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Regularly bracketed together, holding the same ambition of European football for the first time, Brentford continue to hold the advantage. The chase may come down to one of these much-admired teams and Bournemouth were frustrated by a 13th drawn game of the season. On a midweek night where the Premier League resembles Prem Rugby, all hustle, grappling, kicking for territory and physicality closing off creativity, Brentford toughed it out.

The Bees remain the only team in the Premier League that Bournemouth have never beaten.

Bournemouth have not beaten Brentford in the regular season since August 2014, their sole victory coming in vain in the first leg of the 2021 Championship playoff.

Following Saturday lunchtime’s stormy draw with Sunderland, Andoni Iraola beefed up his starting lineup with Ryan Christie and Evanilson, forgoing the grace of Eli Junior Kroupi and David Brooks. Keith Andrews made three changes from that controversial, video-assisted 4-3 win at Burnley, including the return of Caoimhin Kelleher, who is a new father.

Fighting out a breathless duel with Adrien Truffert, Dango Ouattara was making his first return to the Vitality, his £42.5m fee softening the welcome from his former fans, getting rather too used to farewells. Brentford’s future has greater certainty, with Andrews contracted until 2032, while Andoni Iraola’s deal expires this June.

Under a clear sky and full moon, Iraola was in shirt sleeves, agitated from the start by Michael Kayode’s long throws. Andrews, similarly active on the sidelines, had not doubled up on Rayan in the fashion of Sunderland’s Régis Le Bris but tensed up whenever Rayan took on his left-back.

Rico Henry, worryingly for a player who has lost much time to injury, did not last beyond 20 minutes, and was replaced by Kristoffer Ajer. It took a sliding Jordan Henderson to bail out the Norwegian when Rayan made his first escape but the substitute, though there were a couple of hairy moments, saw out his task. That Rayan was bred as a central striker and looked more comfortable when coming inside asks the question of when he might play there but Iraola continues to nurse along the teenager’s development on the flanks.

Though both teams play a similar modern, pressing game, Brentford do so with far heavier muscle and significantly more directness, Bournemouth relying far more on interceptions. Their first real chance came after Tyler Adams performed such a function when Marcus Tavernier drifted the eventual shot wide.

As is usual with Iraola’s team, who tend to attack in waves, that triggered a series of further opportunities, Alex Scott firing over and James Hill failing to keep a header down. Christie appeared to have done all the hard work in jinking beyond Kelleher, only to lose his footing at the vital moment. Tavernier fired the final chance of the first half wide.

The break did not halt Bournemouth’s momentum and Kelleher was beaten by Evanilson’s slide towards a crossed ball, only for the post to come to Brentford’s rescue. Andrews’ answer was to ask his team to take their time. Henderson mirrored his manager by asking for a go-slow until he was replaced on the hour by Yehor Yarmolyuk, fresher, more youthful legs into the midfield morass.

Kayode, far more than a set-piece specialist, made a series of incursions into Bournemouth territory in a second-half period where the ball refused to drop for either team’s forward line, defence very much in the ascendancy. Ouattara could only scrape his attempted volley off-target before Rayan was sacrificed for Kroupi. Brentford became more ambitious, and Sepp van den Berg’s header asked Djordje Petrovic to make his second save.

Bournemouth were similarly scratchy. Tavernier hit the outside of the post, and Evanilson rounded Kelleher, only to be flagged offside. Both teams took to the skies in search of the winner, Kayode’s and Hill’s arms in full commission. No opening came. Kroupi failed to make clean contact and another sub, in Enes Unal, flailing at a similar chance told the story of scrappiness, gristle over inspiration.