soccer

Burnley v Brentford: Key stats and talking points

After a slip against Brighton & Hove Albion last time out, surprise European hopefuls Brentford will be looking to get back on track when they visit relegation-threatened Burnley on Saturday (15:00 GMT) in the Premier League.

Despite the 2-0 defeat, Brentford are still in seventh spot in the table. There are seven teams within five points of Keith Andrews' side, though, meaning the congested mid-table could be mixed up significantly in the coming weeks.

As for Burnley, they need a huge upturn in form to pull themselves out of trouble. They are fighting, though, as evidenced by their last-gasp equaliser at Chelsea last weekend.

Clarets continue to fight

The draw at Stamford Bridge means Burnley are eight points away from safety and, while that does look to be a mountain to climb, there is some historical precedent for a team getting themselves out of a similar hole.

Portsmouth managed to survive in 2005–06 when they were eight points from safety with 11 games to play. West Bromwich Albion also did so in 2004–05, albeit they had two games in hand on their relegation rivals.

The Burnley players still seem to believe, too. That much was evident at Chelsea and in the previous Premier League fixture, when they bounced back from 2-0 down at Crystal Palace to win 3-2.

In fact, since their 2-2 draw at home to Manchester United, no team in the division has earned more points from losing positions than Scott Parker's side.

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In their past 11 league games, Burnley have lost only four. Crucially, though, they have won just one. If they are to mirror the heroics of Portsmouth from 19 years ago, that is something they will need to remedy in the remaining weeks of the campaign.

Open encounter could suit the Bees

If Burnley are going to go on the front foot in search of wins and potentially leave space to be exploited on the counter-attack, that could suit Brentford and the way they play. Only Chelsea have scored more than Brentford's five goals this season from direct attacks.

Brentford have also put together the fewest build-ups - defined by Opta as an open-play sequence that contains 10 or more passes and either ends in a shot or has at least one touch in the box - in the league this season. The Bees have just 19, while Manchester City lead the way with 138.

Burnley are second-lowest in that category, and the numbers seem to suggest that this fixture could be one where the ball changes hands frequently.

Burnley (14.7%) and Brentford (14.5%) are the two teams with the highest long-pass percentage in the Premier League this season. Indeed, Burnley made 79 long passes in this season's reverse fixture between these two sides - the most by any team in a game in 2025–26.

A chart illustrating the number of long passes played by teams in the Premier League this season
[BBC]

The style has undoubtedly worked for Brentford and their star forward, Igor Thiago, who has plundered 17 goals already this season in the Premier League.

The Brazilian has hit his worst spell of the campaign heading into this fixture, though. Since scoring five goals in two games against Everton and then Sunderland earlier this year, Thiago's only strike in his last six games was a penalty in the away win at Newcastle United.

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