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Over halfway through the season, The Bees find themselves in a dream scenario.

With victories in five games, and a Samba striker banging in the goals, suddenly supporters find themselves drifting off with thoughts of trips to Milan, Munich and Barcelona next season.

A emphatic three-nil win over Sunderland moved Keith Andrews' side into the fifth spot in the top flight – a position that was sufficient to secure European football last season.

Solely table-toppers Arsenal have collected more points over the past half-dozen matches.

There's a long way to go yet but Brentford are firmly in the battle for continental football.

Few was envisioning this last summer.

Thomas Frank had departed for Spurs after seven years in charge, a period in which he had not only got the club promoted but also established them in the top flight.

Skipper their Danish midfielder left for the North London club and goal-scoring duo two key forwards – who scored a combined of thirty-nine goals in the previous campaign – were also sold, joining United and Newcastle respectively.

Set-piece coach Keith Andrews was promoted to replace Frank, while there was no striker among the summer signings.

A season of difficulty, possibly even relegation, was widely predicted. But here we are in January with Brentford in the upper echelons.

So, how have they managed it?

The Brazilian's Historic Season

The club's decision not to sign another striker was partly down to circumstance, with one forward's move not being finalized until the final day of the window.

But they also knew they had a £30 million striker already waiting to go.

The 24-year-old joined from Belgium in the summer for a then-record fee, but was plagued by injury in his debut campaign, going goalless in his initial outings.

The 24-year-old has set about making up for lost time this season, though, with his double against Sunderland taking him to sixteen league goals – the most by a player from Brazil in a single Premier League campaign.

Considering the countrymen who have come before him, that is a remarkable feat, especially with seventeen matches left to play.

"He's been a breath of fresh air," former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy said. "He is a physical specimen, quick, powerful, but more skilled than people think. Excellent with his feet, either foot, he can score off both. You can see he's full of confidence. His statistics are fantastic. He must be so pleased. That's a huge compliment to him."

That only a trio of global superstars have scored more in any of Europe's top five leagues to this point underscores the standard he is operating at.

And it is not just the quantity but the timing of the goals that have been so pivotal for his team.

His opener against the Black Cats was his seventh opener of the season. Given how often we are told the significance of the initial strike in a game, having someone you can depend on to take that first big chance cannot be underestimated.

Before the game against their opponents, no player to have attempted at least thirty efforts this season has a better shot accuracy rate than Igor Thiago's 59.1 percent.

He finds the target. Achieve that consistently and the goals will – and have – come.

Given the hardships he had earlier in life, where he labored in construction to support his family following the death of his father, perhaps it should be no surprise that pressure on the pitch is something he handles with ease.

"The recruitment team deserve a lot of praise for the kind of players they bring in and personalities," Andrews said. "This is really impressive. He is a really unique person who has fitted into life very well. He has had to earn this path. He has worked for his journey and toiled. He has got real determination about his personality. He is improving his skill set constantly and we are learning more and more about him. He is a largely complete centre-forward."

Andrews Proving Sceptics Incorrect

Their star striker is the headline act but the team are not and have never been a single-player team.

While they had star players – Ivan Toney, Christian Eriksen, Mbeumo and Wissa – under Frank, they were always seen as a team more effective than the individual components.

The fear was that once the Dane left, that may not be the case, and that the collective quality of their parts alone might not be enough to avoid relegation.

As a result, appointing their set-piece coach, with no previous managerial experience, and just a year at the club was seen by those external observers as a huge risk.

A first managerial job is a test for anyone, let alone when it comes in the Premier League and having made the leap from specialist coach to the top job.

But given that Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna was the only other option that the hierarchy looked at, they were clearly convinced they had the right man.

To date, as often seems to be the case with the key decision makers at the club, it looks as if they were spot on.

The new boss won just one of his first 5 league games in charge but big home victories against Manchester United, the Reds and the Magpies have since occurred.

Wins that, following their excellent recent form, could prove increasingly important in the pursuit for European qualification.

"We are in fine fettle and playing really well. We are playing with courage and conviction in everything we do with or without the ball," he added. "We're pleased with how we are going but we want to keep striving."

In a league where the European spots and the lower mid-table are currently separated by just eight points, they have little choice, because things could rapidly look very different.

But, for now, The Bees are defying the odds. And the longer that lasts, the closer to fruition those aspirations of the continent will become.