Show us the company you keep, so the old saying goes, and we’ll tell you what you are. It’s a handy rule of thumb, so let’s apply it to Igor Thiago.
A magnificent hat-trick, his first in the Premier League, was sealed with a nerveless 40-yard run and dink over Jordan Pickford, the kind of finish that defined a striker in form. It took him up to 14 for the season and, in the big five leagues, only Harry Kane, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe have more.
Not a bad collection, is it? If Thiago is hanging to their coattails, it tells you he’s currently one of the best in the business and what a difference it is making to a Brentford team that continue to make smooth progress, to such an extent that some of their fans are starting to think about Europe.
After this 4-2 shellacking of Everton, they are only four points off fourth placed Liverpool, so why shouldn’t Brentford have lofty aspirations? Thiago had gone six games without a goal but if this is a sign of things to come from the Brazilian, who knows where they might end up.
‘The finishes were outstanding,’ purred Keith Andrews, Brentford’s manager. ’Really clinical, calm, confident. He gave us the platform to play off, through and around. He was outstanding. He’s in some esteemed company with the three names mentioned. But he’s earned it.
‘He’s been on a journey where he was injured for a lot of last season. He settled into the club behind the scene, not in the spotlight where everybody would see it. But he’s such a popular player and person amongst our group and a special person that he deserves everything he gets.’
MAGIC IN HIS BOOTS
What an irony, then, that Thiago’s first major moment was at the other end of the pitch, when he diverted a James Tarkowski header off the line. He would go on to plunder his first in the 11th minute, sliding onto the end of a Vitaly Janelt cross before going into overdrive after the break.
‘It’s my first time at this stadium but I’ve been to Goodison enough times to know what makes this football club tick,’ said Andrews. ‘ It’s a tricky place to come, the decibel levels can go through the roof and the crowd can dictate the flow and momentum of a game. We played with real courage.’
It is to Andrews’s credit that was the case. He’s played a major role in filling Thiago with confidence but, beyond that, his team always looks well organised and they have excellent players, such as Mikkel Damsgaard, to implement his plans.
FINALLY OUT OF A CORNER
Andrews was originally appointed to Brentford’s backroom staff as their set piece coach, so one set of numbers before the game would have had him puzzled – how on earth had a team that had been so proficient at corners in recent seasons failed to score from one so far?
The last three seasons had seen Brentford plunder five (24-25), seven (23-24) and 10 (22-23) goals respectively; for them to have began this fixture with figures of 91-0 – wouldn’t it be nice for England’s openers to have that return? – left them bottom of the league.
But, in the 50th minute, the foible was corrected. An inswinger from Janelt cut out all of Everton’s defenders and in steamed Nathan Collins with an opening he was never going to miss: his connection was firm and true and it left those in Blue seeing stars. Thiago flattened them 90 seconds later.
EVERTON’S NEW YEAR HANGOVER
Perhaps if Dwight McNeil had scored with the first shot of the game, the momentum would have been completely different but everything about the day, from Everton’s perspective, felt out of sync, from the misfunctioning sound system before kick-off to several players.
Tyler Dibling arrived from Southampton last summer with big expectations but he is struggling at present and was hauled off after 45 minutes; Tarkowski was leaden footed throughout and he was misguided in trying to wind up Thiago, who exacted revenge as all good strikers do.
‘I don’t think it is something we do too often, concede four goals,’ said David Moyes. ‘We conceded them in a shabby manner. If you think how well we defended (at Nottingham Forest) it just didn’t stack up. The goals we conceded never gave us a chance of winning.’