New Year's resolution: Our strong London derby record on 1 January

Our opening game in 2026 sees Thomas Frank return to former club Brentford for the first time in the away dugout looking to continue our strong showing in London derbies on New Year's Day.

Kicking off the new calendar year at Gtech Community Stadium (8pm UK), we head to west London having only lost one London derby in the league (W5 D2) on 1 January and remain unbeaten since that 3-0 loss to West Ham United in 1983.

In the Premier League, we've won both previous fixtures on NYD which came in a 1-0 win over Fulham in 2011 and a 5-3 victory over Chelsea at White Hart Lane in 2015.

When it comes to New Year's Day games on the whole, both sides tend to start the new year well with Brentford losing one in seven (W4 D2) and us winning seven of our last nine.

Buoyed by the determined 1-0 win at Crystal Palace to close out 2025, we remain in the capital and face a Brentford side who we are yet to lose to in all four away league fixtures since their promotion in 2021/22 (W1 D3).

Winning 2-0 there last term on 2 February, 2025, our Head Coach matched that result to get the better of his previous side last time out at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Xavi Simons inspired us to victory with an assist and a first Spurs goal in early December.

That victory made it four league wins on the spin against the Bees and we have only tasted defeat once in the top flight (W5 D3), a 3-1 loss in N17 in May, 2023.

Despite enjoying the upper hand over Brentford in recent seasons, new boss Keith Andrews has made an impressive start to life in management and his side have won eight of their 12 Premier League home games (D2 L2), including four of the last five.

In what looks set to be a game of fine margins, Richarlison will be eager to be the difference maker in a fixture he has relished in the past with the Brazilian having a hand in four goals across his five league starts against Brentford (three goals, one assist), scoring the opener when we met back in December.

Here are some other headline stats, courtesy of Opta, ahead of our opening game in 2026...

• Thomas Frank is set to return to Brentford, a team he managed for 278 league games between 2018 and 2025. He is the first former Bees manager to return there for a league game since Mark Warburton in November 2020 with QPR (a 1-2 defeat), with Warburton also the last former manager to win at the Bees (4-3 with Nottingham Forest in August 2017).
• Brentford are playing a London derby on New Year’s Day in the league for a fifth time (W2 D1 L1) – they drew 0-0 with Fulham in 1994, beat Dagenham and Redbridge in both 2008 and 2011 in League Two and lost 3-1 to Arsenal last year.
• We have lost our first league game in two of the last three calendar years (D1), including a 2-1 home loss to Newcastle United in 2025. We’ve not lost the opening league game in consecutive calendar years since 2008/09.
• Brentford haven't lost a home league game on a Thursday since May 1962 (0-2 vs Hull City in the third tier), going unbeaten in six such matches since then (W4 D2) and winning each of the last three.
• Brentford have lost just one of their last seven league games on New Year's Day (W4 D2), however that defeat did come on home soil in a London derby last season, losing 1-3 to Arsenal, despite taking the lead.
• We have won seven of our last nine Premier League games on New Year's Day, although we have lost two of the last three (W1).
• Kevin Schade netted three times in Brentford’s 4-1 win over Bournemouth last time out, as many goals as he’d netted in his previous 18 Premier League games. In doing so, he became the first German player to score more than one Premier League hat-trick.