Brentford made club history on Tuesday by beating Newcastle in the League Cup quarterfinals, the fourth Premier League side the Bees have usurped in this year's competition.
The victory marked the first time in club annals that Brentford has reached the semifinals of a major tournament (that classic Johnstone's Paint Trophy run of 2010-11 doesn't count).
1 - For the first time in the club’s history, Brentford have reached the semi-final of a major domestic cup competition (FA Cup/League Cup), winning their first such quarter-final tie at the fifth attempt. Buzzing. pic.twitter.com/SrcBuImZ2z
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 22, 2020
The Bees' semifinal opponent will be either Manchester City or the winner of one Wednesday's fixtures: Everton-Man Utd and Tottenham-Stoke.
While this cup run means a lot to the club, there's an underlying feeling that a potential Carabao Cup trophy will mean very little if the club does not gain promotion this season.
The Bees lost an extra-time heartbreaker to Fulham in August's Promotion Playoff Final. The club finished last season in fabulous form but narrowly missed out on automatic promotion on the final day and then came agonizingly close in the playoffs.
Despite selling two of its star players to the Premier League this past summer, attackers Ollie Watkins and Saïd Benrahma, promotion was the goal for the Championship's most prolific offense last season.
Brentford started this season slowly, losing three early matches against weaker opposition and dropping to mid-table.
The Bees are now currently 13 matches unbeaten in the Championship, but that stretch has included seven draws, including a pair of nil-nil stalemates against basement dwellers Derby County and Wycombe.
New signing Ivan Toney leads the league with 20 goals and the club currently sits in fourth, its best league position of the season, but a slightly disappointing place for a team of such quality. Thomas Frank's side doesn't want to go through the lottery of the playoff again.
Whether it be the pressure of high expectations, the difficulties of losing a pair of star players or a plethora of talented promotion contenders, things just aren't quite clicking for Brentford.
There is still plenty of time for the Bees to match last season's sensational late form, but they are just not playing at the level they were last campaign.
Brentford has done exceptionally well at finding under-the-radar players and turning them into stars, but the club has already demonstrated that it can't hold onto these stars forever. And with Championship money, it's difficult to immediately replace departed talent with impact players.
With clubs hovering around Brentford's best players and the next generation not quite ready, it might be promotion or bust this season for the Bees, regardless of their Carabao Cup exploits.
