After tasting what can only be described as a rare defeat in the week, Brentford return home to face high-flyers Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday (3pm). Can Thomas Frank’s Bees buzz back? Or will the Magpies pick up yet another shiny victory on the road? This Brentford FC vs NUFC preview aims to answer those queries before deciding on our betting tips.
The Bees failed to sting their hosts on Wednesday evening, as they buzzed around at Old Trafford but to no avail, losing by a goal to nil, thanks to yet another promising display from the in-form Marcus Rashford. However, it is not time to panic for Thomas Frank’s men. After all, that was only their second league defeat in 17 matches. They have not been beaten at home in the Premier League since September, when EPL leaders Arsenal got the job done.
All in all, despite losing on Wednesday, the Bees come here in fine shape. They know how to make themselves hard to beat, while they always carry a threat offensively, especially when Ivan Toney, who is the EPL’s third top scorer this term, is firing.
Speaking on teams in fine shape, Eddie Howe’s Magpies flew very high indeed in East London during the week, as they romped to victory, scoring five goals in the process. That thumping win signalled four straight victories in the Premier League, which means that they are back up to third, in front of Manchester United on goal difference.
It is starting to look inconceivable than the Magpies will finish out of the top four, which means that they will be playing in the Champions League for the first time in two decades. They will go to West London in confident mood, that’s for sure.
Brentford tough to beat at home
The Bees are not the most prolific winners, it’s probably fair to say that. After all, they’ve drawn more games than they’ve won this campaign, while they have drawn only one less than they have won at home. What they are, though, is incredibly tough to beat, especially when surrounded by the comforts of the Gtech Community Stadium.
As mentioned in this preview earlier, Saturday’s hosts haven’t lost at home since September and that remains their only home defeat of the campaign. Why have they avoided defeat so regularly? Well, for starters, they are well organised and they give little away. Only four teams have conceded fewer home goals than Brentford this season, which points towards them having a certain amount of resoluteness. They are often happy to sit back and soak up pressure and they do it well, so the visitors on Saturday will probably have to be somewhere near their attacking best to made significant headway.
NUFC travelling well
Much of Newcastle’s relative success this season can be attributed to strong away form. Yes, they have been very good at home, but they’ve complimented that with plenty of travelling points too. As things at stand, only the current top two in the Premier League have collected more away-day points than the Magpies, who have won six, drawn six and lost just two of their games away from the comforts of the northeast.
Ahead of this game, they have won two away games on the spin, while they have only lost one travelling fixture (in the league) since losing at Anfield all the way back in August. Much of that success has been down to a lack of goals conceded. Eddie Howe’s men have conceded only 11 travelling goals, shipping at a rate of just 0.78 per away match. That is impressive. Only the current league leaders have conceded fewer away goals this season.
Magpies on top
In recent times, the Geordie boys have made light work of winning this fixture. At this venue last season, they won by two goals to nil. They bettered that result by winning 5-1 in the reverse fixture earlier this campaign. Since jumping up to England’s top division, Brentford have not beaten Newcastle, though they did take a point from Saturday’s visitors when drawing 3-3 at St. James’ Park back in late 2021.
Goals to stay away?
We are talking about a Brentford team that likes to defend at home and a Newcastle team that has been very defensively reliable on the road. Keeping this in mind, ‘Under 2.5 Goals’ makes some appeal as one of the betting tips at the current odds with the main UK bookies.
Brentford don’t tend to concede many goals at home, shipping an average rate of just 1.00 per game. Sure, the visitors come here off the back of a high-scoring win, but they were allowed a lot of freedom on that occasion, which is not something that Brentford are likely to do. In fact, the hosts will almost certainly aim to keep the shackles on the visitors over anything else, which could lend itself to a low-scoring encounter.
In many of their away games, the Magpies have been quite happy with the low-key approach too. They don’t tend to go gung-ho and open the game right up, especially not early on, which is probably why they have been involved in more than their fair share of low-scoring games. In all competitions, five of their last seven away games have contained less than three goals, while a maximum of two goals have been scored in four of their last six in the Premier League.
It is also worth noting that both Brentford and Newcastle sit comfortably in the top half for clean sheets in their respective home and away games. At the end of the day, there’s plenty to suggest that this could be something of a stalemate, at least for a while. Lack of goals could perhaps be the more likely by-product of that than the early prices suggest. So for the Brentford FC vs NUFC betting tips for this preview, we rely on this one:
Bradley Gibbs is an experienced football writer. He is an expert analyst on Premier League, and all global football leagues & tournaments, for Just Bookies. Bradley has been published by many respected outlets, including USA Betting and the Racing & Football Outlook. He has also written betting strategy guides.