Brentford finally picked up their first away win of the season at the 10th attempt after hammering bottom-of-the-table Southampton 5-0.
The Bees’ last win on the road in the Premier League came on May 11 when they beat Bournemouth 2-1, and two goals from Bryan Mbeumo – as well as one each from Kevin Schade, Keane Lewis-Potter and Yoane Wissa – ended their long drought in style.
Southampton remain rooted to the bottom of the table, 10 points from safety, as a result. They have now lost all three of Ivan Juric’s games in charge, conceding eight goals and scoring just one.
Brentford – correctly, in hindsight – sensed an opportunity and set about taking control of the game from the off, so it was no surprise when they were already in the lead after just six minutes.
Bryan Mbeumo scored twice as Brentford secured their first away win of the season
Mikkel Damsgaard beat Joe Aribo to the ball, nudged it past Lesley Ugochukwu and released a beauty of a pass that Kevin Schade met first time to divert past Aaron Ramsdale.
It seemed a second would follow shortly after. Wissa forced a couple of saves from Ramsdale, Christian Norgaard headed onto the crossbar and Damsgaard struck inches wide after sweeping the ball away from Ugochukwu with great skill.
The Bees could not find a way to double their lead, though, and Saints sent a timely reminder of how quickly a game can change just before the break when Aribo teed up Tyler Dibling to lash inches past the post.
But the screw started to turn early in the second half. Sepp van den Berg had a second ruled out after Wissa’s foul on Jan Bednarek was spotted by VAR, before Wissa blazed over when Schade’s flicked header put him through one-on-one.
It was 2-0 when Bryan Mbeumo and Wissa intuitively linked up, with the former smashing a lay-off high into the roof of the net – and Mbeumo made it three when he finished from the penalty spot after Ugochukwu’s clumsy foul on Van den Berg.
There was no way back after that, but it got worse for the stricken Saints in second-half stoppage time.
Lewis-Potter took advantage of an untimely slip by Harwood-Bellis to make it four after being picked out by Mbeumo and Wissa added the gloss within two minutes, coolly dispatching his 10th of the season after Yuki Sugawara headed the ball straight into his path.
Southampton remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table
