Ask any football fan what they want from a lineup search and it’s the same hope: a clean starting XI, confirmed, no guesswork. What the search results actually hand over is split between two dates, two venues, and a pile of “confirmed” XIs that contradict each other. Brentford and Burnley meet in the Premier League 2025/26 season, and the honest way to preview these lineups is to separate what’s verified from what’s merely projected.

4 related posts

Competition: Premier League 2025/26 · Match date: Saturday 29 November 2025, 15:00 GMT · Official preview published: 24 Nov 2025 · Last confirmed meeting: Brentford 3-0 Burnley, 21 Oct 2023 (ESPN) · Lineup status: Confirmed XIs not yet available

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
2What’s unclear
3Timeline signal
  • Last recorded league meeting: Brentford 3-0 Burnley, 21 Oct 2023 (ESPN match records).
  • Brentford’s official preview (24 Nov 2025) is the closest official team-news trigger.
4What’s next
  • Watch official club channels for confirmed XIs, typically about an hour before kickoff.
  • Compare Sports Mole’s prediction pages for the most detailed projections.

Six facts anchor this preview, one pattern: the official club preview and the search listing don’t fully agree on when or where the game is happening.

Fact Value
Fixture Brentford F.C. vs Burnley F.C.
Competition Premier League 2025/26
Kick-off time Saturday 29 November 2025, 15:00 GMT (Sports Mole match guide)
Venue Gtech Community Stadium (search listing); Brentford’s official preview lists Turf Moor for the 28 Feb 2026 reverse fixture
Last Premier League meeting Brentford 3-0 Burnley, 21 Oct 2023
Official preview Published 24 Nov 2025 by brentfordfc.com
Why this matters

If the two most visible listings can’t agree on the date, any “confirmed” lineup posted early deserves the same skepticism you’d give a transfer rumor.

What are the confirmed Brentford F.C. vs Burnley F.C. lineups?

The honest answer: none are confirmed yet. What exists is a set of reported XIs from low-edit lineup trackers and a set of projections from Sports Mole. They overlap in some places and split in others — most notably at goalkeeper.

Brentford reported starting XI

The catch

Ireland Analysis labels this as Brentford’s confirmed XI, yet its goalkeeper, Valdimarsson, doesn’t appear in Sports Mole’s projected lineup. That’s not confirmation; it’s a claim.

The 4-2-3-1 shape puts Schade and Ouattara on the flanks, Damsgaard as the No. 10 and Thiago through the middle — a structure that matches the reported attacking core.

Burnley reported starting XI

  • Reported XI: Dúbravka; Humphreys, Worrall, Estève; Laurent, Ward-Prowse, Mejbri, Pires; Bruun Larsen, Anthony, Flemming (Ireland Analysis (lineup tracker)).
  • Reported system: 3-4-2-1, with Worrall, Estève and Humphreys as the three centre-backs (Ireland Observer (lineup tracker)).

The two trackers at least agree on Burnley’s spine: Dúbravka in goal and a three-man centre-back unit anchored by Worrall and Estève.

Where the reports genuinely conflict is the rest of the pitch: Ireland Observer’s 3-4-2-1 clashes with Sports Mole’s projected four-man back line for Burnley. The same fixture, two fundamentally different defensive shapes.

Confirmed changes from the last match

  • Michael Kayode is back in training but required a final assessment before the match (Brentford FC (official club preview)).
  • Aaron Hickey has suffered an injury and might not be ready (same preview).
  • Josh Dasilva is sidelined with a knee problem (same preview).
  • Fábio Carvalho has an anterior cruciate ligament injury and will miss the remainder of the season (Sports Mole (Brentford team-news preview)).

The pattern: the only confirmed changes take players out, not put them in. Carvalho is the biggest loss, and Kayode’s final assessment is the one decision that could still go either way on matchday.

Bottom line: no official starting XI for either club is available yet. Any page presenting a fully “confirmed” XI for Brentford or Burnley is running ahead of the clubs’ own announcements.

Who is the head coach of Brentford FC?

Thomas Frank, Brentford’s head coach (Brentford FC (official club preview)), is the man whose selection calls decide the XI. The team-news decisions — who trains, who’s out, who gets a late assessment — all flow through his setup.

Thomas Frank’s Brentford setup

What this means: Frank’s reported shape prioritizes compactness in midfield with a recognizable front line. The identity of the team doesn’t change much between the two listed sources — only the names around the core.

How the coach changes the XI

  • The biggest call is in goal: Sports Mole projects Kelleher, while the reported “confirmed” XI starts Valdimarsson (Sports Mole (Brentford team-news preview); Ireland Analysis (lineup tracker)).
  • In defence, Sports Mole brings in Collins; the tracker prefers Henry at left-back.
  • In midfield, Sports Mole starts Henderson and Yarmoliuk; the tracker names Jensen and Yarmolyuk. Henderson vs Jensen is the real change; the Yarmoliuk/Yarmolyuk difference is just spelling.

The trade-off: Frank values a settled attacking structure, and both sources reflect that. The selection risk sits in goal and the double pivot, not in the front line.

Injury and suspension impact

  • Carvalho (ACL) is out for the season (Sports Mole (Brentford team-news preview)).
  • Hickey (injury) might not be available (Brentford FC (official club preview)).
  • Dasilva (knee) is sidelined (same preview).
  • Kayode needs one final assessment (same preview).

Why this matters: every one of these updates changes a prediction somewhere. The official preview is the only place to track which of these names make the matchday squad.

Bottom line: The catch: team news changes by the hour, and the head coach’s final call only appears on the club’s official channels.

Who is Burnley’s best player right now?

There’s no sourced answer in the research set that names a single “best” Burnley player with current-season stats attached. The closest thing to evidence is selection consistency: which names every reported and predicted XI has in common.

Current form leader

The trade-off

Without a cited stat or rating, “best player” is an opinion. The data-backed proxy is lineup consistency: Flemming and Anthony appear in every reported and predicted Burnley XI in the research set.

  • Flemming and Anthony are the only outfield players named in both the reported XI (Ireland Analysis (lineup tracker)) and Sports Mole’s predicted XI (Sports Mole (predicted Burnley XI)).
  • Dúbravka is the reported and predicted No. 1 from both source types.

That doesn’t prove they’re the best players in the squad. It proves they’re the least-disputed starters — which, for a matchup where so much else is uncertain, is the more useful signal anyway.

Why he matters to Burnley

  • Flemming is the consistent focal point of the attack, with Bruun Larsen and Anthony around him in the reported 3-4-2-1 (Ireland Observer (lineup tracker)).
  • Sports Mole’s projection also places Flemming as the central striker with Anthony wide (Sports Mole (predicted Burnley XI)).
  • That makes Flemming the player Brentford’s centre-backs have to plan around, regardless of which XI Burnley actually names.

Why this matters: a manager’s repeated selection is a stronger signal than an opinion poll. Whoever Burnley’s fans rate highest, the player the team is built around right now is Flemming — at least until the official sheet says otherwise.

What the stats say

  • 28 Feb 2026 match report: Burnley 3-4 Brentford (Sports Mole (match report)).
  • Prior league meeting on record: Brentford 3-0 Burnley, 21 Oct 2023 (ESPN match records).
  • No player-level stats for the current season (goals, ratings, xG) are available in this research set — that absence is itself the story.
Bottom line: The catch: with no current-season numbers to rank Burnley’s squad, any “best player” headline would be filler. The only honest answer is the consistency argument above.

Brentford F.C. vs Burnley F.C. lineups prediction: Who starts?

For predictions, the most complete projections come from Sports Mole’s preview pages. Here’s how they line up.

Predicted Brentford XI

  • Sports Mole’s projected XI: Kelleher; Kayode, Collins, Van den Berg, Ajer; Henderson, Yarmoliuk, Ouattara; Damsgaard, Schade, Thiago (Sports Mole (Brentford team-news preview)).
  • The setup keeps the same front four as the reported XI, with the changes limited to goalkeeper, left-back and one midfield spot.

Predicted Burnley XI

  • Sports Mole’s projected XI: Dubravka; Walker, Tuanzebe, Esteve, Hartman; Cullen, Florentino, Tchaouna, Ugochukwu; Anthony, Flemming (Sports Mole (predicted Burnley XI)).
  • The projection uses a back four, which is the sharpest structural break from the reported 3-4-2-1.

Key selection battles

  • Goalkeeper — Brentford: Kelleher (predicted) vs Valdimarsson (reported).
  • Left-back — Brentford: Collins (predicted) vs Henry (reported).
  • Central midfield — Brentford: Henderson (predicted) vs Jensen (reported).
  • Burnley’s shape: back four (predicted) vs back three (reported).

The trade-off: you can have a lineup now or a right lineup later. The projections are reasonable, but the margin on all four battles above is wide enough that an early “confirmed” graphic is a guess with good marketing.

Bottom line: Sports Mole’s projections are the strongest mainstream published guesses available, but the reported XIs differ on goal, left-back and midfield. Treat both as informed estimates until the official team sheet lands.

Brentford F.C. vs Burnley F.C. lineups stats: What do the numbers say?

The numbers behind this fixture are thinner than a typical Premier League preview: no form table, no xG, no ratings. The stats that do exist are enough to expose the core problem with the lineup coverage.

Recent meetings

  • ESPN records the most recent league meeting as Brentford 3-0 Burnley on 21 Oct 2023 (ESPN match records).
  • A Sports Mole report records a different fixture in the same season ending Burnley 3-4 Brentford on 28 Feb 2026 (Sports Mole (match report)).

The split is the story: one source points to a Brentford home game in November, another to a Burnley home game in February. Lineup pages that ignore that split end up mixing projections from two separate matches.

Season form indicators

  • Both clubs are competing in the Premier League 2025/26 season (BeSoccer competition listing).
  • Sports Mole framed the February game around Brentford chasing a winning feat not achieved in 91 years against Burnley (Sports Mole (match report)).

What the numbers don’t say: no confirmed league standings or run-of-form data for either side appears in the available sources. Any claim about momentum or table position would be invented, so this preview won’t make one.

Lineup stats that matter

  • Brentford’s reported and predicted XIs share 7 of 11 starters exactly; three spots differ (goalkeeper, left-back, one midfield role); the eighth shared starter is spelled two ways (Yarmoliuk/Yarmolyuk) (Ireland Analysis (lineup tracker); Sports Mole (Brentford team-news preview)).
  • Burnley’s reported and predicted XIs share only 4 of 11 starters (Ireland Analysis (lineup tracker); Sports Mole (predicted Burnley XI)).
  • The two listed Burnley systems — 3-4-2-1 vs a back four — add a structural disagreement to the personnel one (Ireland Observer (lineup tracker); Sports Mole (predicted Burnley XI)).

Why this matters: the gap between the two Burnley lists is enormous — seven starters off — which means any early lineup graphic is closer to a coin flip than a confirmation.

Put the two source layers side by side and one pattern appears: both attacks are stable, while the goalkeeper, the defence and the midfield are where the reported and predicted versions genuinely split.

Position group Brentford: reported Brentford: Sports Mole Burnley: reported Burnley: Sports Mole
Goalkeeper Valdimarsson Kelleher Dúbravka Dubravka
Defence Kayode, Ajer, van den Berg, Henry Kayode, Collins, Van den Berg, Ajer Humphreys, Worrall, Estève Walker, Tuanzebe, Esteve, Hartman
Midfield Jensen, Yarmolyuk, Ouattara Henderson, Yarmoliuk, Ouattara Laurent, Ward-Prowse, Mejbri, Pires Cullen, Florentino, Tchaouna, Ugochukwu
Attack Damsgaard, Schade, Thiago Damsgaard, Schade, Thiago Bruun Larsen, Anthony, Flemming Anthony, Flemming
Formation 4-2-3-1 Not stated 3-4-2-1 Not stated
Bottom line: The implication: if you’re tracking this fixture, the only safe assumption is that Burnley’s XI is wide open. Brentford’s is close to settled outside three roles, but “close to settled” is still not “confirmed.”

Timeline signal

  • — Brentford 3-0 Burnley in the last league meeting on record (ESPN match records).
  • — Brentford publishes an official match preview ahead of the 29 Nov listing (Brentford FC (official club preview)).
  • — kickoff in the Sports Mole match guide.
  • — kickoff at Turf Moor per Brentford’s official preview.
  • About 60 minutes before kickoff — the usual window for confirmed lineups; official club channels are the reliable place to see them.

The takeaway: the timeline has two branches, and they lead to two different matchdays. On the day you’re actually watching, trust the fixture list on the Premier League’s official channels — not a lineup page that guessed the date.

Confirmed facts

  • Brentford published an official match preview.
  • Kayode is back in training but needed a final assessment.
  • Hickey is injured and might not be ready.
  • Dasilva is out with a knee problem.
  • Carvalho is out for the season with an ACL injury.

What’s unclear

  • The confirmed starting XI for either club on matchday.
  • The accurate fixture date and venue: 29 Nov 2025 at Gtech Community Stadium or 28 Feb 2026 at Turf Moor.
  • Whether any “confirmed” lineup published by a third-party tracker is correct.
  • Which Burnley player is genuinely the best right now — no sourced stats support a single pick.

What the sources are saying

“Michael Kayode is back in training but needs a final assessment before the Burnley match.”

— Brentford FC (official match preview)

“Brentford midfielder Fábio Carvalho has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury and will miss the remainder of the season.”

— Sports Mole (Brentford team-news preview)

“Burnley’s reported system is a 3-4-2-1, with Worrall, Estève and Humphreys in the defensive line.”

— Ireland Observer (lineup tracker)

“Brentford’s attacking structure is built around Schade, Thiago Rodrigues, Ouattara and Damsgaard.”

— Ireland Observer (lineup tracker)

For anyone planning to watch, plan a fantasy lineup, or make a call on the match, the verdict is straightforward: treat every Brentford-Burnley lineup you see before matchday as an educated guess, including the ones labeled “confirmed.” The clubs’ own channels — starting with Brentford’s official preview — are the only reliable confirmation, and they’re worth checking about an hour before kickoff. For Burnley fans tracking the fixture at Turf Moor, the choice is clear: wait for the club’s team news, or trust a third-party tracker that can’t even agree on the date.

Additional sources

khelnow.com, sportsmole.co.uk, brentfordfc.com, sportsgambler.com

Don't miss these

Frequently asked questions

When are the starting lineups for Brentford vs Burnley announced?

Premier League clubs typically publish confirmed teams about 60 minutes before kickoff. That puts the window near 14:00 GMT for a 15:00 GMT start, but the club’s official channels confirm the exact time on matchday.

Where can I find the official Brentford vs Burnley starting XIs?

Brentford’s official website and the Premier League match center are the reliable places to check. The only official match preview in the sources reviewed here is published by Brentford FC, so that is the best starting point.

Where can I watch Brentford vs Burnley in the Premier League?

Broadcast details are confirmed closer to matchday. The Premier League’s official matchday listings will show the broadcaster for your region; claims made earlier by third-party pages should be treated as unverified.

Who is Burnley’s head coach?

Burnley’s head coach is not named in the sources reviewed for this preview, and guessing would risk being wrong. Burnley’s official channels are the authoritative place to confirm the manager and the team sheet before kickoff.

What happened in the last Brentford vs Burnley match?

ESPN records the most recent league meeting as a 3-0 Brentford win on 21 Oct 2023. A separate Sports Mole report records a 4-3 Brentford win on 28 Feb 2026, which is a different fixture in the same 2025/26 season.

Could suspensions or injuries change the predicted lineups?

Yes. Carvalho is out for the season with an ACL injury, Hickey is injured, Dasilva has a knee problem, and Kayode needed a final assessment after returning to training. Any one of those updates can shift a predicted XI.

Related reading