Premier League status has been all but mathematically secured for another year for Brentford following their impressive 2-0 victory over European contenders West Ham United.
West London trumped the East in a tightly contested match, though the hosts at the Brentford Community Stadium were marginally the better side, spurning a number of chances in the first-half before goals in the second from Bryan Mbeumo and Ivan Toney in the second gave the beatific Bees a fourth win in five league matches.
Head coach Thomas Frank addressed the media after the match — these were hist most noteworthy quotes.
On the overall performance
Looking at these two sides' relative positions in the table prior to kick-off (14th hosting 6th), this result — just like Brentford's trouncing of Chelsea in their previous match — will have come as a surprise to many onlookers, but victory was fully deserved by the Bees given the way they played on the day.
"I think it was close to a complete performance," Frank said. "It was the first time all season in the Premier League that we have more or less controlled the game from minute one to 90. It was possibly even more complete than the Chelsea one."
On Bryan Mbeumo
One major talking point from the match was that Mbeumo scored his first league goal since December. The forward had been profligate in recent games and, indeed, he missed a host of chances in the first-half of this encounter, but Frank was delighted with Mbeumo's mental fortitude and also with his strong partnership up front with Toney.
"Bryan has been mentally strong," said the manager. "Player performances always go up and down over the season, but the numbers that Bryan and Ivan are producing are very impressive and I'm pleased that Bryan got his goal because he needed it."
On defeating capable opposition — again
Sunday's victory gave Brentford their first league double over West Ham in 68 years, following on from the 2-1 victory at London Stadium in October. It's a feat which is all the more impressive given David Moyes' side have been one of the division's form teams all season long.
"Winning 2-0 against a very good side challenging for the top four, and restricting them to just five shots, that's 'wow' for me. It's very pleasing [to do the double over West Ham], especially given how we played today, because I really admire what David has done with West Ham."
On escaping the rut
A dismal run between October and February saw Brentford win just three matches out of 20 in the Premier League — now, since the beginning of march, they have four victories in five. Frank stressed that consistency and confidence have been key turning his side's fortunes around.
"We have been consistent with our strategy, structure and everything we've been doing, and these wins have also given us confidence. We would like to end the season as high as possible but we're still taking it one game at a time."