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Over halfway through the season, The Bees find themselves in dreamland.

With four wins in five games, and a Samba striker banging in the goals, suddenly Bees fans are envisioning thoughts of trips to Milan, Munich and Barcelona next season.

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

Solely table-toppers the Gunners have accumulated more points over the past six games.

There's a significant distance to go yet but Brentford are squarely in the race for European football.

No one was envisioning this last summer.

The former head coach had left for Tottenham after seven years in charge, a period in which he had not only got the club promoted but also cemented them in the top flight.

Club captain their Danish midfielder left for the North London club and goal-scoring duo Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa – who scored a total of 39 goals in the previous campaign – were out the door, joining Manchester United and Newcastle United respectively.

Specialist coach Keith Andrews was elevated to replace the Dane, while there was a notable absence of a centre-forward among the off-season arrivals.

A season of difficulty, possibly even the drop, was widely predicted. But here we are in the new year with the club in the upper echelons.

So, what is behind their success?

Igor Thiago's Record-breaking Campaign

The club's decision not to sign another striker was in part down to timing, with Wissa's move not being finalized until deadline day.

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

The 24-year-old joined from Club Brugge in the summer for a then-record fee, but was hindered by injury in his first campaign, going without a goal in eight appearances.

The 24-year-old has gone about compensating for lost time this season, though, with his brace against Sunderland taking him to 16 league goals – the most by a player from Brazil in a single English top-flight campaign.

Given the fellow Brazilians who have come before him, that is some accomplishment, especially with seventeen matches remaining.

"He has been a revelation," pundit an analyst said. "He's a physical specimen, fast, powerful, but technically better than people think. Good with his feet, both feet, he can score with both. You can see he's brimming with 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 level he is operating at.

And it is not just the quantity but the crucial nature of the goals that have been so pivotal for Brentford.

His first goal against the Black Cats was his 7th first goal of a game of the season. Considering how often we are told the importance of the first goal in a game, having someone you can depend on to take that early opportunity cannot be overstated.

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 often enough and the goals will – and have – come.

Given the struggles he had in his youth, where he labored in construction to support his family following the death of his father, perhaps it should be unsurprising that pressure on the pitch is something he handles with ease.

"The recruitment team deserve a lot of credit for the type of players they bring in and personalities," Andrews said. "It is really notable. He is a really unique person who has adapted to life very nicely. 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 abilities constantly and we are discovering more and more about him. He is a pretty all-round centre-forward."

The Manager Showing Doubters Incorrect

Igor Thiago is the man of the moment but the team are not and have never been a one-man band.

While they had star players – a host of talent – under their previous boss, they were always seen as a team stronger than the sum of their parts.

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

As a result, appointing their set-piece coach, with a blank managerial CV, and just a year at the club was seen by those external observers as a gamble.

A first managerial job is a challenge for anyone, especially when it comes in the world's toughest league and having made the jump from set-piece coach to the top job.

But given that Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna was the only other alternative that Brentford looked at, they were clearly confident they had the right man.

So far, as often seems to be the case with the brains trust at the club, it looks as if they were spot on.

Andrews won just a single of his first five league games in charge but significant home victories against United, Liverpool and Newcastle 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 belief 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 a handful of points, they have no other option, because things could quickly look very different.

But, for now, Brentford are beating the odds. And the longer that lasts, the closer to reality those aspirations of Europe will become.