Ivan Toney declared himself prepared for England World Cup obligation after boosting his possibilities with each targets in Brentford’s 2-0 win in opposition to Brighton.
Bees striker Toney was known as into the Three Lions squad for the primary time final month however failed to get onto the pitch for the matches in opposition to Italy and Germany.
But the 26-year-old appears to be like decided to guide a seat on the airplane to Qatar, and he’s turning into onerous for England boss Gareth Southgate to ignore after a wonderful Friday night time double; a intelligent backheel adopted by one more penalty.
Toney now has eight Premier League targets this season, stage with Harry Kane, with solely Erling Haaland having scored extra.
“I feel good. I’m ready to go,” he instructed Sky Sports. “Obviously everyone’s talking about England. Obviously I was disappointed not to get on, but you’ve got to keep working hard.
“You’re playing with the best of the best. Without being big-headed, I didn’t feel out of place.
“I felt I was ready for that step and whenever it comes along and whenever I’ve got the chance to get minutes, I’m ready to take my opportunity.”
Toney grabbed the primary of the night time after 27 minutes when Frank Onyeka’s low cross was met with an instinctive backheel flick, the ball slipping by means of the legs of Seagulls defender Adam Webster as it rolled in.
Then, simply after the hour, Joel Veltman’s clumsy foul on Toney gave him the prospect to take his flawless spot-kick tally for Brentford to 20 out of 20, which he did, sending Seagulls keeper Robert Sanchez the flawed method.
The Bees had been removed from their finest and had solely 27 per cent of the possession, with boss Thomas Frank calling it “a beautiful ugly win”.
Frank added: “I think you can see Ivan’s link-up play is so good, he can read the game very well. If you want to create a top scorer then they need to be technically very good. He is so good technically.”
Brighton, who had been denied by some wonderful saves from Bees keeper David Raya, are nonetheless in search of a primary win underneath new boss Roberto De Zerbi.
The Italian stated: “It’s difficult to explain this result. It’s difficult for a coach to say it was a good game when we lost 2-0.
“We had a lot of potential chances. With the last pass we made mistakes.
“Maybe this is our problem. Against Tottenham it was the same. We shot a lot of the time but could not score.”
Frank and De Zerbi had been booked for clashing on the touchline after a minor altercation.
Frank had tried to forestall Veltman from taking a fast throw, and De Zerbi added: “I don’t like when another coach touches my player and when another coach speaks with my player. But no problem.”
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