Igor Thiago is single-handedly ruining everyone’s defensive grading

If you haven't been watching Brentford lately, do us all a favor and delete your streaming apps. Igor Thiago is currently running a masterclass that makes most other Premier League strikers look like they’re wearing concrete boots. Piling on another brace against Everton to bring his season total to 21 goals isn’t just a stat; it’s a direct insult to every center-back in England.

He didn’t just pass Bryan Mbeumo and Ivan Toney on the club’s record books; he essentially left them in the rearview mirror on the M4. As Alan Shearer noted on Match of the Day, the sheer volume of his impact is staggering. Watching him work is like watching a guy show up to a street basketball game with a professional contract in his back pocket.

Everton might be the most annoying team to play against in 2026

You can talk about Thiago’s brilliance until you’re blue in the face, but Everton refused to read the script. Most mid-table squads fold like a cheap deck chair when they go down by two goals on the road. Instead, they just decided that losing wasn't on the menu for their European aspirations.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall saved their bacon with that injury-time equalizer, and frankly, it was poetic justice. The Guardian reported a 2-2 draw that keeps both European dreams flickering like an old lightbulb. This isn’t a team that plays pretty, intricate chess, but they play the kind of gritty, teeth-gritting football that makes opposing fanbases want to throw their remotes at the wall.

The European logjam is getting ugly

Let’s be honest: that second Brentford goal came from a lapse in concentration that would get a Sunday League defender benched for a month. Everton’s backline looked like they were trying to calculate the tax code instead of tracking a runner. If they want to actually sniff a European spot by May, they can’t keep leaving their goalscorer to bail them out in stoppage time.

As Gethin Hicks pointed out, proving you belong in the European conversation requires more than just lucking into late points. It requires some semblance of defensive shape. Right now, Everton is a chaotic, high-variance project that makes me nervous every time the ball crosses the halfway line.

If they somehow clinch a spot, it’ll be on the back of pure defiance rather than tactical genius. And honestly? I sort of love that for them. Just don't ask me to bet my house on their clean sheets anytime soon.