Though his statistics will get no bump for it, Yoane Wissa may have produced the assist of the season last Sunday when he ran across the edge of the box celebrating a Bryan Mbeumo penalty before it had even been scored.

Did his jog, with arms raised, put Crystal Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson off? How could he have known his strike partner was going to score, especially given Mbeumo was retaking a penalty he’d originally missed? Did he get caught in the moment before the moment had even happened?

Frankly, who cares? It was one of the more humorous incidents of the Premier League weekend, and reaffirmed what watching Mbeumo and Wissa for Brentford this season has already laid bare: that these two have a telepathy few strike duos can match.

Mbeumo said after the hard-fought 2-1 win over Palace that his partnership with Wissa is grounded on a deep-rooted friendship “on and off the pitch”.

He added that “if one of us scores, then we are really happy for the other.” The last game in which Brentford scored but through neither Mbeumo nor Wissa came 12 matches ago.

Since Ivan Toney left for Saudi side Al Ahli on August 30, Mbeumo and Wissa have emerged from his shadow to become the best strike partnership in the Premier League.

Mbeumo (14 goals) and Wissa (11) are the two leading scorers in the top-flight this season among players from sides in the bottom half of the table. Both are already just one goal away from matching their best individual Premier League campaigns.

Brentford’s scouting network casts a net so far and wide that 85,500 players are tracked at any one time. Of all their shrewd pick-ups over the years using chairman Matthew Benham’s much-envied statistical algorithms, few signings have paid their way more comprehensively.

Mbeumo cost £5.8m from French second-tier side Troyes in 2019, Wissa just £8.5m from Lorient two years later.

Manager Thomas Frank has said “there must be” teams keen on signing Wissa and Mbeumo, yet he insists they are “absolutely not for sale”.

They are the two most prolific goalscorers of Brentford’s Premier League era, having outscored former talisman Toney, and this season their finishing has taken on a new elite level of clinical.

Wissa, a 28-year-old French-born DR Congo international, has scored his 11 goals from just 23 shots on target.

Mbeumo, a 25-year-old also born in France and who plays for Cameroon, is finding the net at an even more rampant rate - 14 goals netted from just 22 shots on target. In the entire Premier League, no player is outperforming their expected goals more so than him.

Opta statistics say Mbeumo has scored 6.1 goals more than he ought to have, according to the difficulty of the chances that have fallen his way.

While Nottingham Forest submitted - and had rejected - a £22million bid for Wissa this month, Brentford have never received a formal transfer offer for Mbeumo, though both players are known to be on Arsenal’s radar.

Given how consistent and ruthless both forwards have been in front of goal this season, transfer interest in both players from various clubs is surely simmering away in the background ahead of the summer.

Brentford are 11th in the table, and when asked in an interview with Standard Sport at the tail end of last season what the west London club can achieve in years to come, Wissa was unequivocal: “I think we can get into Europe - easily. And we will. For me, we will.”

Wissa revealed in the same interview that he used to joke with Toney about the Englishman’s not-so-subtle desire to leave the club last summer.

In truth, Toney’s exit has allowed Brentford to become a better team overall, unlocking more of the individual potential in Mbeumo and Wissa than had been observable before.

Frank used to assert that he felt the ice-cool Toney was the best penalty taker in the world. Well, this season he insisted Mbeumo is the best in England. Since his first for Brentford in December 2021, Mbeumo has scored 10 penalties in all competitions, missing none.

“He had different qualities from the others,” says Jeremy Cordoval, a Guadeloupe international and former team-mate of Mbeumo’s at Troyes. “I adored him. He didn't stop working, and listened to everyone he came across.”

Another ex-team-mate of Mbeumo, Ronan Jay, says: “I am two years younger, but he was always the best player of his generation at Troyes.

“He hates losing. Several moments come to mind of him sulking and complaining when he lost in training. But he has reached this level by remaining himself, remaining humble. I once told him before a game that if he scored, I would pay him.

“He equalised in the second half. I never paid.”

Guillaume Dequaire, who played with Wissa at third-tier Chateauroux a decade ago, says: “When I see him on TV, he is the same player as on his first day training with the first team”.

Wissa’s former Ajaccio team-mate Moussa Maazou says: “I'm proud to see what he's doing in the Premier League and I'm amazed no Champions League team has bought him yet.”

In November, Frank said: “He [Wissa] has been an unbelievable signing, and he’s more than just a goalscorer. I’ve told him I love when he smiles, because he’s got a beautiful smile. He’s a big part of the culture and driving the group.

“They understand the way each other play; that's important.”

To Brentford, the chemistry between Mbeumo and Wissa is invaluable.