Brentford and Crystal Palace play out goalless draw with goalkeepers rarely called upon

Not merely a goalless draw, but almost a chanceless one too. With David Raya in the Brentford goal almost wholly unemployed and his Crystal Palace counterpart Vicente Guaita almost as rarely called upon, their teams ground out a wretched encounter which will live long on nobody’s memory.

For all the joy their ascension to the Premier League has brought, Brentford kicked off having lost their last five league games. Ivan Toney’s calf once again ruled him out and Christian Eriksen, introduced to the fans before the game, will feature in a friendly on Monday and he needs to be a font of creativity, more than a vanity acquisition.

Without Toney, Brentford’s threat level is drastically reduced, but they missed his off-the-ball running and his a devil may care approach too. As a soporific first half showed, the nascent Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo combination has yet to truly flower; the midfield toiled rather than soared and when they did fashion an opportunities, Joachim Andersen deflected Rico Henry’s goalbound rasper to safety and then Guaita rushed off his line to foil Mbeumo after Sergi Canos’s pinpoint through ball.

Palace are still two points and one place ahead of their hosts with a game in hand. They are in less obvious peril, but they have yet to win a league game in 2022 and manager Patrick Vieira juggled his front three once again, in search of the combination that clicks. It didn’t click with their only chance of the first period just after the half hour when Odsonne Edouard set Jordan Ayew free. The Ghana international had time and space to shoot, but he blazed high and wide. Both of Vieira’s attracking changes, Edouard and Ayew, would not finish the 90 minutes and, once again Christian Benteke would be left