MY ACCOUNT
An Ivan Toney penalty helped Brentford to their first Premier League victory in eight weeks against an Everton side who remain winless since September.
A high-boot from Andros Townsend midway through the first half caught the face of Frank Onyeka and after a VAR check, the spot kick was awarded.
Toney stepped up and cooly stroked the ball into the bottom corner, leaving Jordan Pickford standing on his feet.
Thomas Frank was full of praise for his side, highlighting his talisman Toney’s clinical nature from 12 yards.
He said: “We know when we have a clean sheet we are a little closer to a win, plus the world’s best penalty taker and we get the three points.
“[We know] it’s a goal, he just shows it week after week, the good thing I like is if you have a strategy you should train on it and that’s what he does.
“We got a very important clean sheet, we had a big focus on the balance in defence.
“I think it’s very impressive and well done to the players – we were very difficult to break down and the two times they had opportunities Alvaro [Fernandez] made big saves.”
The Bees were denied a second just minutes before the break when Pickford kept out Bryan Mbeumo’s effort.
Rafa Benitez’s side showed more fight in the second half, in particular Alex Iwobi who forced Fernandez into a couple of saves.
Abdoulaye Doucoure later flashed a shot wide but time ran out for the Toffees who slip to 14th place.
Did you know?
Frank’s side earned both their first home league win and first home league clean sheet since the opening day of the season.
The Toffees are winless in seven league games (D2 L5), their longest such run since April 2016.
All eight of the Bees’ home league goals this season have been scored by a different player.
Benitez has won just one of his last 10 away Premier League matches against promoted sides (D3 L6) across spells with Chelsea, Newcastle and Everton.
Since the start of last season, Toney has scored more league penalties (excluding play-offs) than any other player in the top four tiers of English football (11), doing so without missing any.
