Brentford leave it late before Vitaly Janelt stings Crystal Palace in 96th minute

Never write Brentford off. Six minutes into added time, they were struggling for fluency and a goal behind to Crystal Palace when Bryan Mbeumo thundered down the right flank after Jordan Ayew had surrendered possession.

“All I thought was ‘good cross, good cross, good cross’,” smiled Thomas Frank, the Brentford head coach. Mbeumo’s cross was indeed good, as was substitute Vitaly Janelt’s header which flew past Vicente Guaita. A point was gained, honour was salvaged, Brentford remain undefeated since October and every top flight Premier League game between them and Crystal Palace has ended in a draw. “We didn’t hit the highest levels,” he admitted. “We didn’t perform well, but the attitude and mentality of these players is remarkable. I always thought we could do it.”

“We deserved three points,” countered Patrick Vieira, the Palace manager. ”We defended well until the goal, which was a collective failure. We need to make better decisions when we’re leading and we have to turn good performances into wins..”

It wasn’t meant to be quite so complicated. Hurtling towards their 11^th Premier League game without defeat, with sixth place a possibility at kick off, Brentford are becoming accustomed to starting games as favourites and Palace seemed ideal cannon fodder.

Without the injured Wilfried Zaha, they had been beginning to look over their shoulders. Zaha’s six league goals were twice as many as his leading pursuers, Eberechi Eze and Odsonne Edouard. Of their starting XI, only Michael Olise had scored more than once.

Brentford strutted forwards, seemingly without a care in the world. Six minutes in, Palace spurned a succession of opportunities to clear a long throw and Christian Norgaard sidefooted just wide from 10 yards. The near miss seemed to herald a deluge, but it was as good as it got for the home side until the very end.

With Arsenal loanee Albert Sambi Lokonga making his first start and controlling midfield, Palace began to nullify Brentford and tentatively they began to push forwards. In what, in hindsight, was a warning, Raya tipped over Olise’s drive Hollywood-style, but these were the slimmest of pickings.

On the hour Brentford began to perk up and normal service briefly threatened. Norgaard finally called Guaita into meaningful action after he punced on the otherwise impeccable Joachim Andersen’s weak clearance following good work from Mbeumo.

When Sambi Lokonga was withdrawn, boos rang out from the away section, but the discontent was premature for Palace eased ahead in the 69^th minute. Ayew crossed low into the D from the left, Cheick Doucoure helped it into the path of the overlapping Olise, whose cross was headed in by the unchaperoned substitute Eze and Palace’s first win of 2023 beckoned, albeit briefly.