Keith Andrews’ side have taken nine points from five games despite performances ranging from dominant to difficult, and the numbers help explain why.
Brentford's unbeaten start has been about more than their best football.
Keith Andrews' side have taken nine points from five Premier League games, with 3-0 wins over Tottenham and Chelsea sitting alongside draws with Leeds, Sunderland and Bournemouth. The performances have varied much more than the results.
The convincing wins have shown what Brentford can look like when their football clicks. Staying unbeaten has required something else, too. They have taken points after losing control of games, responded when opponents have changed the picture and, at Bournemouth, survived an afternoon when very little went as Andrews would have wanted.
A consistent attacking threat still lurks underneath it all. The Bees have scored 10 Premier League goals from 10.5 expected goals. Their return is in line with the quality of chances they have created, rather than being built on an early run of everything flying in.
They have managed that without needing much of the ball.
Before facing Chelsea, Brentford were averaging 17 shots per 90 minutes, the third-highest figure in the Premier League, despite having only 46 per cent possession. No team had played a lower proportion of its passes backwards than Brentford's 13.3 per cent.
There is already a fairly clear direction to Andrews' side. They want to play forward, get players around the box and make set-pieces count. Before Chelsea, Brentford led the division with 30 shots from set-pieces, while no side had managed more than their nine attempts from inside the six-yard box.
Unfortunatelty for Tottenham, they experienced most of that at once.
Brentford produced 26 shots in the 3-0 win, 13 from set-pieces, and finished with 3.09 non-penalty xG. Only one team had managed a higher total against Spurs across the whole of the previous Premier League season. Igor Thiago even missed a penalty.
That was the Bees at their most convincing. It is not, though, the only reason they remain unbeaten.
Leeds was less spectacular, but Brentford still spent much of the first half playing on their own terms. Andrews felt they controlled almost all of that period and Kevin Schade gave them the lead, with the visitors eventually finishing with 22 attempts to Leeds' 12.
Mamadou Sangaré and Vitaly Janelt combined for seven tackles and eight interceptions, while Sangaré completed 56 passes and Janelt 85 per cent of his.
Leeds changed shape and personnel after the break, and the game moved away from the Bees with Dominic Calvert-Lewin equalising late on. Schade admitted afterwards that they had not adapted well enough.
Sunderland caused different problems a week later.
The visitors had a goal disallowed and hit the woodwork during a first half which prompted Andrews to make three changes at the interval. Aaron Hickey, Yehor Yarmoliuk and Jaidon Anthony came on, Brentford improved and Janelt put them ahead before Enzo Le Fée's late penalty made it 1-1.
Andrews later described the second-half performance as “more like us”.
There was no such turnaround at Bournemouth.
Brentford were outshot 20-8, managed only two efforts on target and spent long periods under pressure. Caoimhín Kelleher made eight saves, Ben Gannon-Doak struck the post late on and Schade scored with the only two Brentford shots that tested Đorđe Petrović.
Andrews did not try to make the performance sound better than it was.
“I didn't think we were at our best,” he said. “There were certain parts of the game where I wanted a little bit more. I think we could have played a little bit more with cohesion and conviction.”
Brentford still came away with a 2-2 draw.
There was nothing particularly sophisticated about how they got there. Bournemouth created enough to win, Kelleher had plenty to do and Schade made two opportunities count. On a day when the football Andrews wants never really arrived, individual performances kept Brentford in the game.
That matters when looking at the unbeaten run as a whole, but it comes with a warning.
Brentford have conceded four Premier League goals from 7.5 xGA. Their own attacking return has closely matched the chances created, but opponents have not punished them to the same extent.
Bournemouth accounts for a significant part of that picture. Leeds and Sunderland also both found late equalisers, costing Brentford four points from winning positions.
Those numbers make it difficult to sell every result as proof that Brentford have mastered a different type of game. They haven't. There have been spells Andrews will want to improve and one afternoon on the south coast when his side were fortunate not to lose.
The Chelsea match was far more encouraging. Brentford again had less possession, but this time they produced 2.66 xG to Chelsea's 0.89. They had 13 shots, put six on target and restricted Chelsea to two efforts on target from 12 attempts.
Anthony broke the deadlock from a rehearsed corner after 61 minutes. Mikkel Damsgaard then released Schade behind Chelsea in the move, which ended with Thiago scoring the second, before Schade attacked down the outside and found Fábio Carvalho at the back post for the third.
The goals looked familiar rather than accidental. The set-piece threat was there again. So was the willingness to play forward quickly when space appeared, and the numbers behind the opening weeks suggest those traits have been present even when Brentford have not controlled matches for long periods.
That is where the unbeaten start becomes more interesting than the two 3-0 victories.
Brentford's best football has produced the obvious highlights, but nine points have required more than that. Sunderland needed changes from Andrews. Bournemouth needed Kelleher and Schade. Leeds required Brentford to stay in a game after the control they had enjoyed before half-time disappeared.
There is enough data already to separate some of the good fortune from the parts which look more repeatable. Ten goals from 10.5 xG suggests the attacking output has largely been earned. The set-piece numbers, shot volume and willingness to play forward have appeared too regularly to belong to one or two exceptional afternoons.
Four goals conceded from 7.5 xGA is the part Andrews will be less comfortable with. Brentford cannot expect every difficult game to end with their goalkeeper making eight saves or their only two shots on target finding the net.
Their best performances have shown where the ceiling might be. The rest of the opening five games have mattered because Brentford have still found enough to take something when they have fallen short of it.
