Thomas Frank believes work ethic led to Brentford’s Premier League success

Thomas Frank credits his players’ work ethic for their relative success in the Premier League this season ahead of hosting Norwich on Saturday.

Norwich remain without a win in the top flight this season and are rooted to the foot of the table with just two points from the opening 10 games, despite finishing 10 points ahead of Brentford in last season’s Championship.

Brentford had to secure qualification through the play-offs but have impressed in the Premier League this season and currently sit in 12th place with three wins, including an opening-day victory over Arsenal, and Frank insists high-intensity training is behind their form.

“So far, I am very pleased with the performances. The big thing that we’re looking at just came from the training ground – I think we had a fantastic training session, very good intensity, very good focus and good quality and they train very hard. Very hard,” the Bees boss said.

“I think that’s what has brought us to this point and hopefully that can keep pushing us and developing us.

“I think especially in the training weeks it’s very important to see that high intensity and effort in terms of and of course putting it into the games.

“One thing we can compete on is the physical part of it, because we don’t have the same quality as Chelsea or Leicester, so I’m very pleased that we are very fit and in every game so far and on the (measuring system) we’ve done better so I think we need to check every time to get something out of these games.”

The Bees had a promising start to the season but have lost their last three league matches, against Burnley, Leicester and Chelsea.

Despite Brentford’s league position compared to the Canaries however, the manager expects a difficult match.

“(We’re) very aware that it’s going to be another difficult game,” Frank said.

“We will definitely go there to go for the three points. It’s so important not to change anything, go out there, be brave, play forward, be positive, that’s the mindset when we go into that game.

“We faced Norwich last year twice, we drew 1-0 at home, lost 1-0 away and they were the best team in the Championship last year, we came third.

“So for me it is a game that we need to be bang on it, perform very well against a team and it will be a very even game.”