Jordan Henderson has revealed he had reservations about returning to the Premier League with Brentford, but has now set his sights on maintaining the Bees' upward trajectory.

After a trophy-laden 12-year stint with Liverpool, Henderson moved to Saudi Arabia with Al-Ettifaq but quickly made the switch to Eredivisie giants Ajax last January.

The 35-year-old arrived at the Gtech Community Stadium in the summer as a free agent, and his experience has proved pivotal in Brentford's solid start under Keith Andrews. 

Henderson has made 11 Premier League appearances, providing two assists as well as completing 377 passes, a total only bettered by Sepp van den Berg (402) and Nathan Collins (404) for Brentford in the top-flight in 2025-26. 

"I did have some initial nerves," Henderson said. "But it was more excitement to come in and get started."

Having won eight major honours during his time on Merseyside, Henderson added that a measure of his success with Brentford would not be based on trophies. 

"Improvement," Henderson said when asked about what he would like to achieve with the Bees. "For the club, for the team – I want to be a part of that – and for myself.

"I want to give everything for the team and, hopefully, by the time I leave, Brentford are in a better place.

"It's now about trying to build on that, especially with some of the changes over the summer.

"If we keep working hard and doing what the club has been doing – whilst adding a few things to try and improve – hopefully we'll keep going in the same direction."

Henderson will be hoping to make a similar impact to the one he has had all season when Brentford make the trip to Brighton in the Premier League this Saturday. 

Just goal difference separates the two teams in the table after 11 games of their respective seasons, with Brighton drawing 0-0 with Crystal Palace before the international break.

Brighton were made to rue a number of missed opportunities, something that left boss Fabian Hurzeler with mixed feelings ahead of taking on Brentford.

"We have another clean sheet. We would love to have won this game, but sometimes you have to accept a draw," Hurzeler said. "We have mixed feelings.

"On the one side, we performed well and on the other, we would like to have won.

"We were good in and out of possession, we defended set-pieces quite well. There are always things we can improve.

"We have to accept a point, we deserved it, and maybe we deserved more. We have to keep on doing the small things to get a win out of these sorts of games."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Brighton – Yankuba Minteh

Minteh has made more carries into the opposition's penalty area (35) than any player in the Premier League this season.

He has also made 36 carries ending with a take-on in the competition this term, second only to Manchester City's Jeremy Doku (41).

Brentford – Igor Thiago

Only Erling Haaland (14) has more Premier League goals this season than Thiago (eight), with the Brazilian scoring six goals in his last six appearances in the competition.

His eight goals are the joint-most by a player in Brentford's first 11 games of a Premier League campaign, along with Ivan Toney in 2022-23 and Bryan Mbeumo in 2024-25.

MATCH PREDICTION: BRIGHTON WIN

Brighton remain unbeaten in their last nine Premier League games at the Amex Stadium (W5 D4) since a 0-3 defeat to Aston Villa in April.

Indeed, since the start of last season, the Seagulls have only lost three of their 24 home league games (W11 D10); the only ever-present sides with fewer top-flight home defeats in this time are Arsenal, Villa and Liverpool (all two).

But despite being favoured by the pre-match simulations, Brighton have won just one of their last six against the Bees (D3 L2), having won their first two Premier League games against Brentford in the 2021-22 campaign.

After only winning two of their first seven Premier League games of the season under Keith Andrews (D1 L4), Brentford have since won three of their last four (L1), scoring 2+ goals in each of those wins.

Brentford have, however, lost four of their five away games in the Premier League this season (W1), more than their final 14 on the road in 2024-25 (W7 D4 L3). After their 0-2 defeat to Palace, the Bees could lose back-to-back away league games without scoring for the first time since April 2023.

Brentford are also winless in all four of their Premier League away games against Brighton (D2 L2), with their last win at the Seagulls coming in the Championship in September 2016 (2-0).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Brighton – 48.8%

Draw – 25.7%

Brentford – 25.5%