Brentford arrived at Hill Dickinson Stadium like a team with a plan that had been rehearsed until it hummed. They were concise, aggressive, and clinical, and they left with a 4-2 win that felt less like a smash-and-grab and more like an away-day declaration. Everton were poor, yes, but Brentford deserve the loudest credit because they played with hunger and purpose, and they turned key moments into goals with brutal efficiency.
The opening goal set the tone. On 11 minutes, Igor Thiago put Brentford ahead, and it was the type of strike that immediately frames a match: one side sensing weakness, the other side suddenly feeling the pressure of having to chase. From there, Brentford looked the more composed side, moving the ball with intent and carrying a sharpness in the final third that Everton never matched.
What happened after half-time was pure Brentford insistence. Nathan Collins made it 2-0 on 50 minutes, and before Everton had found their bearings again, Thiago scored on 51 minutes to make it three. The speed of that double punch mattered. It did not just widen the scoreline, it broke Everton’s belief that a reset at the interval would change the game’s flow.
Even when Everton finally found a goal through Beto on 66 minutes, Brentford never looked rattled. That is the mark of a side that trusts its structure. Brentford continued to defend with discipline and attack with a clear idea, and when Everton opened up chasing the game, Brentford punished them exactly as a top-seven side should.
Thiago completed his hat-trick on 88 minutes, a finishing masterclass that made the afternoon feel like his personal highlight reel. Everton’s late header from Thierno Barry in stoppage time reduced the margin, but it barely touched the story. Brentford were the hungrier team, the sharper team, and the more clinical team, and those qualities travelled beautifully.
There is also something bigger in the way Brentford are winning matches like this. This was not just a good striker having a good day. It was a team performance built on organisation, intensity, and clarity in both boxes. Under Keith Andrews, Brentford are starting to look like a side that expects to win these games rather than hopes to. They played like they believed the table should make room for them, and they played like they had earned it.
If Everton will look back at this as an alarming dip, Brentford will look back at it as a marker. The goals were the headline, but the mindset was the message. Brentford were more urgent, more accurate, and far more ruthless, and in this league that combination is worth more than possession or noise. It is worth points, momentum, and a growing sense that Brentford’s season is heading somewhere interesting.
