Brentford

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We asked you what still needs to happen before the transfer window closes at 19:00 GMT on Monday.

Here are some of your comments:

Jamie: It's not popular to do nothing but I think that's the plan. We are in the top half of the Premier League, are under no pressure of relegation and the current squad need their opportunity to keep growing together. This is a season of consolidation after the summer departures, with a chance of a European spot. I don't expect us to throw money at chasing a higher finishing position. We will shop again in the summer.

Jason: Probably an unpopular opinion but I'd have Raheem Sterling. Proven leader and classy guy. Exactly what Brentford need.

George: No need to open the wallet - we have been uncharacteristically lucky this season with injuries. It is, however, time for Frank Onyeka to move on - he started this season well and has an infectious energy about him, but his decision making in the final third is far too erratic for a team that relies on clinical decision making inside the box and doesn't generate enough chances to justify his wild shooting from outside it.

Ian: A box-to-box midfielder. Joey Veerman has been discussed in the past. Certainly no goalkeepers are needed!

Mike: Brentford are, thankfully, in a fairly safe mid-table position. With this in mind, I don't see any senior buys. Possibly a couple of fringe players leaving on loan or even permanently.

Ben: Get rid of Onyeka.

Ask us questions about Brentford and we'll put them to our experts

Match of the Day pundits Danny Murphy and Troy Deeney discuss how Keith Andrews set Brentford up defensively to "suffocate" Aston Villa, even after the Bees had a player sent off, to earn a 1-0 win at Villa Park.

Today is the final chance of the season for your Premier League team to do transfer business.

The window closes at 19:00 GMT, meaning teams - and fans - can avoid the usual late-night transfer scramble.

It has already been a busy window - for some teams anyway - but whether it turns out to be a day of transfer action or a pretty quiet one for your club, you will be able to keep across it all on BBC Sport.

Follow our live text coverage throughout the day here

Get alerts and keep up to date with all the latest news, insight and fan views for your club

Danny Murphy and Troy Deeney join host Mark Chapman to bring you the action and talking points from Sunday's four Premier League fixtures.

Watch on BBC iPlayer here

And listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Aston Villa 0-1 Brentford

• Manchester United 3-2 Fulham

• Nottingham Forest 1-1 Crystal Palace

• Tottenham 2-2 Manchester City

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Brentford were exceptional. It can be portrayed as a smash-and-grab victory but the Bees deserved the points after a brilliant defensive display.

They were resilient, compact, organised and battle-hardened. They gave Aston Villa nowhere to go despite the constant second-half pressure.

Brentford had only 12 touches in Villa's box, compared to the hosts' 76, but the Bees earned their win through grit and determination.

The threat of Keith Andrews' side was downplayed at the start of the season, a rookie boss having lost Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa to Manchester United and Newcastle respectively.

Andrews was aware of the perception of him and his side and they have gone about proving the doubters wrong.

A European place is within their grasp as they top the chasing pack in a congested mid-table.

Only three points separate Brentford and 12th-placed Bournemouth but, on this evidence, the Bees have the stomach and quality for the fight.

We asked for your thoughts after Sunday's Premier League game between Aston Villa and Brentford.

Here are some of your comments:

Villa fans

Ian: A woeful performance from Villa. Someone signing in after half time would not have realised Brentford had 10 men. Villa huffed and puffed playing slow short passes outside the Brentford box without creating any real chances

Steven: Like with Everton, we huffed and we puffed but without any of our standout long term midfield trio of Kamara, Tielemans and McGinn we aren't able to turn over teams with that incisive pass or in transition. Fair play to the Bees, they dug in and took time out of the game - who wouldn't I guess…

Magy: If it's 0-0 when the opposition has a player sent off and, despite having more than a half to play, you still lose, you get what you deserve. Villa need to find a way to break down teams who just park the bus.

Ged: Just not good enough - Groundhog Day when attacking and hitting a wall of Brentford players. VAR should never have intervened as there was no clear evidence to prove the ball was out - therefore not a clear and obvious error - goal should have stood. Well done Brentford though, they defended valiantly.

Brentford fans

George: A thoroughly deserved win that showcases just how far our defensive stability has come - we have always struggled to hold onto a lead and have been wholly outmatched on several previous visits here. If only they gave you a fourth point for winning with ten!

Mel: Despite Villa's injury list (we know what thats like), its still a 'wow' for this victory. To beat Villa away with 10 for about an hour, shows high levels of focus & resilience. This squad and management team continue to impress (even after last weeks loss) and they deserve nothing but praise. Shade's red - well, let's hope he learns from this.

Neel: Disappointing judgment by Kevin Schade, once again. Fortunately, a massive performance from the Bees. A mature defensive display full of mettle. Credit to Keith Andrews for making changes early in the 2nd half.

Jerry: Silly from Schade to fall for the Matty Cash theatrics but a superb goal from Outtara followed by a brilliant defensive display in the second half gave the Bees a deserved victory. What does Thiago have to do though to get a decision go his way? It took two Villa defenders to pull him down halfway through the second half, but the ref decreed that Igor was the culprit because the two Villa players couldn't deal with his strength and were left sprawling on the deck. Onwards and upwards for the Bus stop team.

Brentford manager Keith Andrews speaking to BBC's Match of The Day: "We did pretty well and it was a game of two halves. The first-half we were excellent until the sending off with the ball.

"We played with personally and could have created more opportunities."

On the red card to Kevin Schade: "The red card did change the flow of the game, it never will change the resolve of the team because it is a collective in everything we do. Thiago being an example of how much you have to dig in."

"I didn't see it, but I have watched it back and I have no complaints from that. Kev needs to learn from that and he really tested his teammates and he will have to take them out for a nice dinner."

On his teams' moral: "There is a solidity, there is a grit, personality and growth week-to-week and month-to-month. I like watching us."

Did you know?

• This was Brentford's first ever win across all competitions against Aston Villa at Villa Park in what was their 12th attempt, while it was only the third time they kept a clean sheet away against Villa (also in January 1953 and September 2017).

• This was the Bees' first Premier League away victory against a team starting the day in the top four since beating Manchester City in November 2022. Prior to today, the Bees were winless in their last nine away league games against those sides (D3 L6).

Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned.

Have your say on Aston Villa's performance

What did you make of Brentford's display?

Come back later on Sunday for a selection of your replies

Nick Mashiter
Football reporter

Ollie Watkins fails to recover from a hamstring injury to face Brentford as Tammy Abraham and Douglas Luiz makes their Aston Villa returns.

Unai Emery makes seven changes from Thursday's 3-2 win over Red Bull Salzburg, where Watkins came off in the first half.

He is not in the squad but Abraham starts up front with Luiz also in after returning from Juventus on loan.

Emi Martinez, Lamare Bogarde, Jadon Sancho and Emi Buendia keep their places.

Aston Villa XI: Martinez, Cash, Torres, Konsa, Maatsen, Bogarde, Luiz, Sancho, Buendia, Rogers, Abraham

Subs: Bizot, Lindelof, Digne, Mings, Barkley, Hemmings, Onana, Bailey, Elliott

Brentford boss Keith Andrew makes three changes at Villa Park.

Sepp Van den Burg, Jordan Henderson and Dango Ouattara come in following last week's 2-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

Nathan Collins, Yehor Yarmoliuk and Mikkel Damsgaard drop to the bench.

Brentford XI: Kelleher, Henry, Ajer, Van den Berg, Kayode, Jensen, Henderson, Janelt, Schade, Thiago, Ouattara

Subs: Valdimarsson, Hickey, Pinnock, Yarmoliuk, Collins, Lewis-Potter, Damsgaard, Donovan, Bentt

There are four games in the Premier League on Saturday and BBC Sport will bring you every moment.

• Aston Villa v Brentford - listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

• Manchester United v Fulham - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

• Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace - listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2

• Tottenham v Manchester City - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

Kick-off times 14:00 GMT unless stated

Follow all of the action and reaction here

You can also listen to today's 5 Live Premier League commentaries on most smart speakers. Just say "ask BBC Sounds to play Aston Villa v Brentford" or "ask BBC Sounds to play Tottenham v Man City", for instance.

Find out more about how to listen to Premier League football on BBC Sounds

It's transfer deadline day tomorrow, with the window closing at 19:00 GMT.

How would you assess Brentford's window? Do you think any position needs more attention? If so, give us names of who should be brought in. And what about who needs to go?

Get in touch with your views here

Youri Tielemans is the latest Aston Villa midfielder to be sidelined by injury. He has been so good for them and it is another big blow after they also had John McGinn and Boubacar Kamara ruled out.

Villa still put in an amazing performance to win at St James' Park without McGinn and Kamara last weekend, and I think they will cope this time too.

They could be a bit light in midfield and Douglas Luiz will have to go some to match Tielemans' form after rejoining on loan this week, but Villa still have plenty of quality elsewhere.

They have also brought in Tammy Abraham to help Ollie Watkins out up front, and Emi Buendia and Morgan Rogers are both having brilliant seasons.

Brentford have been so good at home all season but then they went and got 'Dyched' by Sean Dyche's Nottingham Forest last weekend.

The Bees really need Igor Thiago to get back among the goals to give them any hope - and he will probably score because I am going to write them off.

Sutton's prediction: 2-0

Read the full predictions and have your say here

Noel Sliney
BBC Sport senior journalist

Aston Villa twice faced Brentford in the opening month of the season, losing 1-0 in the league and on penalties in the Carabao Cup as part of a six-match winless start to the season in all competitions. While Brentford have continued to surpass expectations under rookie head coach Keith Andrews, Villa's transformation has been remarkable and relentless.

Returning heroes and Villans

Aston Villa are the Premier League's form side over the past 18 fixtures, earning 43 points – three more than league leaders Arsenal, with Manchester City a point further back and no other team in sight.

Nonetheless, Villa are now accruing key injuries almost as quickly as points. In the space of four games, first-choice midfield trio Boubacar Kamara, 2024–25 player of the season Youri Tielemans and captain John McGinn all sustained long-term injuries.

Amid such rotten luck and severe financial constraints, manager Unai Emery has opted for a crowd-pleasing approach – Sunday's game will be a homecoming for re-signed fan favourites Tammy Abraham and Douglas Luiz, as well as winger Leon Bailey, recalled from loan at Roma and whose last league start at Villa Park came a year ago.

The latter two signings fill the vast void left by Tielemans and McGinn, while Abraham provides the traditional centre-forward option more suited to Villa's system than the departed Donyell Malen.

All three new recruits have had their own injury issues in recent years and Emery is gambling on their fitness and form. As a loanee, Abraham scored 26 goals – all from 15 yards out or less – to help Villa earn promotion in 2019, while Luiz and Bailey were standout performers for much of the 2023-24 season as the Birmingham side finished fourth.

Will Brentford defensive strategy require a rethink?

Brentford have the joint-fifth highest points tally in the league over the past 18 games, amassing 29 points during that time, but they come into this fixture off the back of successive 2-0 defeats. The Bees haven't lost three league matches in a row without scoring since March 2012 as a League One side.

They've never won a league game at Villa Park in 10 previous attempts and only bottom side Wolves have fared worse than their eight top-flight away defeats this season.

Head coach Andrews said of the early-season wins over Aston Villa: "I feel it was such a long time ago for both teams. We've evolved but there's obvious things we can take from the two games that we've looked at this week."

One of those could well be adapting their usual tactics to lessen Villa's chances of adding to their league-high tally of 13 goals from outside the penalty area. Brentford are typically happy to defend in numbers inside their own 18-yard area and invite the opposition to try their luck from range – 37% of the shots they have faced have been from outside the box, the highest percentage in the division.

It has been an effective strategy so far, with no side conceding fewer goals from distance.

Brentford boss Keith Andrews has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against Aston Villa at Villa Park (15:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Andrews gave an update on the fitness of Mikkel Damsgaard and Kristoffer Ajer, who were both substituted in the first half in Sunday's defeat by Nottingham Forest: "It was the main reason I didn't sleep so well on Sunday night, those two coming off in the way they did. It was concerning but they're both pretty good, really. It's nothing serious. So whether they'll be available for the weekend or not, I'm not entirely sure on both of them. But if they're not, they won't be far off that. I was pretty worried."

• Asked about the Bees' recent performances, he said: "We're always looking to improve performance levels overall. We always want more; that's the reality of the industry we're in and the way we operate. We just want to be striving and improve everything we do on a daily basis and see where that takes us."

• On opponents Villa: "They are an amazingly coached team. They are very deliberate in the way they play. They have an elite level coach. He's had the vast majority of that group for a long time. They have a very set way of playing that can cause you a lot of problems."

• Reflecting on the 1-0 win over Villa in August, which gave Andrews his first win as Bees boss, he said: "I feel it was such a long time ago for both teams. They didn't start the season as well as they've done the last few months. We've evolved but there's obvious things we can take from the two games that we've looked at this week."

Follow all of the Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Nizaar Kinsella
Football reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Coventry City are making progress in their talks to sign Brentford defensive midfielder Frank Onyeka before Monday's transfer deadline.

The 28‑year‑old is also attracting interest from Sheffield United and is expected to decide his future within the next 24 hours.

Brentford have made the Nigeria international available for transfer after he became frustrated by a lack of first‑team opportunities under Keith Andrews, having experienced similar frustration during Thomas Frank's tenure.

Frank Lampard's Coventry sit three points clear at the top of the Championship but have just two wins in their last six league games and have not kept a clean sheet since 26 December.

Sheffield United are 17th but remain not entirely out of contention for the play‑offs in a congested table, nine points off the top six.

Ian Westbrook
Fan writer

Image source, Getty Images

I hate playing against Sean Dyche teams. It's nothing against him personally but he seems to have Brentford's number.

Sunday's defeat by Nottingham Forest means he has now won seven of his nine games against us across three clubs.

It was a frustrating match with us - as at Chelsea - missing at least four decent chances, but unlike at Stamford Bridge, our performance wasn't great.

We had plenty of possession - especially in the second half - but did very little with it and Forest keeper Matz Sels had a quiet afternoon.

Unusually for us we only had one shot on target from 10 attempts, when normally well over 50% of our efforts are goalbound.

Having said that Caoimhin Kelleher was also underemployed, with Forest only having two efforts on target - but annoyingly for us they both went in.

We really could have done with something against Forest, with hard fixtures at Aston Villa and Newcastle and home to Arsenal next up.

Sunday was our second consecutive 2-0 defeat and if those next three matches go the wrong way, a run of five successive defeats is not impossible.

You could tell it wasn't going to be our day when Mikkel Damsgaard, who was having a great game, and Kristoffer Ajer both went down injured at the same time in different parts of the pitch and had to be substituted.

It was a disappointing end to a big week for Ajer, who, like Vitaly Janelt the previous week, signed a new long-term contract with the club.

The fact that two 27-year-olds - arguably a footballer's peak age - have chosen to commit a lengthy period of their careers to Brentford shows we must be doing something right.

They have each earned a regular place in the team recently and clearly have big parts to play under Keith Andrews.

Find more from Ian Westbrook at Beesotted podcast, external

We asked for your thoughts after Sunday's Premier League game between Brentford and Nottingham Forest.

Here are some of your comments:

Brentford fans

Neil: We dominated but it was clear that the system wasn't going to unlock the Forest defence. Changes should have been made before Forest's second - it's been a bit of a thing with the manager not changing things when it is obviously not working. Frustrating but hey ho, onwards and upwards towards Villa next.

Tim: Could somebody tell Keith Andrews that he is allowed to change his tactics during a match, as his current approach is to play Plan A; and if that fails to do the same thing. Today we were Dyched once again, but despite Nelson and Donovan on the bench he made the same subs he always makes. Horribly flat performance.

Les: No plan B. Chelsea and Forest had three shots on target each and scored four goals. Set pieces - it's like we do not have a set piece coach. We can't seem to win balls in the air on the attacking front.

Rob: Poor performance by Bees. Insipid and out of ideas in the final third as they moved the ball too slowly and decision making/technical quality wasn't there. Forest were good for 15 minutes and probably deserved the lead at half-time, but it was two poor teams on display in the second. For some reason, Dyche has the hoodoo over us!

Forest fans

Ian: All that noise and negativity after the Braga game, trust in Dyche! It was a masterclass from him and it was only possible by his choices in midweek. Premier League survival is clearly the most important priority, the Europa League doesn't even begin to come close second. Our Europa game on Thursday is also not as important as beating Crystal Palace next Sunday. Do that and we're right back in the mix. COYR. Keep calm and carry on!

Mark: A good solid away performance. A draw would have been good, but the deserved win was hard earned.

Joe: Was that the Forest of last year again? Score an early counterattack, defend, clean sheet. Job done!

Trevor: Excellent victory for Forest - defended really well and took the chances with two brilliant finishes, top six here we come.

Pundits Wayne Rooney and Danny Murphy join host Kelly Cates to bring you the action and talking points from Sunday's Premier League fixtures.

Watch on iPlayer

And listen back to full match commentaries on BBC Sounds:

• Arsenal v Man Utd

• Newcastle v Aston Villa

• Crystal Palace v Chelsea

• Brentford v Nottingham Forest

Bobbie Jackson
BBC Sport journalist

Image source, Getty Images

Brentford have adapted well to life after long-term manager Thomas Frank and captain Christian Norgaard, who joined Arsenal, in the summer.

New boss Keith Andrews has ensured the Gtech Community Stadium is a fortress with only the Premier League's top three - Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa - picking up more points on their own patch this season.

But Brentford were well below their usual standards on Sunday when strugglers Nottingham Forest came to town.

Had top scorer Igor Thiago put away his chance in the opening two minutes then it might have been a different story, however, Forest broke the deadlock through Igor Jesus shortly after and showed resilience in defence.

Brentford dominated possession and territory for large periods but lacked the creative edge in the final third to really threaten.

The Bees failed to register a single shot on target in the second half and were then hit on the counter when Taiwo Awoniyi wrapped up a 2-0 win for the visitors.

Victory would have moved Brentford, who sit eighth, up to sixth in the league and Andrews will be hoping they can brush this performance is a one off rather than a sign that things are starting to slide.

Brentford boss Keith Andrews, spoke to BBC Match of the Day after his side's defeat by Nottingham Forest: "We started the game well, conceded a goal we shouldn't have done, and then lost our way for 15 or 20 minutes.

"After that we controlled the game until a transitional moment which brought their second game. We weren't clinical enough.

"We've done enough on the creation front, whether it's set-pieces or crosses, but not taken them.

"If we're being self-critical then we need to look at ourselves for how we conceded the goals.

"The reality is they have had two shots and come away with three points."

On striker Igor Thiago: "We didn't feed him enough and he's closely marked now, everyone knows about him and how he plays, so we need to find new ways to provide service for him."

Did you know?

• Brentford lost their first Premier League home game in eight matches (W5 D2). Meanwhile, the Bees have failed to score in five of their last six defeats at home in the league - as many blanks as they endured across their previous 18 losses on home soil.

Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned.

Have your say on Brentford's performance

What did you make of Nottingham Forest's display?

Come back on Monday for a selection of your replies