Aston Villa will hope to end a 77-year streak when they play host to Brentford on Saturday.
The West Midlands outfit have enjoyed a productive 2023-24 thus far, currently holding fourth position in the Premier League standings and having reached the Europa Conference League quarter-finals.
However, Unai Emery is having to deal with a range of injury issues to key players, while Villa went down 4-1 at Manchester City earlier this week.
As a result of Tottenham Hotspur moving to within two points of fourth place with a game in hand, Villa's meeting with Brentford this weekend has become particularly important.
With Spurs not facing Nottingham Forest until Sunday evening, Villa have the opportunity to put clear daylight between themselves and their nearest rivals for Champions League qualification.
© Reuters
What streak are Villa looking to end?
Nevertheless, the history books are not in favour of Villa achieving that goal as they bid to complete a league double over Brentford for the first time in 77 years.
Back in 1947, Villa emerge victorious in two fixtures in the old Division One, prevailing 5-2 in the home fixture and winning the away encounter by a 5-2 scoreline.
Up until that point and as far into their history as 2016, Villa had never lost a single game to Brentford in nine contests, with there being a remarkable 63 years between matches.
More games between the sides have taken place since 2016 than there had been before that point, with the teams initially beginning to play each other regularly in the Championship eight years ago.
Between September 2016 and January 2022, Brentford went eight matches unbeaten against Villa, putting together a consistent pattern of a draw followed by a win throughout that period.
© Reuters
Not all one-way traffic
Despite that impressive return, Brentford are still searching for their first-ever league victory at the home of Villa, a streak lasting eight matches.
Since the fixture after the departure of Steven Gerrard, Villa have collected seven points from a possible nine, with interim boss Aaron Danks delivering a 4-0 win just days after Gerrard was removed from his position.
A 1-1 draw was played out at the Gtech Community Stadium in April 2023 before Villa came through 2-1 in a feisty game where there were 10 yellow cards and two red cards.
Brentford do have a fond recent memory of the West Midlands after they posted a 2-0 triumph at Wolverhampton Wanderers as recently as February 10.
That said, that is their only away win in their last 10 league fixtures, with Thomas Frank's side losing the other nine matches on the road.
Darren Plant
