Hotels for Brentford v Crystal Palace

A Saturday afternoon between two clubs who have made a virtue of being awkward, in a ground compact enough that the away end is audible from the first whistle. Palace's travelling support is among the best in the division and treats trips like this as a day out rather than a chore. Expect a scrappy, competitive match and a noisy hour.

Brentford were founded in 1889, and the Bees nickname followed a few years later after a misheard chant — 'buck up Bs', urging on an amateur forward called Joseph Gettins — was reported in the local press as 'the Bees'. The club spent the second half of the twentieth century sliding down the divisions, dropping as far as the fourth tier by 1962, before a data-led recruitment approach helped rebuild them from the ground up.

Promotion via the 2021 play-off final, beating Swansea City 2-0, returned Brentford to the top flight for the first time since 1946-47 — a 75-year wait finally over.

Brentford's compact modern ground sits beside Kew Bridge in west London, wedged neatly between the Thames and the M4 with the Kew Gardens area close by. The stadium's tight bowl keeps the atmosphere lively, while the surrounding Brentford and Chiswick neighbourhoods offer riverside pubs and easy-going high streets.

Kew Bridge station is right next door, with Gunnersbury and the District line a short hop away. A room around Chiswick or Kew pairs a green, riverside London stay with a painless walk to the match.