LONDON: Chelsea can consider themselves as genuine title contenders after a 2-1 win against Brentford. It was their seventh consecutive win — in all competitions — and in the Premier League they are just two points behind the leaders Liverpool.
Despite dominating the match for long-periods and almost entirely throughout the first half their victory margin was narrow after several chances to score were wasted. They will also suffer the loss of their full-back Marc Cucurella who will miss the next match after given the red card for a tackle on an opposition player at the full-time whistle.
Chelsea manager, Enzo Maresco, said: “At the end of the game we can manage those (Cucurella) moments a different way. But overall, with the team’s spirit, sometimes you can get some yellows. I didn’t see the second yellow card. The referee said it was for a bad attitude. Marc will be banned (away to Everton, next game), Pedro Neto was suspended tonight. There are things we must do much better.”
Chelsea controlled the game from the start, dominating possession but Brentford were compact and resolute. They frustrated Chelsea and despite their poor away form – just one point from eight games compared to 22 from 24 at home — their defence remained solid for large parts of the game and they were seldom caught out of position.
In a rare attacking move Brentford did have a fine chance in the 29th minute but Mikkel Damsgaard’s shot was well blocked by Levi Colwill. By that time Chelsea had eight attempts but Brentford held firm. Mark Flekken made good saves to deny Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez.
It wasn’t until two minutes before the end of the first half that Chelsea took the lead with Cucurella taking advantage of a slight misstep from Mads Roerslev. Noni Madueke sent a perfect in-swinging cross from the right and Cucurella timed his run to get ahead of right-back Roerslev to angle his header just inside the near post and into the bottom corner from seven yards. It was his first goal in the league for Chelsea.
Brentford lifted their game in the second half and managed more attacking moves. A volley from a completely unmarked Christian Norgaard was superbly tipped over the bar by Robert Sanchez. They were also unlucky half-way through the half when Fabio Carvalho hit the crossbar from close range.
But in the 80th minute Chelsea doubled their lead. Moises Caicedo won possession and gave the ball to Fernando who then passed to Jackson for the Chelsea striker to slam the ball low inside the near post with Ethan Pinnock unable to stop him.
Brentford eventually found the net in the 90th minute when substitute Kevin Schade played Bryan Mbeumo in with a short pass for him to beat Sanchez on a one-on-one. Thereafter, Chelsea survived a nervous seven added minutes.
Brentford manager, Thomas Frank, said: “We played a very good game. We were unlucky not to get something out of it. Our second half was fantastic. We went toe to toe with one of the favourites for the title.”
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