Thomas Frank described our 2-0 victory against his former club Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday as ‘a very complete performance’.
On the front foot from the first whistle, importantly we got ourselves ahead in the game and then doubled our lead before half-time. We created plenty of chances from there, but it was also about shutting up shop – we were excellent defensively, restricting Brentford to four efforts at goal. By way of contrast, we had 15.
Xavi Simons was the architect of our 2-0 lead. First up, he curved his run down the right to latch on to Pedro Porro’s pass before delivering for Richarlison to tap home for the opener on 25 minutes. Then his magic moment – initially taking a heavy touch in our half, Xavi threw himself in to win the ball back from Mikkel Damsgaard, then got the better of Sepp van den Berg before driving from half way into the box and calmly slotting past Caoimhin Kelleher.
We could have added to our tally in the second half and Brentford rarely threatened – when they did, Cuti Romero and Micky van de Ven quickly closed the door.
Speaking to us afterwards, Thomas reflected: “I think that was a very complete performance, one of the best performances of the season overall, definitely the best at home, and not only because of the win.
“I think we looked such a threat going forward. I like the forwardness, penetration, unpredictability. We varied the attack a lot. I like the aggressiveness in the duels and in the pressure, also that clean sheet mentality we need to have. We gave away four shots in the whole game against a very difficult Brentford team.
“I felt it was a game where we were in control of most of it, but you also know we all needed this win. We all knew it was an important win for everything. So, even if you're in control, 2-0 up, you don't want it to be a little bit nervy in the end to concede a stupid goal, so we keep building on those standards and that culture, it’s so important.”