Two of the pre-season favourites for promotion from the Championship meet on Tuesday night, as Brentford host Norwich at Griffin Park.
Brentford, of course, missed out on promotion narrowly last season, finishing third-place in the Championship before losing in the play-off final 1-0 against Fulham. It seems that Thomas Frank’s may be suffering something of a hangover from that failure to secure a spot in the Premier League.
The exit of two of their star performers Ollie Watkins and on deadline day Said Benrahma will not help their cause. However, Watkins replacement Ivan Toney has started the Championship campaign in fine form, scoring seven goals in as many appearances.
The problem for Brentford is that they have picked up just ten league points this season in the second tier, despite Toney’s excellent goalscoring form.
A 3-2 defeat at Stoke City last time out means that the home side has won just three of their league games this season.
They have at least won two of their three home matches in the Championship this season, which means that the Bees have won eight of their last ten league matches at Griffin Park.
After a mixed start to life back in the Championship, Norwich now look to have hit form, as a 2-1 home win over Wycombe Wanderers was their third straight victory in the second tier.
The Canaries have a decent recent away record in the Championship dating back to their last stint in the league, as they have now won seven of their previous ten matches on their travels in the second tier.
One negative on their travels from both their previous and current spell in the Championship has been the lack of clean sheets, as the Canaries have kept just two clean sheets in their last nine away matches.
Forebet predicts that Norwich will continue their winning run by recording a victory in a high-scoring game.