Brentfordvs.Aston Villa

The Bees will carry a three-game unbeaten run into Saturday's fixture after following wins over West Ham United and Leicester City with a 1-1 draw against Everton.

Unfortunately for Brentford, the draw against the Toffees extended their winless Premier League home run to six matches (D2, L4).

Despite their recent struggles on home turf, the 11th-placed Bees will still be harbouring hopes of mounting a challenge for the European places, especially as there is a possibility that qualification spots for UEFA competition could go down to as low as eighth place.

Brentford receive double injury boost

Rather than looking too far ahead, the Bees will be targeting a positive result in their meeting with Aston Villa at the Gtech Community Stadium, with the hosts set to welcome back Jensen and Norgaard for Saturday's fixture.

Norgaard sat out the win over Everton due to concussion, while Jensen is available for selection after missing the last two games with an adductor issue.

"Nørgaard is back, which we expected after the concussion precaution," Frank told reporters at Friday's pre-match conference.

"And Mathias Jensen will be involved in the squad as well, so that's very positive."

Frank discusses Hickey return plan

Brentford would have also been pleased to see long-term absentee Aaron Hickey score for the Under-21s in a 2-0 win over Birmingham City Under-21s last week.

Frank has now revealed that the full-back could return to first-team action for the first time since October 2023 following the international break.

"I'm pleased with that," Frank said. "He will not be involved in this game or the next one [vs Bournemouth on March 15] - we are looking at after the international break.

"We need to take it step by step. With him and Rico Henry we need to build the robustness."

The Bees remain without the services of Gustavo Nunes, Josh Dasilva, Igor Thiago and Sepp van den Berg, although the latter is expected to return to team training next week.

Written by

Ben Sully