Brentford will look to make it seven home wins on the spin as they host Queens Park Rangers in the second instalment of the West London derby on Saturday. An Ollie Watkins brace secured the three points for the visitors in the reverse fixture back in October, and - should history repeat itself - the Bees will close the gap on West Bromwich Albion in second to just six points. 

Mark Warburton's return to Griffin Park will also no doubt add a layer of intrigue.

Team news

Aside from Sergí Canos and Niko Karelis' long-term knee injuries, Brentford head into the derby relatively unscathed in terms of  absentees.

The same can be said for the visitors, with defender Yoann Barbet's hamstring the only notable injury in what is otherwise a fully-fit squad.

Brentford predicted XI: Raya, Henry, Pinnock, Jansson, Roerslev, Dasilva, Nørgaard, Jensen, Mbeumo, Watkins, Benrahma.

QPR predicted XI: Lumley, Wallace, Leistner, Hall, Cameron, Ball, Amos, Eze, Chair, Osayi-Samuel, Wells.

Brentford's resurgence

While the underlying numbers suggested Brentford's performances warranted more than their results in the early stages of the season, few could have foreseen their remarkable surge into automatic promotion contention.

After a 2-0 defeat to Preston North End in September, Brentford were 18th, with just seven points from their opening seven matches. Manager Thomas Frank was on the brink.

The turning point came at home to Millwall, back in October. 2-0 down in the 55th minute, Brentford fought back with three goals in the final ten minutes to prevail 3-2. Since then, the Bees have won ten of their last fifteen, and emerged as the sole force deemed capable of toppling the top two.

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Saïd Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins are highly-valued for their fruitful offensive exploits, though historically goals have never been an issue for Brentford. It is improvements in organisation defensively where Frank will take most pride.

Undoubtedly aided by the acquisition of Pontus Jansson in the summer, Brentford have, statistically speaking, had the best defence in the league this season, conceding just 20 goals. 

Goals guaranteed 

With the second best attack and third worst defence in the league, QPR are the undisputed entertainers of the Sky Bet Championship this season. 11 goals in their last two games speaks for itself.

Blessed with illustrious attacking talents in Eberechi Eze and Nahki Wells, Rangers guarantee a gripping spectacle for the neutral having witnessed 92 goals in their 26 league matches. The 'travelling circus' title is not, however, something Warburton's men will be aspiring to, especially considering their glaring defensive deficiencies were the primary factors to the implosion of their early season playoff push.

QPR are often culpable for a lack of compactness and leaving far too many gaps in between their defenders, while Joe Lumley has not exactly offered an assuring presence in goal. The absence of Yoann Barbet has also played its part.

To exacerbate circumstances further for the R's, there are few better at exploiting and capitalising on space than Brentford's revered BMW (Benrahma, Mbeumo, Watkins).

The best defence against the second highest scorers ; something is going to give on Saturday.

Eze vs Mbeumo: prolific starlets go head-to-head

At 21 and 20 years of age, break-out stars Eze and Mbeumo will both be on a number of Premier League clubs' radar this January, and will almost certainly be playing football in the top division next year whether with or without their current clubs.

While Mbeumo is more of a traditional winger blessed with lightning pace and Eze an elusive No.10 with a hatful of tricks, both have demonstrated their precocious abilities on myriad occasions. 

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Mbeumo, aided by the efficient Watkins in front of goal, has notched five assists and 10 goals in this season. Eze has been in similar form, amassing 10 goals and six assists, though with a markedly worse group of players around him. 

Minimising the space and influence of these two will be integral to success for both sides.

What the managers have said

Frank was full of praise for his counterpart in his pre-match press conference, lauding the way in which he instilled an identity into Brentford during his time there.

"We need to respect the big impact he had here at Brentford. All of us are standing on the shoulders of others and he made top foundations for us," Frank told the local Brentford media.

"He was part of creating the identity we have now at Brentford with the style of play, playing attractive, offensive, creative football going forward. He should be really proud of that and we need to honour that and notice that."

He added: "You can see it's part of his style of play and identity because they play extremely good football going forward.

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"If we are on it defensively we will be fine, if not we will struggle because they are good going forward."

Warburton has insisted, however, that his Brentford allegiances are a thing of the past, and that his side must draw into the emotion of the fans to be successful. He told the QPR media: "It's a West London derby and what you have to do as a coach is understand what it means to the supporters. That's key."

He continued: "We have started to convert our chances in our last two games and in truth the stats from the previous games were better than Swansea and Cardiff but we were just more clinical. Goals change games and it's as simple as that."

 

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