels.

Team news

Roberto De Zerbi said in his press conference on Tuesday, "Today and tomorrow we analyse the situation, but I don’t want to take risks with potential new injuries. At the moment the squad that played in Stamford Bridge can play again.

"[Kaoru] Mitoma can play again because he played 65 minutes in Athens and it was a big risk to play with him for much time. Tomorrow he can play, he can start the game. We will see tomorrow morning."

Out last meeting

Albion’s last match with Brentford proved to be a thrilling occasion as we drew 3-3 at the Amex in April. Kaoru Mitoma grabbed the pick of the goals when he lobbed David Raya from Jason Steele’s sensational pass. A laye penalty by Alexis Mac Allister secured us a point.

Player to watch

Bryan Mbeumo has scored six Premier League goals so far this campaign.

Bryan Mbeumo was involved in an impressive 17 Premier League goals last season – nine goals and eight assists – but he looks set to surpass that this campaign. The Cameroon international already has six goals and four assists in 14 Premier League appearances, and is now just three goals shy of his half-century for the Bees.

Match facts

Having won their first two Premier League games against Brentford in 2021-22, Albion failed to beat the Bees in either league meeting last season (D1 L1).

Brentford have won just two of their last nine away league games against Brighton (D2 L5), beating them in the Championship in January 2015 (1-0) and September 2016 (2-0).

Brighton have won four of their last seven midweek (Tues, Weds, Thurs) Premier League games (D1 L2), as many as they had in their first 38 such matches (D15 L19).

Having lost all five of their midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Premier League games in 2021-22, Brentford lost just one of their five such matches last term (W2 D2).

Albion are unbeaten in their last five Premier League home games, with each of the last three ending in a draw (W2). The Seagulls last drew four consecutive home league games in October/November 2017.

Brentford have won just one of their 11 Premier League games outside of London so far in 2023 (D3 L7), with the Bees winless in the last eight of these (D2 L6). However, their only such victory in this time did come on the south coast, beating Southampton 2-0 in March.

Brentford have scored at least twice in all five of their Premier League victories this season, failing to win any of their seven games when not scoring multiple goals (D2 L5).

After a run of 30 Premier League games without a single goal or assist, Brentford’s Neal Maupay has now been involved in four goals in his last six appearances (2 goals, 2 assists).

Evan Ferguson has scored seven goals in his last eight Premier League home games for Brighton. Since the start of this run in May, it’s more than twice as many goals as the next highest scorer at the Amex Stadium has (Simon Adingra, 3).

Match officials

Referee: Peter Bankes.

Assistants: Eddie Smart, Nick Greenhalgh.

Fourth official: Graham Scott.

VAR: Andy Madley.

Assistant VAR: Adrian Holmes.