Leicester City are hurtling straight back to the Championship and Ruud van Nistelrooy appears powerless to prevent it.
Van Nistelrooy claimed enough records during his glittering career as a player, but the landmarks at Leicester in this latest chapter are proving unwanted ones.
Never before have a Premier League team lost six home games in a row without scoring in one season, but this team and manager now have that grisly statistic as their own.
This was a 10th defeat in 11 matches as Brentford ran riot in the first half, producing a deadly attacking display as Leicester’s flimsy defence were ruthlessly punished.
Brentford’s manager Thomas Frank is targeting a place in European football next season and their club-record fourth successive away win in the top division was a huge statement of intent.
It was not so long ago that Leicester were competing in Europe, but the trajectories of these two clubs could not be more different.
Van Nistelrooy is now coming under increasing pressure but you have to wonder whether a club with financial issues have the money to sack a second manager in the season.
Leicester fans will probably not like or agree with this, but it is impossible to imagine Steve Cooper suffering a similar run of results.
Cooper was dismissed in November amid concerns over style of play, but he avoided relegation with Nottingham Forest after adopting a pragmatic approach that Leicester desperately need.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Leicester’s dire run is that they still remain in touch of survival, just two points behind Wolves.
There is a mutinous mood among Leicester fans right now, and this season’s problems have only cranked up the tension.
Frustration is still lingering over the relegation season in 2023, with many supporters claiming that they could see the warning signs over the club’s collapse long before it happened.
The absence of a public review into that relegation further irritated fans, while there have since been fierce debates over other issues such as season-ticket prices.
Last weekend, before the visit of Arsenal, there was a large protest march with Jon Rudkin, the club’s director of football, the main man in the firing line.
Chants of “we want Rudkin out” were heard in the 14th minute, a reference to the bungled Adrien Silva signing of 2017 when the club missed the registration deadline by 14 seconds.
Against this unhappy backdrop, Van Nistelrooy has been waiting for his team to spark into life.
Four minutes had not even passed when Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken was pressed into action twice, saving from Woyo Coulibaly and Jamie Vardy.
A failure to take opportunities is always a familiar sign for a team fighting relegation, and Leicester were made to pay for not capitalising on theirs.
Brentford did respond and had been threatening before taking the lead in the 17th minute.
It was a brutally simple goal which exposed Leicester’s porous defence, with Yoane Wissa pouncing on Mikkel Damsgaard’s inventive flick to bundle the ball in from six yards.
Wissa continues to be an underrated operator in the Premier League, with Nottingham Forest failing with a £18 million bid in January.
How would Leicester react? Not very well. Brentford increased their lead in the 27th minute when Bryan Mbeumo was given far too much space to bend the ball past Mads Hermansen. It was all too easy for the visitors.
There were now chants of “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” echoing around King Power Stadium. Many fans streamed to the exit. But Leicester’s night descended into further farce just after the half-hour mark with a third Brentford goal.
Mbeumo’s deliciously inswinging free-kick eluded the home defence and Christian Norgaard rose almost unopposed to head into the centre of the goal. There was a complete lack of organisation from Leicester, and minimal resistance. Van Nistelrooy watched on from the technical area, hands in pockets.
He made changes at half-time, bringing on centre-back Jannik Vestergaard, whose name was booed by the home fans as he entered the field.
Facundo Buonanotte, the Brighton and Hove Albion loanee, was a far more popular introduction in the 55th minute; fans have been bewildered by his recent lack of starts.
Yet Brentford remained in control and never needed to come out of second gear in the second half.
Hermansen produced a brilliant reflex save from substitute Yehor Yarmoliuk but substitute Fabio Carvalho added the fourth goal a minute from the end.
Leicester never looked like ending their long wait for a home goal in the league, and Van Nistelrooy’s return to the Premier League is developing into a nightmare.
