FROM STAMFORD BRIDGE – Chelsea made life difficult for themselves while still earning a 2-1 victory over Brentford on Sunday evening.
The Blues took a 2-0 lead despite squandering a glut of chances before Bryan Mbeumo forced a nervy conclusion with a strike in the 90th minute. The Bees couldn’t find a way through, but Marc Cucurella was worked up enough to collect a second yellow card after the final whistle.
Victory, however testing, moves Chelsea just two points behind league-leading Liverpool, who do have a game in hand.
How the game unfolded
On a sleepy Sunday evening unusually lacking the bite of a mid-December night, both teams eased their way into this west London derby.
The lack of fluency seeping into each side was captured by a three-second sequence which saw Mads Roerslev and Marc Cucurella take turns firing the ball into their own teammate while aiming for an entirely different colleague.
Fittingly, it took a mistake for the first clear sight of goal to emerge. Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken didn’t even find the midriff of another Brentford player with his wayward pass in the closing stages of the first half, instead rolling the ball straight into the stride of Noni Madueke. The Dutch keeper quickly made up for his error, toeing Madueke’s low effort beyond the far post.
That opening enlivened the hosts, sparking a late flurry which culminated in a headed opener for Cucurella. Sneaking between Sepp van den Berg and Roerslev, Chelsea‘s diminutive full-back met Madueke’s perfectly measured cross at the back post, producing two audible thumps as first his forehead then hair connected with the ball.
Chelsea tidied up the slack touches which had littered the first half to exert more of a stranglehold after the interval, penning Brentford not only into their own half but their defensive third for large swathes. Nicolas Jackson spurned a glorious opening to double Chelsea’s advantage, spooning over from inside the six-yard box after a penetrative piece of wriggling from Jadon Sancho.
Sancho found himself in front of goal once again soon after. Walking on to Cole Palmer’s slipped through ball, the Manchester United loanee skipped around Flekken but took himself too wide. Sancho slickly rolled the ball past the goalkeeper on the byline, yet couldn’t tee up a teammate.
Emboldened by a proactive approach from Thomas Frank, three Brentford substitutes almost made Chelsea pay for their inefficiency. Kristoffer Ajer teed up Fabio Carvalho for an effort which clattered the crossbar. Kevin Schade, another sub, skied the follow-up.
Jackson doubled the hosts lead in the 80th minute. Taking advantage of Brentford’s desperation, the misfiring forward found the bottom corner, twisting Ethan Pinnock inside out in the process.
Mbeumo’s 90th-minute strike proved nothing more than a consolation, but the post-match scuffle which earned Cucurella a second yellow could prove to be costly in the weeks to come.
Full player ratings from Chelsea 2-1 Brentford can be found here.
It could always be the hair. Much like a superhero’s cape, Cucurella’s cartoonish scurrying is heightened by his flowing mane. The picture of perpetual motion scarcely takes a beat to catch his breath.
Early on in the second half, Chelsea’s left-back found himself charging across to the right side of the pitch with no intention other than to land an elbow in between Yoane Wissa’s shoulder blades. Cucurella isn’t always so chaotic.
The Euro 2024 winner was in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the corridor of uncertainty which always exists between a wing-back and wide centre-back. It was not the first or last surge which Cucurella made into that area of the pitch. But then again, he seemingly covered every other blade of grass.
Cucurella’s unique brand of mayhem cannot be contained by the confines of a match. After the referee’s whistle had been blown, the argumentative full-back still managed to earn himself a red card after collecting his second booking.
Stamford Bridge rose in unison to applaud Jackson off the pitch. Yet, an increasingly restless crowd had spent most of the previous 80 minutes bemoaning their number 15.
Right from the opening whistle, Jackson had seemed hell-bent on marking his 50th Premier League appearance with a goal. The Senegal international flashed a header wide inside the first three minutes and finished the game with a match-high seven shots. Jackson’s clearest sight of goal came in the 60th minute, yet he somehow conspired to shank Sancho’s cut-back over the bar.
With his final effort from a typically enthusiastic display, Jackson finally picked out the bottom corner to bring up his 23rd goal in England’s top flight. By way of comparison, Didier Drogba only score 20 goals in his first 50 Premier League appearances.
Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium is not to everyone’s liking – unlike its predeccessor Griffin Park, it lacks a pub on every corner for starters – yet, the Bees value home comforts more than any other Premier League club.
From what Frank has repeatedly called “a little bus stop in Hounslow”, Brentford have taken 22 points from a possible 24 – the best record of any side in the division. However, Sunday’s result leaves them with one point from eight away trips.
The identity of Brentford’s opponents offers a straightforward explanation. Chelsea are the sixth team from last season’s top eight to host the Bees. By contrast, none of the traditional elite have travelled to the Gtech as of yet.
