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Over the midpoint of the season, The Bees are in a dream scenario.

With four wins in five games, and a Brazilian striker netting the goals, suddenly Bees fans find themselves drifting off with thoughts of trips to Milan, Munich and Barcelona next season.

A emphatic three-nil win over Sunderland moved Keith Andrews' side into the fifth spot in the Premier League – a place that was sufficient to secure European football last term.

Solely leaders Arsenal have accumulated more points over the past six games.

There is a significant distance to go yet but the West London outfit are firmly in the battle for continental football.

Few was forecasting this last off-season.

The former head coach had left for Tottenham after a seven-year stint in charge, a period in which he had not only got the club promoted but also established them in the elite division.

Skipper Christian Norgaard left for Arsenal and attacking duo Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa – who scored a combined of 39 goals in 2024-25 – were also sold, joining Manchester United and Newcastle United respectively.

Specialist coach Andrews was elevated to replace the Dane, while there was no striker among the off-season arrivals.

A year of difficulty, possibly even the drop, was forecast. Yet here we are in the new year with Brentford in the upper echelons.

So, what is behind their success?

Igor Thiago's Record-breaking Campaign

The club's decision not to bring in another striker was in part down to circumstance, with one forward's move not being finalized until deadline day.

But they also knew they had a £30 million striker already waiting to go.

The 24-year-old joined from Belgium in July 2024 for a then-record fee, but was plagued by fitness issues in his first campaign, going without a goal in his initial outings.

Thiago has set about making up for lost time this season, though, with his double against Sunderland taking him to 16 league goals – the most by a player from Brazil in a single English top-flight campaign.

Given the fellow Brazilians who have preceded him, that is some accomplishment, especially with seventeen matches left to play.

"He's been a revelation," pundit Danny Murphy said. "He is physically intimidating, fast, strong, but technically better than people think. Good with his feet, both feet, he can score off both. You can see he's full of confidence. These numbers are fantastic. He must be so pleased. That's a huge compliment to him."

That only Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe have scored more in any of Europe's top five leagues to this point highlights the level he is operating at.

And it is not just the volume but the timing of the goals that have been so pivotal for his team.

His opener against the Black Cats was his seventh first goal of a game of the season. Considering how often we are told the significance of the first goal in a game, having someone you can depend on to take that first big chance cannot be underestimated.

Before the game against Sunderland, no player to have attempted at least thirty efforts this season has a better shooting accuracy than the striker's 59.1 percent.

He finds the target. Do that consistently and the goals will – and have – come.

Given the struggles he had earlier in life, where he worked as a bricklayer to support his family following the passing of his father, perhaps it should be unsurprising that high-stakes situations on the pitch is something he handles with ease.

"Our scouts deserve a lot of praise for the kind of players they bring in and characters," the manager said. "This is really impressive. He is a really unique person who has fitted into life very nicely. He has had to forge this path. He has worked for his journey and toiled. He has got serious grit about his personality. He is developing his skill set constantly and we are discovering more and more about him. He is a largely complete centre-forward."

Andrews Proving Doubters Wrong

Their star striker is the man of the moment but Brentford are not and have never been a single-player team.

While they had key individuals – Ivan Toney, Christian Eriksen, Mbeumo and Wissa – under Frank, they were always seen as a team stronger than the sum of their parts.

The fear was that once the Dane left, that may not be the case, and that the sum of Brentford's parts alone might not be enough to stay up.

Consequently, appointing their set-piece coach, with a blank managerial CV, and just a year at the club was seen by those external observers as a huge risk.

A first managerial job is a challenge for anyone, let alone when it comes in the Premier League and having made the jump from set-piece coach to the manager's office.

But given that Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna was the only other option that Brentford looked at, they were clearly convinced they had the correct candidate.

So far, as often seems to be the case with the key decision makers at the club, it looks as if they were vindicated.

The new boss won just one of his first 5 league games in charge but big home victories against United, the Reds and Newcastle have since occurred.

Wins that, following their excellent recent run, could prove all the more important in the pursuit for European qualification.

"We're in good form and playing really well. We are playing with courage and belief in everything we do with and without the ball," he added. "We are happy with how we are going but we want to keep improving."

In a league where the European spots and the lower mid-table are currently separated by just eight points, they have little choice, because things could rapidly look very otherwise.

But, for now, Brentford are defying the odds. And the longer that lasts, the closer to reality those dreams of Europe will become.