Bryan Mbeumo back to his best – Is he the man to fire Brentford to automatic promotion?

Last season at Brentford, it was all about BMW – Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins – who combined for 55 goals in the Championship as the London club missed out on promotion to the Premier League with defeat to Fulham in the play-off final.

However, Watkins and Benrahma departed the Bees in the summer to move onto Premier League clubs, Aston Villa and West Ham respectively, to leave Mbeumo as the only member of the trio at the club going into the season.

The Frenchman has found it tough this season, netting just once in his first 20 appearances of the season, prior to yesterday. In Brentford’s 3-1 win over Reading, he would find the net twice to send Thomas Frank’s side into the top four of the Championship for the first time this season.

If Brentford are to make a realistic push for automatic promotion then they are going to need the 21-year-old, who joined the club in 2019 from Troyes, to continue to put in strong performances on a consistent basis and help summer signing Ivan Toney, who set up the second, share the goal mantel.

Heading into Christmas, the West London club are just three points off the automatic promotion places, currently held by Jason Tindall’s Bournemouth but have closed the gap thanks in large to Toney’s 16 goals to date and helped to set them on their way to a 13-match winning streak after a poor start to the season.

Frank was pleased with Mbeumo’s performance when speaking in the post match press conference and hopes that this performance can set him on his way to get back to his consistent best.

“He’s got a wonderful left foot and when he gets in that position, you know what he can do, it was a fantastic finish.

“On the third goal, it was my favourite, not only for Bryan but it’s the way we want to play, everything was great in that goal and it just highlights the quality of the player.

“He has going to be a really key player for us moving forward – we already knew this but it’s great to see him back amongst the goals today.”

Goalscoring was a key part to the Bees being so successful and reaching the play-off final last season and despite losing Watkins and Benrahma to the Premier League, Toney’s contributions make the Bees the third highest scorers in the division – only behind Bournemouth and Blackburn Rovers.

Mbeumo was a joy to watch yesterday afternoon at the Brentford Community Stadium and you could really tell that once he got his first goal, his confidence came flying back. Frank will hope he can go on a real run now and help his side make the Premier League for the very first time.

The French forward has scored 18 goals in his 62 matches for the club, but he does offer a lot more than just his goals, proving to be a real handful for defenders due to his speed and agility. The attribute was striking on Saturday in the win over the Royals, who really struggled to cope with him and many of Brentford’s attacking options.

There is a great opportunity for Mbuemo to prove his potential of playing in the Premier League in the future, with a huge night on the horizon for the club with a visit from Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup quarter finals on Tuesday evening.

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