Brentford v Sunderland: Key stats and talking points

Brentford are aiming to maintain their unbeaten start against a Sunderland side with one win and one defeat so far. BBC Sport takes a look at the key themes ahead of their clash at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday (15:00 BST). It's been a promising start to the season for the Bees, who have a win and a draw from their first two matches and were a bit unlucky to be pegged back by Leeds last weekend. None of Brentford's four league goals so far this season have come from Igor Thiago, who provided a division-high 40% of the Bees' top-flight goals last season, which helped earn him the squad's and supporters' player of the year awards. The Brazilian's total of 22 league goals in 2025-26 was second only to Erling Haaland and he had the best conversion rate of any player to have 25+ shots in the competition last season (26.2%). Thiago missed a penalty in the opener against Spurs and is yet to score in the league, with five of his seven shots so far off target. However, he scored in both of Brentford's pre-season friendlies and also found the net as a substitute in the Bees' EFL Cup win at Birmingham last month. Thiago enjoyed playing Sunderland last season, scoring three goals across the two league meetings. [BBC] While Thiago started all but one of Brentford's 38 league games last season, 21 of Wilson Isidor's 32 appearances for Sunderland in last season's Premier League were from the bench, and the Haitian international has come on as a second-half substitute in both of the Black Cats' league games in this campaign. But lack of minutes does not mean lack of impact. Isidor has made a name for himself as a super-sub – his five Premier League goals from the bench since the start of last season is more than any other player in that time. Last weekend, he was at it again, coming on and scoring a late winner against Fulham to earn Sunderland their first points of the season. That was the second time he's scored a game-winning goal in the Premier League and came a year to the day since his only previous one - a 90th-minute goal that saw Sunderland beat Saturday's opponents Brentford 2-1 at the Stadium of Light. [BBC] But recent history – and geography – isn't on Sunderland's side. Their last win at Brentford in any competition was in a third-tier meeting in August 1987 – since then they have drawn two and lost two. Meanwhile, they have won just eight points in their last 16 away Premier League matches in London, losing 12 of those games. They've lost their last three such fixtures, conceding three goals in each - one of those being the 3-0 loss at Brentford in January.