Analysis: How Brentford kept first clean sheet of the season | OneFootball

The 10 men of Brentford managed to secure their first Premier League clean sheet of the season in a goalless draw away to Everton, with the Bees once again showing their resilience.

The key moment of the game came in the 41st minute when VAR took a closer look at Christian Nørgaard's attempt to convert a dangerous cross, only to catch goalkeeper Jordan Pickford instead.

That meant the second half became a more defensive affair for Thomas Frank's side as they, at long last, earned their first shut-out in the league.

A quick glance at the numbers from the game would imply an Everton siege, as the Toffees amassed 27 shots, compared to Brentford's nine. However, 11 of those were from outside the box, with only the Bees able to shoot from inside the six-yard box.

Indeed, one of Everton's best chances of the game came early on when a shot from distance was diverted by a clever flick from Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Mark Flekken did brilliantly well to get down quickly and prevent a certain goal.

Of those 27 Everton shots, Flekken was only forced into five saves in total, which shows just how well his outfield players did to restrict Sean Dyche's team from too many clear-cut chances. Indeed, the home side only managed an xG of 1.15 in the game, narrowly ahead of the Bees on 1.08.

This pattern is familiar with Brentford for much of the season. Teams have been able to get shots away (which is why Flekken is again top of the charts for total saves in Europe's top five leagues with 60), but the quality of those efforts has generally been low.

Even though no team in the Premier League concedes as many shots per game (19.2) - on average, a shot against Brentford this season has amounted to just 0.1xG. Only efforts against Arsenal or Nottingham Forest (0.09xG) are 'less likely' chances.

The entire backline deserves credit for that, of course - but we want to give special attention to Nathan Collins, whose aerial ability was on show yet again at Goodison Park.

No other player on the pitch won as many aerial duels (six) as Collins, which helped keep Calvert-Lewin quiet with the striker only managing two shots on target in the game, with both attempts coming early on. Beto was the only other Everton player to manage a shot on target in the area after that.

The aerial head-to-head between Calvert-Lewin and Collins was always going to be a key point in the game, with the Everton striker the only person in the Premier League to have won more aerial duels (50) than the defender (46) - although the Brentford man has lost far fewer (just 16 compared to the striker's 52).

Collins' numbers this season have been impressive all around. The centre-back has blocked 26 shots this season (eight more than anyone else), made 66 clearances (ranking him sixth with Pinnock on 72), and won 74 per cent of his aerials (only seven players have a higher number).

The centre-back was happy with a "deserved" clean sheet on Saturday and he will be hoping that it will be the first of many this season.