Brentford captain Nico Yennaris believes their second half performance in the Carabao Cup at Arsenal justifies promotion talk.

Speaking after the 3-1 defeat the former Gunner said that not many teams in the Championship will be able to compete against Dean Smith’s side if they continue to produce performances like Wednesday night.

“If we take the belief from the second half performance, where we really played well and take that in to the league there won’t be many teams who can live with us,” said Yennaris.

“The aim is promotion, to make that extra step and play teams like that every week.”

The 25-year-old believes his side were the better team in the second half and it would be hard to argue with him. Two goals down at half time thanks to a Danny Welbeck brace, Brentford got their reward thanks to a sublime Alan Judge free-kick before substitute Alexandre Lacazette’s injury time goal flattered the home side.

“We had them on the back foot. If you look at the second half, if we perform like that we can go far in our league. We can do well this year.

“It was a good test for us to see how far off we are. Some of their players are world class players, we did well and were unlucky not to get back in the game.”

Yennaris was returning to the Emirates for the first time as a player but did not dwell on the emotion of the event.

“The fans gave me a good reception which was a nice little touch, but it’s football, these things happen, the game moves on and players move on.

“It was a good test, we’ll analyse, learn, then get back to the league.”

Brentford who sit in seventh place and three points behind league leaders Leeds Untied, welcome 20th placed Reading to Griffin Park this weekend.