FROM STAMFORD BRIDGE – Chelsea made life difficult for themselves although they still earned a 2-1 win over Brentford on Sunday evening.
The Blues raced into a 2-0 lead despite wasting a host of chances before Bryan Mbeumo forced a nervy finish with a goal in the 90th minute. The Bees couldn’t find their way but Marc Cucurella was entertained enough to pick up a second yellow card after the final whistle.
The win, however trying, moves Chelsea to just two points behind league leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand.
How the game developed
On a sleepy Sunday night uncharacteristically lacking the bite of a mid-December night, both teams cruised with ease in this west london derby.
The lack of fluidity seeping into each side was captured with a three-second sequence that saw Mads Roerslev and Marc Cucurella fire the ball to their own teammate while targeting a completely different teammate.
Fittingly, it took a mistake for the first clear sight of goal to emerge. Brentford Goalkeeper Mark Flekken didn’t even find the belly of another Brentford player with his wayward pass late in the first half, instead rolling the ball straight into Noni Madueke’s leg. The Dutch goalkeeper was quick to make up for his mistake, curling Madueke’s low effort past the far post.
That opening fired up the hosts, sparking a late flurry that culminated in an early goal for Cucurella. Between Sepp van den Berg and Roerslev, ChelseaThe team’s diminutive full-back found Madueke’s perfectly timed cross at the back post, producing two audible thuds to his forehead and then his hair connecting with the ball.
Chelsea tidied up the loose touches that had marred the first half to exert greater control after the interval, finding Brentford not only in their own half but in their defensive third for large stretches. Nicolas Jackson spurned a glorious opening to double Chelsea’s lead, heading home from the six-yard box after Jadon Sancho’s penetrating piece.
Sancho found himself in front of goal again soon after. Walking onto Cole Palmer’s through ball, the Manchester United loanee outjumped Flekken but was too wide. Sancho rolled the ball past the keeper on the byline, but was unable to score a teammate.
Emboldened by a proactive approach from Thomas Frank, three Brentford substitutes almost made Chelsea pay for their inefficiency. Kristoffer Ajer set up Fabio Carvalho for an effort that hit the crossbar. Kevin Schade, another substitute, skied the follow-up.
Jackson doubled the visitors’ lead in the 80th minute. Taking advantage of Brentford’s desperation, the scrappy striker found the bottom corner and twisted Ethan Pinnock into the backhand in the process.
Mbeumo’s 90th-minute strike was little more than a consolation, but the post-match brawl that earned Cucurella a second yellow card could prove costly in the coming weeks.
Full Chelsea 2-1 Brentford player ratings can be found here.
It could always be the hair. Much like a superhero’s cape, Cucurella’s cartoonish bark is accentuated by her flowing mane. The image of perpetual motion barely takes a beat to catch your breath.
Early in the second half, the Chelsea left-back found himself charging down the right side of the pitch with no other intention than to put an elbow between Yoane Wissa’s shoulder blades. Cucurella is not always so chaotic.
The Euro 2024 winner was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the corridor of uncertainty that always exists between a full-back and a wide centre-back. It was not the first nor the last increase that Cucurella made in that area of ​​the pitch. But then again, it apparently covered every other blade of grass.
Cucurella’s unique brand of mayhem cannot be contained within the confines of a match. After the referee blew the whistle, the winger managed to earn himself a red card after receiving his second booking.
Stamford Bridge rose in unison to applaud Jackson off the pitch. However, an increasingly restless crowd had spent most of the previous 80 minutes bemoaning their number 15.
From the opening whistle, Jackson looked determined to score his 50th Premier League appearance with a goal. The Senegalese international sent a header wide inside the first three minutes and finished the game with a game-high seven shots. Jackson’s clearest sight of the goal came in the 60th minute, but he somehow conspired to tip Sancho’s cut over the crossbar.
With his latest effort in a typically spirited display, Jackson eventually picked out the bottom corner to show off his 23rd goal in England’s top flight. By way of comparison, Didier Drogba scored just 20 goals in his first 50 Premier League appearances.
Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium doesn’t appeal to everyone, unlike its predecessor Griffin Park, it doesn’t have a pub on every corner to begin with, but the Bees value the comfort of home more than any other Premier League club.
From what Frank has repeatedly called “a little bus stop in Hounslow”, Brentford have taken 22 points out of a possible 24, the best record of any team in the division. However, Sunday’s result leaves them with a point from eight trips.
The identity of Brentford’s opponents offers a simple explanation. Chelsea are the sixth team from last season’s top eight to host the Bees. By contrast, none of the traditional elite have so far traveled to Gtech.
