Brentford's numbers last seasonpublished at 09:12 BST 21 August
09:12 BST 21 August
Chris Collinson BBC Sport statistician
Image source, Getty Images
After losing their manager, captain and top two scorers last summer, many tipped Brentford to be in a relegation battle last season. But, Keith Andrews' men proved them all wrong by comfortably finishing in the top half - and deservedly so given their underlying numbers.
While only four sides took fewer shots than the Bees, they more than made up for this by creating the best chances on average in the league, leaving them an impressive seventh for expected goals.
In fact, incredibly, only German champions Bayern Munich created better chances on average in Europe's top five leagues. That's true even if you exclude the league-high 10 penalties that the Bees were awarded.
As a result, despite having the best shot conversion rate in the league, Brentford bizarrely should've been even more clinical given the fantastic chances they had, with only five teams underperforming their xG by more than the Bees' five.
Why was the Premier League so competitive in 2025-26?published at 08:14 BST 21 August
08:14 BST 21 August
Chris Collinson BBC Sport statistician
Image source, Getty Images
In the Premier League last season, 13 of the 20 teams finished with between 40 and 60 points - the most in an English top-flight campaign since 2003-04 (also 13).
Was the Premier League so competitive in 2025-26 because the quality of the 'lesser' teams got better or the top teams got worse? It is hard to know for sure.
Given how savvy clubs like Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are, the vast amounts of money that enable even bottom-half sides to sign the best talent from abroad and the Premier League's current dominance of the Europa League and Conference League, it would seem to be the former.
However, the fact that promoted play-off winners Sunderland were able to finish above 13 teams in their first season back suggests the league was maybe not as strong as we think.
What we do know is that whether because they got worse or their opponents got better, four of the sides that finished in the top seven in 2024-25 - champions Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest - took 79 points fewer between them last season.
While Forest's decline was perhaps expected given their incredible seventh-place finish in 2024-25 and their journey to the Europa League semi-finals last season, the others were far more surprising.
Sunderland and Leeds smashed the recent run of promoted sides struggling to compete by taking 64 more points than the teams they replaced in the top flight.
As a result, this season will be a bit of an upside-down one in that Bournemouth, Brighton and Sunderland have European campaigns to navigate while Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle do not.
Will we therefore see a bounce-back to the more 'traditional' order in 2026-27 or are we truly entering a new, fiercely-competitive era of the Premier League?
Where will Brentford finish?published at 08:21 BST 20 August
08:21 BST 20 August
Last season: Ninth.
This season: 10th.
Keith Andrews did a superb job in succession to Thomas Frank last season, with Brentford only just missing out on a place in Europe.
Bees fans will expect more of the same this season and an indication of their continued ambition was demonstrated with the club-record signing of Mali midfielder Mamadou Sangare from Lens.
Callum Wilson, if fit, will provide proven Premier League experience up front, while Jaidon Anthony has shown what he can do at Burnley.
Igor Thiago is an outstanding spearhead, so it is easy to see why Andrews expects improvement this season.
More points for bottom-half sides but bottom two cut adrift in 2025-26published at 08:19 BST 20 August
08:19 BST 20 August
Chris Collinson BBC Sport statistician
Image source, Getty Images
Teams in the bottom half of the Premier League in 2025-26 finished with more points than they had in years, meaning that judging them simply by their position in the table is perhaps a little harsh.
Everton may have been underwhelmed with their 13th-place finish but it was the most points a team in that position had finished with since the Toffees themselves in 1999-2000.
The points of the four places below them were all the highest they have been in the Premier League for 23 years and West Ham can consider themselves unlucky to have gone down with the highest points total for an 18th-placed side since 2010-11.
However, competition has come at a cost.
One place where the Premier League has become less competitive - because it has become more fiercely-contested overall - is at the very bottom.
While it is almost expected for one side to be cut adrift long before the end of the season, nowadays two sides are getting left behind.
The average points tally of the second-bottom side in a 38-game season is 31, meaning teams that finish there have usually competed in a relegation battle for most of the season before ultimately falling short.
After the Premier League was reduced to 20 teams in 1995-96, only two 19th-placed sides failed to reach 30 points in the first 21 seasons. But in the past decade, seven of the 10 sides to finish in that position have failed to do so.
In the past two seasons, promoted sides Ipswich and Burnley have both finished there with just 22 points - the fewest ever taken by a second-bottom side.
Relegation battles are now mostly a fight to see who takes the final spot in the bottom three, with the other two accounted for long before the final day - often by promoted sides.
But inspired by the survival of Sunderland and Leeds, promoted trio Coventry City, Ipswich Town and Hull City will all be hoping they have what it takes to match the competitiveness of the Premier League this season.
Is gap between Champions League and Championship getting smaller?published at 08:09 BST 18 August
08:09 BST 18 August
Chris Collinson BBC Sport statistician
Image source, Getty Images
Last season, the Premier League was arguably more competitive than it has been for years.
While the 65 points between champions Arsenal and bottom side Wolves was around the average for a 38-game season (63), a real revolution took place in mid-table.
Since the league was reduced to 20 teams in 1995-96, the gap between the top four and the bottom three – between what has often been the Champions League and the Championship – had been increasing as the seasons went by, with the 'bigger' clubs profiting from their European adventures and the extra money they earned by regularly finishing higher in the table.
But last season, the gap between the 'haves' and the 'have-nots' of the Premier League dropped from 44 points in 2024-25 to just 26 points – the smallest distance for 23 years (since 25 points in 2002-03).
The European places were more attainable than they had been for years. Despite taking a point fewer than when they finished seventh the season before, Aston Villa clinched Champions League qualification by finishing two places higher.
While Liverpool took the 'bonus' Champions League place by finishing fifth, their points total of 60 was the lowest by a side finishing there for 19 years and would have put them ninth in 2024-25.
Bournemouth and Sunderland also took full advantage of needing fewer points than normal by qualifying for European competition for the first time ever and for over half a century respectively.
Bees 'in a good place' going into new season - Andrewspublished at 11:50 BST 17 August
11:50 BST 17 August
Image source, Getty Images
Brentford boss Keith Andrews says his side are "in a good place" going into the new Premier League season.
The Bees rounded off their pre-season schedule in style with an impressive 7-0 home win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, with attackers Kevin Schade, Igor Thiago, Dango Ouattara and Keane Lewis-Potter all on target.
New record signing Mamadou Sangare also found the net, while fellow summer additions Callum Wilson and Jaidon Anthony both also featured.
"It was a really good pre-season full stop," said Andrews post-match.
"I'm really content with the way we're moving as a group, the standards we set, the way the players pushed, and there were some really impressive performances today.
"We're in a good place.
"It's the type of team we are that we can score from different positions. Set-pieces we look really impressive, dominant, it's going to be a big part of our season.
"The competition for places is pretty fierce."
Brentford finished just outside the European places on goal difference last season, despite being tipped for relegation by many when Andrews replaced the long-serving Thomas Frank for his first job in management.
Asked if he is excited for the start of the new season next weekend against Tottenham, Andrews added: "I am. It will be a very different game.
"We've built for weeks and weeks to be ready for Spurs and then pushing on from there so we're pretty content but there is still a lot to do."
Brentford thump Frankfurt 7-0 in final pre-season friendlypublished at 18:20 BST 15 August
18:20 BST 15 August
Image source, Getty Images
Brentford recorded a thumping 7-0 win over Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt at The Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday to conclude their pre-season campaign in emphatic fashion.
Kevin Schade and Igor Thiago both scored twice, with Dango Ouattara and Keane Lewis-Potter also on target, while Mamadou Sangare marked his first appearance at the Gtech with a remarkable volley.
Fellow summer signings Callum Wilson and Jaidon Anthony also made their first appearances in front of the Bees home crowd as Keith Andrews' side warmed up for next weekend's Premier League opener at home to Tottenham in style.
Brentford 'want a bit of carnage and chaos' - Collinspublished at 11:31 BST 14 August
11:31 BST 14 August
Image source, Getty Images
Brentford captain Nathan Collins says his side "want to make teams feel uncomfortable".
The Bees impressed in Keith Andrews' first season in charge, finishing ninth, despite being tipped for relegation before the campaign began.
Their success was was built on a side that is strong physically, imposes itself on teams and utilises set-pieces, including long throws, to great effect.
"We enjoy that part of it," Collins said. "We want a bit of carnage and chaos. We want to make teams feel uncomfortable. We want other teams to look at us and go: 'How do we stop everything?'
"It's impossible to stop everything we do. Some days we might not be at it, but there's most times we will be and we're on it, have a lot of good energy and are producing a lot of problems. We want to keep doing that and get better at that."
The Bees have made four signings so far this summer, including breaking their transfer record to sign Mali midfielder Mamadou Sangare from Lens, and Collins believes the squad is in a strong state after just missing out on European qualification last season.
"The new signings are really exciting," he added.
"A few players from last season are going to step it up again and produce again.
"Hopefully the fans can see that and hopefully they can help as well with their noise."
How do add-ons work in football transfers?published at 07:16 BST 13 August
07:16 BST 13 August
It is common practice these days for transfer fees to have performance-based add-ons. The theory is the selling club gains more if the player goes on to be extremely successful, while the buying club is to some extent protected financially if the transfer doesn't work out.
In some cases, the total value of add-ons is significant - Real Madrid could end up paying an extra £30m to Borussia Dortmund for Jude Bellingham depending on how successful he is over the course of his career in the Spanish capital, for example.
In others, like the potential £1.7m worth of add-ons Brighton's £29.78m signing of Greece Under-21 forward Charalampos Kostoulas, are less significant.
Clubs sometimes say add-ons are 'easily achievable' or 'difficult'.
Easier-to-achieve add-ons can include things like making a basic number of appearances, or scoring a certain amount of goals. Add-ons can also be attached to a team's success rather than the individual player's - a club may agree to an add-on requiring an extra payment if they qualify for Europe, for example.
Others can be more ambitious - tied to extreme levels of individual or collective success, like winning the Champions League or the Ballon d'Or.
An example of the difficulty add-ons can present when discussing valuations would be the claims made in the Portuguese media in 2022 that the first additional payment in Darwin Nunez's £64m-plus-add-ons move from Benfica to Liverpool was triggered by the Uruguayan making just 10 appearances.
Then Liverpool boss Arne Slot rejected speculation he had not started Nunez in some games because it would trigger an additional payment.
Whether Liverpool paid more for Nunez, or club captain Virgil van Dijk - for whom they paid a flat fee of £75m to Southampton in 2017 - cannot be determined without knowing exactly what add-ons were included in the Nunez deal, then figuring out which conditions he has and has not met.
Brentford secure 4-2 friendly win over Rennespublished at 20:00 BST 8 August
20:00 BST 8 August
Image source, Getty Images
Brentford beat Ligue 1 side Rennes 4-2 in an entertaining pre-season friendly in France on Saturday.
Igor Thiago made his first appearance following his World Cup exploits with Brazil and opened the scoring by heading in a Mathias Jensen corner after 20 minutes.
The Bees doubled their lead from another corner ten minutes later, as Ethan Pinnock headed in from Vitaly Janelt's delivery.
Rennes pulled one back less than a minuted after half-time but Brenford restored their lead almost immediately with Dango Outarra turning home from new signing Callum Wilson's low ball in.
Wilson turned from creator to finisher two minutes later with a fine low strike into the far corner, before Rennes pulled another goal back to complete the scoring.
Morgan, who has represented Wales up to Under-19 level, scored three goals in 21 League Two appearances during a loan spell with Shrewsbury Town last season.
"He's a player we've admired for a while and somebody we believe has enormous potential," boss Dave Artell told the club website.
Gossip: Brentford eye Sporting winger Catamopublished at 08:20 BST 7 August
08:20 BST 7 August
Sunderland are in pole position to sign Mozambique winger Geny Catamo from Sporting Lisbon, with Brentford, Aston Villa and Everton among the clubs with an eye on the 25-year-old. (Teamtalk), external
What are the new financial rules Premier League clubs must stick to?published at 06:46 BST 6 August
06:46 BST 6 August
Katharine Sharpe and Simon Casson BBC Sport senior journalists
The 2025-26 Premier League and Championship seasons included the introduction of squad-cost ratio rules on a shadow basis, testing to see how a spending cap for squad costs set at a percentage of a club's total revenues might work.
These SCR regulations have now been permanently implemented for the 2026-27 season, replacing previous profit and sustainability rules (PSR).
Uefa has a 70% SCR cap for European competitions, so Premier League clubs who qualified for Europe fall in line with this limit.
Clubs who did not qualify for Europe, and so are only taking part in domestic competitions, are capped at 85% of their total revenue.
However, clubs can spend above the 85% limit by using a multi-year rolling allowance of 30%. This allows them to invest ahead of revenue and variance or sporting underperformance.
Every club will start this coming season on 85% + 30% allowance, so effectively 115%.
If a club spends 105% on their squad in 2026-27, it means they have used 20% of their allowance, and for 2027-28 their maximum spend before potential sporting sanction is 95%.
If a club spend less than 85%, they can increase the allowance again to the maximum of 30%.
Spending above 85% but under the allowance results in a financial penalty, whereas going over both the 85% and the allowance will land the club a fixed six-point deduction which increases by one point for every £6.5m spent over the 115%.
'Anchoring' was also trialled in 2025-26, which meant any club's spending could not exceed a multiple of income earned by the bottom-placed club - however this was rejected at a vote of Premier League clubs.
SCR was approved by a vote of 14 clubs to six, and was introduced alongside sustainability and systemic resilience (SSR) regulations.
SSR involves three tests that are applied throughout the season:
Working capital test - assesses short-term cash resources
Liquidity test - assesses medium-term liquidity and resilience
Positive equity test -assesses long-term financial health
The aim of the SCR and SSR regulations is to stop the richest owners providing endless funds to their clubs to sign new players, as any money injected this way does not count as seasonal revenue.
They will also aim to prevent clubs from overspending and accruing unmanageable losses.
Sangare makes debut as Brentford hit four goals past Wycombepublished at 18:28 BST 5 August
18:28 BST 5 August
Image source, Getty Images
Brentford record-signing Mamadou Sangare was handed his first playing minutes in a behind-closed-doors victory over Wycombe Wanderers at Jersey Road.
The 24-year-old central midfielder was substituted on for the second half and featured for a full 45 minutes as the Bees took a 4-1 win over their League One opposition.
Brentford started off brightly with Vitaly Janelt opening the scoring inside 25 minutes and Dango Ouattara doubling their lead just 11 minutes later with a tap-in from close range.
Wycombe centre-forward Emre Tezgel grabbed a goal back early in the second half, before Brentford summer signings Jaidon Anthony and Callum Wilson linked up to make it 3-1.
Keane Lewis-Potter's 89th-minute right-footed curler topped off a winning afternoon for Keith Andrews' side, who will now look forward to a pre-season friendly against Rennes at Roazhon Park on Saturday (17:00 BST).
A youngster to watch - Kaye Furopublished at 08:50 BST 4 August
08:50 BST 4 August
Michael Emons BBC Sport journalist
Image source, Getty Images
In January, Brentford paid £8m to sign Belgian striker Kaye Furo from Club Brugge.
A 6ft 3in quick and powerful striker, Furo had played in the Champions League against Arsenal before moving to west London with Bees boss Keith Andrews saying: "Kaye is someone we have tracked for a while that we are really excited about bringing to the club.
"His attributes are ones I like and feel we can develop within the environment we have created. I have no doubt he will be a big player for us."
Furo played two FA Cup ties for Brentford before making his Premier League debut in May, coming on as a late substitute in a 3-0 victory over West Ham, and Andrews will be hoping for a big season from the 19-year-old.
Is building a new stadium a way around spending rules?published at 08:22 BST 4 August
08:22 BST 4 August
Should a club build a new stadium or upgrade its current home in a bid to maintain some history? How significant is a new ground in terms of revenue generated? Will it move the needle?
BBC Sport has worked with football finance expert Kieran Maguire to consider the impact a new home has.
Image source, Getty Images
