'Dominated' - Now this pundit is wading in on Brentford's xG after Birmingham City defeat

Birmingham City are up and running after beating fancied Brentford in the opening game of the season - but they don't seem to be getting much credit

Birmingham City opened their campaign with a defiant and determined 1-0 victory over promotion-hopefuls Brentford.

While Aitor Karanka praised his team’s attitude and organisation, opposite number Thomas Frank argued it was the visitors who actually deserved to win the match.

The Dane cited the two occasions on which his team struck the woodwork and despite describing it as ‘all that crap’ even mentioned the xG [Expected Goals] metric which was 7-2 in the Bees’ favour.

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And Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchliffe warmed to that theme describing Brentford as the most threatening side in the Championship.

“I was really impressed with Brentford – they are having a difficult time with missing out, not once but twice on getting promoted,” Hinchcliffe told Sky Sports’ EFL Podcast.

“They have lost Watkins, they look like they’re going to lose Benrahma but you look at the result – they lost the game at Birmingham – but you scratch the surface and actually they were the most threatening team of all the sides in the Championship over those first games.

“Their xG was better than anybody else’s – OK the didn’t score and of course you have got to score to get results in games but the threat is still there from Brentford, they dominated large parts of that game.

“They have got Josh Dasilva, Bryan Mbeumo, Sergi Canos has come back into the side as well so there is plenty of attacking threat there but if they lose Benrahma I do feel they need another player.

“That performance even though they lost show they have still got a lot going on and they will be a top six team again this season.”

Blues won the game through Jeremie Bela’s 37th minute header but had Zach Jeacock’s woodwork to thank for denying Dasilva and Canos.