Brentford Beat Wolves 2-0 At Molineux
Ivan Toney scored his third goal in four Premier League games as Brentford clinched a deserved victory over misfiring Wolves at Molineux.
Christian Norgaard put the Bees ahead just after the half hour with a close-range header from a corner.
Toney secured the three points 13 minutes before the final whistle with a crisp finish from Vitaly Janelt’s low cross.
Brentford’s victory – their first away win since 28 October – has given Thomas Frank’s side a healthy six-point cushion above the relegation zone, with a game in hand.
Wolves remain in 10th after back-to-back home defeats – four points adrift of West Ham in the seventh, and final, European spot.
Frank’s team have been celebrated for their easy-on-the eye and progressive style, but are perhaps seen as having a bit of a soft touch at times.
The Bees have led in 17 of their 23 Premier League matches this season but dropped 26 points – more than any other side in the top flight.
Before this fixture they had lost six consecutive away games and only picked up two points from 10 games outside of London.
At Molineux they were dogged and determined.
Brentford gave a lesson in game management – taking their time whenever the ball went dead, much to the chagrin of the Molineux support.
“It wasn’t the prettiest,” Toney told BBC’s Match of the Day.
The margin of victory would have been more had Neal Maupay shown more of his current form than his past, before Norgaard gave Dawson the slip to head in Sergio Reguilon’s teasing inswinging corner.
Toney, for his part, spent most of the game running into threatening areas but his chances were sporadic.
He was, though, in the right place to produce a deft finish from Janelt’s low cross to notch his fourth goal since he returned from a suspension for betting offences.
Frank had spoken with an air of inevitability about Toney’s future this week, but the striker seemed relaxed when asked about his plans.
“I am a Brentford player at the moment,” he said.
The 27-year-old will have one year left on his contract at the end of the season and has been linked with moves to Arsenal and Chelsea.
“Nobody can predict the future. The manager has said what he has, I can’t make other clubs come and get me. I’ll just keep scoring goals.”
With a Premier League goal ratio of one in two, and the kind of clinical finish here craved by the top sides in tight games, it feels the speculation of where he will be playing his football next season will only intensify.
