Brentford Take Their Bow in the Premier League
Facing Arsenal the last team they played in the top flight 74 years ago
Brentford Community Stadium will host season opener. Picture: Brentford FC
This Friday evening (13 August) Brentford FC will become the fiftieth team to play in the Premier League and for the first time ever, the opening game of the season will be played in a brand new stadium.
The game against Arsenal has a strange historical symmetry because the last time the two London sides met in a league fixture was at Griffin Park on 26 May 1947 when defeat for Brentford meant relegation and a 74 wait for a return to the top flight.
The Brentford Community Stadium will become the sixtieth to host a Premier League game.
Arsenal are likely to field Bukayo Saka who grew up a short bus ride away from the ground in Greenford. Fans in pre-season have chosen to remember his Euro heroics rather than his penalty miss with even the supporters of north London rivals Spurs applauding him onto the field. Most of the traditionally classy Bees fans are expected to do likewise.
Manager Thomas Frank has promised that Brentford would continue with the attack-minded approach than won them promotion through the play offs.
He said, “We need the fans. I expect two things from Friday night; my players will run themselves into the ground and the fans will be right behind us through every minute. This is the kick-off to a new world where we have never been before. We are just excited and looking forward to playing against a good side.”
The game kicks off at 8pm and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
August 13, 2021