Given Brentford’s strong form, it was unsurprising to see them start quickly in front of an expecting home crowd. Robin Roefs was called into action immediately, tipping over Kevin Schade’s effort.
As expected, Thiago was visibly keen to add to his hat-trick against Everton last time out, and he was the whisker of the post away from opening the scoring when he struck just wide.
Brentford’s man of the moment would make no mistake with his next chance, though, as he latched onto Vitaly Janelt’s pass before rounding Roefs and tapping home.
With that boost in their system, the hosts almost doubled their lead before the break, after Keane Lewis-Potter’s free-kick clipped the crossbar, with Sunderland offering few answers as to how to stop the Bees.
Granit Xhaka came closest to finding the net with his own free-kick, but it skidded comfortably into Caoimhin Kelleher’s grateful arms.
The Black Cats were more threatening in the second half, though, and were given a golden chance to equalise when Kristoffer Ajer brought down Brian Bobbey in the box, resulting in a penalty. However, Le Fée was left embarrassed as his Panenka attempt was easily caught by Kelleher.
That miss would be emphatically punished too, as Thiago secured his brace with a header after combining with Schade, who had hit the crossbar moments earlier.
He was denied back-to-back hat-tricks by the outstretched foot of Roefs in the late stages, but Yehor Yarmolyuk soon succeeded where the Brazilian uncharacteristically failed, scoring his first goal for the club in 90 appearances when tapping in from a fortunate rebound.
Mikkel Damsgaard was the width of the post away from making it another four-goal haul for Brentford, though it wouldn’t take the gloss off Brentford’s seventh PL home win this term (D3, L1). By contrast, Sunderland have now won just once in eight away matches (D3, L4).
Flashscore Man of the Match: Igor Thiago (Brentford)
