Brentford team news: Mitoma and van Hecke return

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Albion are tenth heading into Saturday's game.

2025-04-18T09:00+01:00

Jan Paul van Hecke returns after suspension at Brentford on Saturday.

Albion take on Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, kick-off 3pm.

Fabian Hurzeler's team could move up to eighth in the Premier League with a win, while the Bees could cut the gap between themselves and Albion down to two points with a victory.

Team news

At his pre-match press conference on Friday, Fabian confirmed that Kaoru Mitoma will be available while Jan Paul van Hecke returns after suspension. He added there was a chance that Ferdi Kadioglu and James Milner could be available before the end of the season. "A few players [Igor, Tariq Lamptey, Joel Veltman] will be stepping up their rehab next week, so the message is positive," he said. "We are positive that they will be back with the squad so they can help us on the pitch."

Fabian's thoughts

"We have six finals left - that's a good message and one the players share." he said. "We know every game will be a challenge but it's also an opportunity and that is how we will approach it. You have to go step by step, you can't force it and that's our approach. We're a young group and it's a process, which we know takes time, and sometimes you have to take one step back to take two forward.

"Brentford will be difficult to beat. They are a very athletic team and fast in the front line. I've heard it's a nice atmosphere there and it's against an opponent who are difficult to beat. When we're on our highest level, as individuals and a team, we can go there and get a result. Our fans have had a lot of highs and lows this season and I can promise them every player is ready to put into the highest effort in the last six games to make them happy."

Match facts

Brentford have won just one of their seven Premier League games against Albion (D3 L3), a 2-0 home win in October 2022.

The last two Premier League meetings between Brentford and Albion have finished 0-0 – only four fixtures in the competition’s history have finished goalless in three times in a row: Arsenal v QPR (1992-1994), Aston Villa v Manchester United (1996-1997), Coventry v Sheffield Wednesday (1996-1997) and Charlton v Middlesbrough (2001-2002).

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Each of Brentford’s last five Premier League wins have come away from home – they are winless in eight on home soil (D3 L5), having won five in a row beforehand at the Brentford Community Stadium.

Albion are winless in four Premier League matches (D2 L2), shipping two or more goals in all four games. They’ve not had a longer run of conceding 2+ goals since February/March 2022 (six in a row).

Brentford came from 1-0 down to draw 1-1 with Arsenal last time out and have recovered 14 points from losing positions in the Premier League this season, only gaining more in their debut season of 2021-22 (15).

Nine of Albion's last 12 Premier League goals have come via set pieces (2x corner, 2x indirect free-kicks, 1x direct free-kick, 4x penalties). Overall, they’ve scored 17 set piece goals this season and have only scored more in one season (19 in 2018-19).

Brentford have faced 562 shots in the Premier League this season and even with six games of the season remaining, it is the most they’ve faced in a single campaign in the competition.

Albion twice took the lead in their 2-2 draw with Leicester City last time out and have now dropped 20 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, only dropping more in the 2020-21 campaign (25).

João Pedro has netted ten Premier League goals for Brighton and Hove Albion this season, his best scoring season in the competition. Only Glenn Murray (12 in 2017-18, 13 in 2018-19) has scored more in a season for the Seagulls.

Yoane Wissa has scored 15 Premier League goals for Brentford this season, one of two Bees players with 15+ goals this season along with Bryan Mbeumo (16). It’s only the second time a team has had two African players achieve that in the same season, along with Liverpool in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2021-22 when Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané did so.

Match officials